Pierre de Coubertin is somersaulting in his grave

August 8th, 2007 by Martine St-Victor


The hype has started. The commercials are rolling. The countdown is on. The 2008 Beijing Olympics are a year away. I applaud and marveled at China’s economic progressive domination but the buck stops there. The country is still one of the most oppressive regimes on Planet Earth and holding the Olympic Games there will only reward those behind that regime. To think the economic fallout of these Olympics will benefit the average Joe is erroneous. Amongst many draconian and inhuman measures in preparation for the Games, thousands of average Joes were evicted from their homes (without proper notification) to give way to new Olympic constructions. As a member of the U.N.’s Security Council, the Big Red had the opportunity to support a proposed intervention that would have green lighted more troops in Darfur along with economic sanctions. However, because of privileged oil-related relation between China & Darfur, the Chinese turned a blind greedy eye and vetoed against the proposition.

I reckoned that no Nation is perfect. But how can the International Olympic Committee reward one that is so blatantly imperfect. One where there is no such thing as human rights or journalistic freedom. The blinders the I.C.O. has willingly put on is the type of laisser-faire that has, in the past, led countries and international communities to ignore genocides, famines and ongoing civil wars.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics will not reflect Pierre de Coubertin’s dream original mission to “ contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play” .Instead, the games will be those of Coca-Cola, Nike and the Almighty Dollar where the steps on the podium will not be Gold, Silver and Bronze but rather Gold, Dollar and Cents.

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