Olympian Fraud

There is of course more to the olympic torch relay farce than meets the eye. Such as the amusing sight of self-appointed champions of human rights who dare not go too far in their criticism of Beijing. There is nothing new in this - self-interest is the name of the great game. In any case, the olympic games have been a farce for as long as I can remember, a fact I only realised once the decked up ceremonies stopped making sense. It is make believe of the finest kind in the tradition of Hollywood style big budget entertainment. Like Hollywood, the olympics wants bigger productions that are not necessarily better. Now where else have we seen this tendency? World Cup football, cricket, European league football, the tennis calendar... well, pretty much everywhere. Kanchan Gupta sums it up in the last paragraph of his column in The Pioneer: ... The Olympic Games have not only been politicised but also commercialised. China will cynically use the Beijing games to make a larger political statement of Chinese power while sponsors will use it to promote consumer products. Where does the 'Olympic spirit' fit into such crass display of political might and financial clout? The answer: only in the minds of gullible children. - NK