Riots in Tibet

[Strangelet]

I'm with chuck and m.g.


While I don't like the IOC, the games should have always been a politically neutral entity or not exist at all, because I thought the whole point was to have something that would be politically nuetral so as to counter balance the heavy bloody rest of international relationships. I honestly didn't think the olympics were meant to be reducible to a physical display of spoiled teenagers with overbearing parents, but a way of opening up a safe conduit for international communication.

Otherwise, I agree, it should be just scrapped because who the fuck cares about synchronized swimming anyway?

So I am happy for the tibetans, the sudanese, and the chinese students getting the attention they deserve, I just think its folly that the torch run had to be what everyone decided to pin their symbolic rallying point around.

And like m.g. said, there's probably a good number of people who would want to argue, whether right or wrong, that american action in Iraq is enough moral justification to boycott our shit next time.

[cacophony]

Originally Posted by Strangelet

And like m.g. said, there's probably a good number of people who would want to argue, whether right or wrong, that american action in Iraq is enough moral justification to boycott our shit next time.

i agree with that and i'd like to see the rest of the world send this message.

[BeautifulBurnout]

I agree with MG on this too. My solution would be for the Olympics to be held in Athens every 4 years, rather than being a commercial travelling circus it is today. Participating countries would all contribute financially to the running of the event, as would commercial sponsors, bringing it back to what it was intended to be - a celebration of sport, not the glorification of the host country.

The cost to host countries is immense - I believe Montreal is still paying a tax surcharge to service the debt incurred when they hosted the games in 1976! So to have a fixed venue seems a far more reasonable way of taking the politics out of this and making sure host countries don't bankrupt themselves in the process.

In terms of boycotting the China games, it is a bit like shutting the stable door after the horse has been turned into cat meat. The voices of protest should have been louder and more frequent during the period leading up to the games being awarded to China - if the IOC realised then the extent to which people were opposed, it might well have influenced their decision. But now it is done, it is a bit late. None of the the "superpowers" will boycott in the same way as in 80 or 84, so it is all a bit silly now.

On another more serious note (imo ) :

Tibetan Monks held over "bomb plot".

What a complete load of bollocks. Buddhist monks don't go round killing people. They are simply being held hostage, imo.