Olympics in Beijing

I wish China, and her people, all the best of luck in the Olympic Games. While the excitement of the sports will remain the same, no matter where it is held, the location does seen to be bringing out very strong feelings with some people. In everything I read, there seems to be one controversy or another.

China seems to want to prove something to the rest of the world; and that is coming across in a rather pointed way. Everything needs to be strong, perfect, spotless and unblemished. I thought the Olympics was supposed to be about competition and acceptance, not intimidation and social unrest. Rather than saying what a good job China has done, people were talking about Tibet, Internet censorship, or the opening ceremony miming incident. It is unfortunate; because, even though I am a casual observer at best -- I find myself thinking about the political and social issues, as opposed to The Games. I cannot remember the actual Olympic Games being turned into a propaganda opportunity. I have only read about this kind of thing in history books. It's quite strange -- everywhere I turn, China wants to flex its proverbial muscle.

Aren't there sports in the picture, at some point? Sure, there are, if one wishes to focus on that, but they seemed to be running a poor second, to everything else that's going on. It's quite bizarre.

Even with everything else, I'm sure China will make a good job of this year's Olympic Games. Hopefully, everybody will remember that the sports and culture are the main reasons everybody travelled to Beijing.

What's going on with the Olympics?

 So, it seems that people are talking about the 2008 Olympics for all the wrong reasons.

It is definitely the most politicised Olympics, that I can remember.  When there is discussion about the Olympics, that is unrelated to the sports themselves; it's usually about some kind of drugs scandal, or which nations will be competing. In other words, it's pretty boring. 

 Usually, I find the games themselves boring, as well. Unless I want Australia to win really badly, of course!

But now that China is running the show this time around, it is from most politicised Olympic Games that I can remember. This seems to be a lot of talk about who is boycotting these games, and who isn't. It is possible that the lead-up to the games will be more interesting than the games, themselves.

I am thankful that these Olympic Games have brought the Chinese occupation of Tibet for a discussion, again. I would not have known about the situation in Tibet, at all; if not for the publicity surrounding the Olympic Games. It is a horrible business, I am glad that people are speaking out about it.

But it is a situation that has happened in history, on many previous occasions. Australia was thought to be unoccupied, when it was taken over by the British. Of course, it wasn't. Indigenous Australians had been occupying the land for hundreds of thousands of years. I can see some parallels.

Nobody can arbitrarily declare that they have the right to take over a particular piece of land. It happened with the pilgrims, who colonised America. It's a double standard, really. If that had not happened in Australia, I would not be here. Still, it's not right.

I don't believe it's right, or peaceful, to impose democracy on another country. I think that's what happened in the  recent conflict with Iraq. I don't know what the real reasons for the conflict in Iraq are.

I still fully support the job that the troops over there have been assigned to do. I am proud of the bravery of the armed forces.

That's all, for now.  (It took me ages to finish.)