The Olympic torch relay has provided so much innocent fun for students of the irony of modern life that it’s difficult to know how to describe it all.
First and foremost of course are the Olympics themselves: bloated, commercialised, irrevocably tainted by the endless stories of drug use and super swim suits and all the other ways in which the ideals of amateur sporting competition have been hopelessly compromised since the days when the playing fields of Eton were sufficient to found an empire. The Olympics, where there are more national flags and banners than at a Nuremburg rally circa 1938 and the air resonates with national anthems and mindless screeching of jingoistic slogans and television commentators wetting themselves as they cry ‘gold gold gold for [insert name of favoured country here]’ … and we are assured solemnly that it’s all about the yoof of the world gathering together in peace and harmony and politics should never ever be allowed to play a part.
They say, as they usher another head of state to the VIP lounge.
So there are several months worth of immense enjoyment right there, just in watching what the Olympics actually are and contrasting it with the enormous guff that erupts from politicians and the media pack and the global entertainment corporation labelled ’sport’ and all the rest of the gravy train that feeds in such luxury on the whole corrupt machine.
But the torch relay has given us a nice little taste of the joys that await us later in the year. First we had prominent people in the Free World (like Hillary Clinton) demanding that heads of state like George W Bush boycott the opening ceremony. This from someone who voted in favour of waging aggressive war against Iraq, but I guess the Iraqis’ human rights have never figured much in Washington considerations of the Middle East. Then we had the IOC tying itself in knots trying to explain that while the Olympics have nothing to do with politics, Beijing had in fact been granted the 2008 games on condition China improved its human rights record. No politics there then …
Not to be outdone, Australians have jumped into the fray boots and all. It’s an article of faith amongst us free democratic nations that the oppressed masses groaning under the yoke of authoritarian governments in places like China and Iran are just busting to be free. They hate their governments and are only kept under control because the tyrants who run their countries have all the guns and secret police and other tools of a dictatorship at their disposal. At least that’s how it’s supposed to be.
But what actually happened was that by far the most numerous and vocal protestors in Australia when the torch arrived were Chinese people supporting their own government! Maybe the bastards back in Beijing are holding their parents hostage or something.
And to round the affair off with one last twist of irony the ‘Free Tibet!’ mob, many of whom are accustomed to being part of small groups protesting about all kinds of issues and being contemptuously dismissed as ‘rent a crowd’, are now using the same language in an attempt to discredit the Chinese.
‘Chinese embassy helped get ‘rent-a-crowd’ to relay‘ runs the headline:
ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope confirmed the Chinese Embassy in Canberra was closely involved in helping transport up to 10,000 Chinese students, ensuring pro-China demonstrators vastly outnumbered Tibetan activists.
Bob Brown was keen to get into the act:
“It was highly organized,” Free-Tibet supporter and Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown told Reuters. “Australians will feel a little bit uncomfortable by the fact that communist China came to town and just showed it can buy anything.”
Hehe when the Greens start sharing ‘communist’ with the neo-cons as a pejorative term you know we’re fortunate to be living through the birth of a new comedic paradigm.
And what exactly did the awful Chinese Embassy do?
Mr Stanhope said he was not aware of the fine details of Beijing officials’ involvement but he was certain they played a role.
“I have absolutely no doubt,” he said. “In fact the ambassador has indicated that he was in contact with representative Chinese organisational groups, (for the) most part in Sydney and Melbourne.
“I don’t know the nature of the links or the organisation but I know there was contact between the embassy and Chinese representative groups.”
Well there you have it and the jury need not bother to retire. Recall our ambassador NOW I say.
There’s going to be lots more of this kind of thing between now and the closing ceremony. I for one can hardly wait. It’s much more entertaining than the stupid corrupt rigged events in the stadium.
