It looks obvious

I was never a big fun of the nationalistic fetishism festival called the Olympic games. It was too often an arena for evil regime to demonstrate their “greatness” and it isn’t much different this year. I much rather a competition setting in which individual, or individual teams, participate based on their achievements and represent themselves instead of representing a state. But even I didn’t realize the dangers posed to participants in the Beijing Olympic Games:

The Beijing Olympics: Are They A Trap?

This is a month old but still worth watching. The people who cannot run a restaurant properly are now threatening to steal entire industry. It is sad to note that while china start understanding the importance of reducing government regulations and opening the market, we are in a fast lane of deterioration. Acknowledging the positive effect of liberal economy (i.e. free market) on establishing liberal-democracy we should consider also the opposite - attempts to centralize the control on the market are going hand in hand with other offenses against individual liberties.

This is really a tough one…

Is the president of the IOC ignorant, hypocrite or both?

Caught between an outpouring of activism and an offended Chinese government, the top Olympic official condemned protesters disrupting the torch relay and insisted the Beijing Games won’t be derailed.

“Politics invited itself in sports,” Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, said in an interview Tuesday. “We didn’t call for politics to come.”

[...]

In the interview at his Beijing office, Mr. Rogge walked a fine line between declaring the Olympics above politics and describing the positive changes in China he believes the Games have brought. China’s move to allow some 25,000 foreign media unfettered access is “unprecedented” and a “revolution,” he said.

I was never a big fun of the Olympic games. I resent the connection between sport and nationalism in principal, and it is practical applications. The importance that dictators, like Hitler and Stalin, gave to the Olympic games is the best example for the fallacy of tying between personal, or group, achievements and national, race or type of regime greatness. This years games, in Beijing, are yet another example of the hypocrisy behind the Olympic spirit and I can only wonder if wining a medal in these games is worth the efforts.

It is not a simple decision for athlete, that regard the Olympic games as the highest event of their career, to decide not to participate in the games. However the price of knowing that in preparations for the games the chines increased their Human Rights abuses should be to high for a moral person to pay for a medal:

Earlier Tuesday, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao denied that Beijing was attempting to silence opponents of the communist regime ahead of the August 8-24 sporting extravaganza.

"As for the critics’ view that China is trying to increase its efforts to arrest dissidents before the Olympic Games, I think such accusations are totally unfounded. There is no such question at all," Wen said at a press conference following the closure of China’s annual session of parliament.

[...]

His e-mails and Internet postings have publicised rights abuses throughout China and he has also played a prominent role in aiding other activists.

These included Yang Chunlin, a former factory worker who was put on trial for subversion in northeast Heilongjiang province last month after attracting 10,000 signatures to his petition entitled "We want human rights, not the Olympics."

Yang, 52, also represented by lawyer Li, has denied the charges and the court has yet to hand down a verdict.

Others detained recently include organisers of petitions calling on China’s parliament to safeguard human rights and end corruption, according to activists.

The games were, for many years, a nice cover for tyranny, racism and human rights abuses. It is time for those athletes who are truly believe in the spirit of sport to say enough and to not participate in the Beijing hypocrisy.