I disdain the Olympics, refusing to watch any events. If it isn’t the athletes who are doped up, its their horses (Equestrian events). The Games have been completely co-opted by commercial interests and I expect any year now they are likely to become the “Coca-Cola Olympics”, or the “Nike Olympics”, etc. And finally, the choice of China for this year’s Summer Games was so antithetical to the Olympic spirit that it was the last straw…imagine the most oppressive, manipulative, collectivist regime being acknowledged by the world as worthy representatives of the Olympic ideals! That the Chinese broke their vows to “open up” for the Games surprised no one…except the International Olympic Committee (IOC) I guess, who is so far up Big Business’ ass that the only thing that seems to matter anymore is the size of the “market” for the various goods and services its sponsors provide.

McGill University ethics guru, Dr. Margaret Somerville, has an excellent editorial in today’s Gazette about the various deceptions that are being uncovered in the postmortem of the Beijing Olympics. She makes a very good point that we shouldn’t so much point the finger at the Chinese, for whom such manipulations are a “normal” part of putting forward the best possible face, but rather at ourselves for expecting something different.