The sports industry is full of Oliver Twists

I let my digits loose on Google late yesterday afternoon to find out why "athletes need more funding".
Suddenly the computer screen was filled with bitches, moans and groans from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Britain and whatever sporting rep could get themselves published on the subject.

Each and every one yelling about standards, inequalities and the overwhelming need for government to fork out more money so that every Tom, Dick and Harriett could turn themselves in top-notch professional athletes.

Well I'll be b*ggered if I will agree that government should do more for these jocks.

There are still too many people living in poverty in Australia, health services which are spread too thin, inadequate community care of the very young and very old, and vast inequalities in access to decent education.

So to everyone from the Australian Olympic Committee, Institute of Sports, down to Alan Thompson and the newest Olympian - don't even think of bringing the begging bowls out after the Aussie teams come back from Beijing.

Your gold, silver and bronze just don't stack up against the real problems this country has to fix and Federal Sports Minister Kate Ellis would be mad to ask for more money for her portfolio which already has a budget of around $260 million.

The Olympic elephant in the room wins doubt, doubt, doubt!

Great performance [by Michael Phelps] but if there is any doubt carry out every test on the super star and free him on any doubt. The 100th of a second win may create doubt as the finish video [7th gold medal] leaves me in doubt. Money may be involved ?
APPSIE
Clarence Valley

The Star Tribune lays out the foundation of similar concerns to Appsie's in Here's trying to believe in Michael Phelps.

GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them.
Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak@live.com.au for consideration.

Taking the p*ss out of the IOC, Beijing's running man and that 'sacred' flame

Just when you think that the world has decided that everything worthwhile comes from elite sports, an Aussie comes along to tilt at the tall poppies of the International Olympic Committee.

Toohey's has an online ad campaign For the Love of Beer which pokes fun at the Olympic torch relay using a little sketch of a running man.

Flashplayer link here.

Logo found at Media Channel

The IOC sold the world an Olympic lemon

The 2008 Olympics can never be called the 'best ever' for any of its events or features.
Beijing smog so thick that you often can't see the surrounding streets, fake televised fireworks, empty seats in stadiums, no-one allowed to attend the outdoor events, oppressive state security, tickets priced beyond the means of ordinary Chinese citizens.
Day 6 and nobody in my house is even bothering to turn on the t.v. anymore.

Channel 7 and SBS wasted their money buying broadcasting rights.
Those fat cats on the International Olympic Committee should be ashamed of themselves.
Even the 1936 Berlin Games were better managed!

Graphic found at U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Update:

Chinese Government ordered featured child performance faked.

Some Beijing Olympic titbits

From Bob Dumpling over at New Matilda* on Friday:

I love the Olympics. No one is more excited than me (except maybe Ian Thorpe and his new best friend Henry Kissinger) about two weeks of physical endurance and deep hatred based on nationality and racial stereotyping.However, there is time between 2:00 and 6:00am when there are no live events on, to reflect on what sport does to us. As we commence this fortnight of hysteria, we can afford to ask: what are we allowing ourselves to get away with in the name of sport?
* Featured pic found there also.

Nicole Kidman in The West on Saturday:

"I want to wish every one of our wonderful Australian Olympic team the very best of luck over the next two weeks," the Hollywood star told the Seven Network."They've all put in so much hard work ... so I just want to say we as Australians know you are going to give it your best shot - go for it, try to enjoy every moment as well."

Simon Barnes blogging from Beijing for The Times online:

The worst decision sport ever made was to start testing for drugs. Once they began to catch the cheats, all hell broke out and we began to lose the faith. In particular, we began to lose faith in the core Olympic sports of athletics and swimming. Now the world is full of people declaring that they don't care who wins what at the Olympic Games, because “they're all on something”.

Kevin Rudd quoted in The Age yesterday:

"As someone who's looked at the history of human rights in China, it's always been two steps forward, one step back," Mr Rudd said when asked if China had fulfilled its promise, made in 2001 when it was awarded the 2008 Games, to improve human rights.

The Epoch Times looking back at the week:

"The smog actually helps us, the more the better for an old guy like me, I can see those little orange discs a lot better in the sky." - Australian shooter Russell Mark takes a lighter look at the pollution problem plaguing Beijing ahead of the Olympic Games.

Headline in the Telegraph.co.uk on Saturday:

Beijing Olympics: The ultimate business networking opportunity

From Black and White Cat in a post called God the Father, God the Son and God the Olympic Spirit:

.... in Beijing, hundreds of people on drugs will run around in circles and throw things. I’ve heard various people here, enthused with the passion of the sacred flame, saying that this is the most important thing that has ever happened in China - displaying either a disturbing lack of knowledge of Chinese history or a very strange interpretation of it.

$$ Beijing Olympics 2008 begin today $$

Poster from Google Images

Let us all get our priorities right

Save the planet

Not the International Olympic Committee

2008 Olympic Torch Relay - Australia

Imagine there's no relay, it's easy if you try

Could it possibly be that the over-hyped, obscenely expensive, politics riddled and ultra-greenhouse gas emitting Olympic Games has lost it's gloss?

Dare we imagine a world without that over-rated torch relay?

Could we possibly find ourselves finally with an Olympic year which doesn't clog the media with what is essentially sporting trivia?

Well, perhaps not yet - but this year's torch relay may yet signal a welcome return to placing sport in its proper perspective.

Elite athletics is not about world peace, the common good or social harmony. It is definitely not above criticism or social comment when self-indulgent national governments vigorously compete to hold these games and so heavily subsidise their 'sides'.

This year an alternative for free expression in China relay is taking place in hyperspace at www.penpoemrelay.org and on the ground.

Me - I won't be turning up anywhere to watch the flame go past.

The opening ceremony won't be on my teev on the night and the only Olympic sport I might watch will be the short grabs I accidentally see on the nightly news come August 2008.

A peaceful form of boycott? Nope. Simply never could abide all that jingoistic tripe!

The rest I leave to the Prime Minister who is doing a bonza job conveying Australia's official position on Tibet.

A little Mandarin goes a long way

Photograph from Indymedia

ABC News reported this late last night.

A senior Australian diplomat will be allowed to visit Tibet tomorrow, as a part of a delegation granted access by the Chinese Government.
Australia had requested diplomatic access to Tibet to assess the situation in the region, after a recent Chinese Government crackdown on protesters.
After initially ignoring the request, the Chinese Government has agreed to allow one senior diplomat from Australia's Beijing Embassy to join other foreign diplomats on a trip to Tibet, accompanied by Chinese officials.
The speed of China's approval has surprised the Australian Government.
Before leaving Australia for an overseas trip today, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the lack of access as a sticking point.
A spokeswoman for Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says the Australian diplomat hopes to check on the welfare of four Australians known to be in Tibet.

Clearly an instance where Kevin Rudd and Stephen Smith made better ground than might have been possible if John Howard and Alexander Downer were still at the helm.

The 2008 Olympiad as a graphic

Telling graphic from Club Troppo's Missing Link.