During the past few days, it seems everywhere I look I cannot escape the fact that Olympics is starting this week. I go channel surfing and every other station has some special feature about the Olympics. Or that I am so much enjoying Matthew Good Band on the radio and a commercial comes in reminding me that so and so is the official leaf blower of the Athens 2004. At any rate, I am quite looking forward to watching the coverage of the Athens Olympics. Tomorrow, I would be taking the early afternoon off hoping to catch at least half of the opening ceremonies, which at my time zone will start at 11 AM. Why would anyone want to miss the greatest show on earth? Actually, Ringling Bros, Barnum and Bailey claimed to be the greatest show on earth, but I have not seen one nor is it being televised all over the world. I have a choice of watching the coverage on NBC or CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), but NBC’s coverage of the Olympics has always been slanted towards US athletes, which is perfectly understandable. Besides, Bob Costas bores me to death and I cannot stand that he and some other NBC Olympic commentators subtly insult the foreign athletes competing against the US athletes. I am rooting for Canadian athletes anyways.
Ever noticed that the Olympics seems to be a reflection of a larger fact of what I conveniently call ‘The World Order’. The fact that 80% of the world’s wealth is being held by 20% of the total nations in the world. Actually, World Bank and the IMF hold most of the world’s wealth but that is another topic by itself. As I was mentioning, if you look at the final medal tally from the last Sydney Games those on the top are also the ones that hold the nations hostage’¦. Err uh’¦ I mean hold power in world politics. And as you get down the Gold, Silver, Bronze list, you see so much zeroes, that the last time I seen that many is when I saw the US Defense Budget’¦ hehehe
EDIT:I just found out Bush Defense spending has more zeroes in it
I will not give you a daily report on this though like what Beth did on Tour de France. That would be several multiples more work than what Beth had to do. Besides, you probably would watch it yourselves (from Bob Costas for sure).
Unfortunate to say despite the spectacle, I would always see the competition with a little bit of suspicion. The fact that whoever would stand on those awarding podiums could probably have not deserve to get the medal because of one thing: performance enhancing drugs.
I never would understand why some athletes would go in great lengths to the point of ‘cheating’ to get that medal. Personally, it takes away the thunder and glory of knowing you are the best in the world, when you probably are not minus the ‘enhancements’.
It seems quite recent when the form of cheating the Olympics organization was trying to combat were dubious men competing in women’s events. Cheating seems to get sophisticated as we humans advanced in knowledge. I guess if there is a will there is a way.
On with some re-hashed Olympics related news:
First one I re-titled: Is this Athens or Auschwitz?
As the Olympics is peaking into a frenzy, one thing the host nation has been stepping up is security. It is stating the obvious if the Greek Government has asked the spectators and participants to leave their bombs, sharp objects, explosive devices, guns, knives, clubs and other weapons at home or risk being arrested. But to ask people to leave their Frisbees, skateboards, propaganda, small change and non-copyright Olympic T-shirts at home, borders to hysteria.
Check out the report by AFP.
Second one I would call: In the end it is win-win situation for everyone
In every sports competition, the debate whether athletes should have sex before competing has always gone either way. Some coaches forbid their athletes while some like during the Barcelona Games, doctors at a Jerusalem sex clinic actually advised the female athletes on the Israeli team to have sex before events because, they said, ‘women compete better after orgasm, especially high-jumpers and runners.’
This debate is kind of meaningless anyway, as former Olympic athletes have described the athletes’ village as a two-week hedonist sex resort. ‘There’s a lot of sex going on,’ said Breaux Green, and an athlete from the Sydney Games, ‘you get a lot of people who are in shape, and, you know, testosterone’s up and everybody’s attracted to everybody.’ Another former athlete offered this euphemism: ‘It’s not an orgy, but it is socially vigorous.’
Read it in depth at The Scotsman
On a side note not related to the Olympics, if you manage to be awake till past midnight tonight, find a spot away from your lighted city/town, look up the sky and enjoy the Perseid meteoroid shower which shows up clearest around this time of the year. Check out the NASA website for info.
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