I get no prizes for the frankly awful title of the blog post, but, as eny fule kno, the Olympic Games is not doing the trick of opening up China and setting the nation free from its history of dreadful human rights abuses.
China responded to the challenge of openness by launching yet another offensive against the people of Tibet, resulting in serious unrest in the country, and some pretty harrowing stories of abuse at the hands of the authorities.
Meanwhile, the Olympic torch, symbol of hope and triumph against the odds (actually a hangover from Hitler’s Munich Games and symbol of Nazism) has been carried through London and Paris, apparently accompanied by the Blue Man Group.
The fact that China appears to have brought its own paramilitary brigade to protect the flame doesn’t seem very sporting, to be honest. It doesn’t seem particularly likely to offer a realistic opportunity for too many people to live the dream and extinguish the flame, thereby highlighting the fact that this most oppressive of regimes shouldn’t be anywhere near the bloody thing.
To highlight the point, in a decision of extreme diplomatic bravery, the Olympic Flame Protection Force decided to barge Sebastian, Lord Coe , Chairman of the 2012 London Games, double gold medal winner, former MP and judo partner of William Hague MP.
“They tried to push me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English. They were thugs,”
A spokeswoman for the London 2012 Olympics committee confirmed that Coe was quoted accurately, but added that he thought he was making private comments.
Despite the attempt of the Shell-Suit-Warriors, the flame keeps being extinguished. They may have stolen the spirit of the games as a sop to their emergent economy, they may have mastered the art of pretending they aren’t the single most dispicable administration on Earth, but they aren’t Promethean by any stretch.
