The Beijing Smog Issue is a Case In Point
It shows how clueless and directionless the International Olympic Committee is. They show a complete ignorance to the general opinion of the World’s populous, i.e. freedom, equality and fairness. What a contradiction that China gets the Olympics. Ill ignore the human rights abuses that are alleged of the regime in China. So instead, let’s look at the smog issue. The biggest problem that the IOC see with the pollution is the harm it cause to athletes, sorry, but what about the health of the people that have to live with it everyday, perhaps my opinion of the Olympics is woefully optimistic, but part of their mandate is to make the World a better place. So why, instead of the stupidly selfish and blinkered view of the athletes health only, why don’t they also try and improve the lives of the people who live in the area where the Olympics are held. They should have set standards years and years ago. OK China could be shortlisted for a potential Olympic host, but for them to be successful they have to sort out their pollution issues for a minimum of 5 years before they are realistic contenders. Of course this didn’t happen which brings us to the real reason why the IOC awarded the Olympics to China.
Money. And perhaps this is ultimate anti Olympic philosophy. The Olympics are supposed to be above money, money is supposed to be an irrelevance to the core principles of free and fair competition between amateurs. OK so the day of the amateur is gone but that doesn’t mean the philosophy can be thrown to the wind, especially when there is such an obvious issue which can be solved with a bit of pressure and of forward thinking.
