In the glow of the Olympics, the regime sponsoring them can hope that some
of its more sordid policies will be overlooked.
See the triumph A. Hitler scored with the Nazi Olympics of 1936, featuring
the New Germany. Willkommen! Pay no attention
to those frightened little people being herded away. The 400-meter relay is
today and you don't want to miss it. So move along. Schnell!)
This year it's the New China that's putting on the Olympics. (Huan Ying! Welcome to the new capitalized,
commercialized, cosmeticized and no longer so Communist China. You'll want
to see the Synchronized Swimming, the Artistic Gymnastics. Yes, that's
Tiananmen Square, but nothing important has happened there since the time of
the emperors. Pay no mind to the protesters cordoned off in the corner.
We'll deal with them later.)
Like other totalitarian Olympics - Berlin, 1936; Moscow, 1980 - all will be
in order in Beijing, 2008. And had better be.
One World One Dream! That's the official motto of these proceedings. No need
to go into detail about Tibet and certain other of the host's nightmarish
policies. For example:
Beijing's diplomatic support for the vicious regime in Sudan, whose ruthless
leader, one Omar al-Bashir, has just been indicted by an international court
for genocide, crimes against humanity and the usual litany of war crimes.
There's a reason this year's games should be called the Genocide Olympics.
Beijing was also a great supporter of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe until that
minor but vicious tyrant began to stumble. And it provides diplomatic cover
for the brutal Burmese junta, too. These people always seem to find one
another.
They would seem an odd couple at first, the Genocide Olympics in Beijing and
the wholesome spirit of amateur sport. But they go together as naturally as
crime and the criminal's wanting to change the subject.
In preparation for this quadrennial festival of sportsmanship, the
authorities have rounded up hundreds of prominent dissenters - some 700 at
last count. Just like the old days in Moscow and, before that, in Berlin.
All will be harmonious in Beijing, too, by the time all the tourists have
poured in. The Olympic Village will be pretty as a picture. A misleading
one. Prince Potemkin had nothing on Hu Jintao.
Politics and the Olympics have been intertwined since there have been
Olympics, ancient or modern, and this year is no different. The general who
directed the American team at the 1928 Olympics, Douglas MacArthur, called
them "war without weapons."
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