BANJAXED IN BEIJING

The Olympic Games opened in Beijing last week with great fanfare. The Chinese are using this opportunity to show case the country to the world whilst conveniently hiding any evidence of human rights abuses for which the country is notorious.

Indeed there would be no Olympic Games opening in China on the 08/08/08 (they love their eights in China – lucky numbers and all that bull) were it not for human rights abuses.

All the Games stadia were effectively constructed by slave labour, particularly so when it looked like they were not going to make the necessary deadlines. At that point, the Government hauled hundreds of thousands of workers in from the fields to complete the projects on time. People had no choice in the matter. It is estimated by news agencies that hundreds, if not thousands, of workers lost their lives during the preparations for the games. Health and safety issues on building sites were low down on the Chinese authorities’ priorities.

In an overall context, you would wonder about the status of the modern-day Olympic Games. Their value is completely eroded because of the political circuses that have grown around them. They are monuments to power, money, illusion and corporate excesses. The staging of them has broken cities, and even countries – witness Los Angeles and Greece- and the benefits are only short term in relation to the return on the investment. When the Olympics are finished the host city is generally left with an excess of sporting facilities that become dormant and end up a millstone around the neck of the city authorities.

The process of selecting the locations is corrupt in the extreme with well-documented bribery apparent in many of the past choices. And, of course, this corruption extends onto the track where doping scandals have destroyed the reputation of the Olympic Charter.

The amateur ethos is long since departed and with the rewards for success so high, the temptation to use drugs to enhance performances is huge. As soon as more stringent anti-doping measures are put in place, the scientists are inventing methods to defeat them. It has got to the stage that if a world record is broken, then rather than acclaim the athlete, the public wonder how he or she avoided being tested positive. It is a bit like the suspicion in which we hold the husband of the murdered wife: Guilty until proven innocent, in other words.

This year Ireland travelled with a team of 57 athletes. RTE travelled with a team of 93 personnel, none of them athletes and most of them not broadcasters either.

What an utter waste of money in both situations.

Of the 57 athletes, about 14 are there on merit. All of that 14 have only outside chances of making a semi-final, much less win a medal. The balance are there because that arch-dictator, Pat Hickey, head of the OCI in Ireland, needs to justify his position and the money that is given to his organization by us, the taxpayers, through Government funding.

No disrespect to the athletes, but in all honesty, most of them shouldn’t be there and are only embarrassing the country. The much-maligned and oft repeated mantra that the importance of the Olympics is the taking part is historical bullshit. That was fine when all the athletes were actual amateurs and went back to their day jobs when it was over. Now the Olympic Games are a professional event, thinly disguised as adhering to the original principles. The fact that ladies beach volleyball is regarded as a sport worthy of Olympian merit says it all. This is soft-core porn parading as a sport. What next? Olympic lap dancing?

As for RTE, one would be forgiven for thinking that Ireland was a world-class athletic nation, judging by the number of people they have covering the occasion.

I doubt CNN sent as many staff! What do we get in return for this grossly extravagant waste of our money? Colm Murray eating Chinese food as though it was a new found cuisine. He couldn’t even use the chopsticks, for Gods sake! May we suggest he visits Kites, just around the corner from RTE, for authentic Chinese food and they will also teach him how to use the chopsticks?

We also had the cringe-inducing sight of him trying to perform a native dance with a posse of Chinese girls. Is this what we pay our licence fee to see?

A suggestion that would save RTE and us a lot of money: leave them all out there and see how they like it when the Games are over and they are despatched to the paddy fields!