http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23591021-5007146,00.html
Olympic appeasers have learnt nothing
April 24, 2008 12:00am
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WHEN the modern Olympics were revived in 1896, the marathon event was
won, appropriately, by a Greek citizen.
At the start of the 1936 Games in Berlin, the same athlete was chosen
to climb the steps of the stadium to present an olive branch from
Olympia to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Four years later, Hitler's army invaded and conquered Greece.
When Berlin was granted the Games in 1931, Germany was free and
democratic; when they actually took place, the Nazis were in absolute
control and showing their true colours.
As we approach the 2008 Games, awarded in full knowledge of the nature
of the totalitarian Chinese state, there is no excuse not to take a
stand.
Sadly, recent events in Tibet prove =96 again =96 George Santayana's
saying that the only thing we learn from history is that we do not
learn from history.
The Rudd Government believes =96 as did the governments of democracies
in 1936 =96 that the great god "S****t" should trump every other humane
value; demonstrating that Labor's vaunted commitment to "universal"
human rights is relative, subject to nuance and just so much smoke and
mirrors falderal.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's plea to the Chinese dictator****p to show
"restraint" is puerile and unsophisticated.
It smacks of Lady Nancy Astor's query in the Kremlin, in 1931, the
very year the IOC gave the Games to Germany: "Mr Stalin, when are you
going to stop killing people?"
Stalin replied: "When it is no longer necessary."
Lady Astor then changed the subject, asking Stalin where she could
acquire the services of a Russian nanny.
In regard to China, Rudd has also quickly switched the subject; saying
he does "not regard those problems (Tibet) as impeding the rest of the
relation****p".
If the Red Chinese were to start eating every Tibetan, Christian and
Falun Gong practitioner, would that suffice to put a dampener on the
enthusiasm for these Games =96 being held in this inappropriate venue =96
in contradistinction to the philosophy which animated the spirit of
the Olympic ideals at the end of the 19th century?
Like Pontius Pilate before him, Rudd attempted the decent thing, but
ultimately it all became too burdensome to press the point more
emphatically.
The Prime Minister vigorously washed his hands; his dog barked and the
urgency was for his caravan to move on.
Seeking such sensitivity from the Chinese demonstrates that the Prime
Minister has no knowledge of the nature of communism =96 or even
understanding of the Chinese, outside perhaps of the linguistic.
It seems history does not affect the myopic Mr Magoos =96 Rudd, US
President George W. Bush, and others cut from the same cloth =96 who
seem incapable of getting a clear picture.
In 1936 Germany hosted both the winter and summer Olympics. In between
Adolf Hitler violated the legally binding Locarno and Versailles
Treaties by invading the demilitarised Rhineland.
The European appeasers did nothing.
They subsequently went on to repeat their spinelessness at the summer
Games, then later, at Munich.
Of the naivety and gutlessness of Western democracies, Hitler said:
"Our opponents are little worms, I saw them at Munich."
Like Lady Astor, Rudd is prepared to change the subject from
individual human rights for all people to "the rest of the
relation****p".
Bush has weighed in as well. "This is a s****ting event for the
athletes," he says.
Many others say a boycott would break the hearts of the participants.
Poor babies. We are a free country =96 they are free to go, representing
us under our flag.
Let us offer solidarity with the Tibetans and all those oppressed
people elsewhere.
Aristotle and Plato were right: Too much s****t tends to brutalise men.
It also seems to make them stupid.
Certainly s****t seems to have the capacity to make some people inured
to the personal oppression and suffering of others and immune to
confronting grown-up exigencies.
I imagine there were those who thought that Jesse Owens winning four
gold medals at the Berlin Games guaranteed future racial tolerance,
and insured "peace in our time".
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