No one can properly accuse me of being a lackey for “The Olympic Movement”. I have, in fact, likened the Olympic Movement to one’s bowel movements on occasion. Back in 2001, I wrote an entire piece on just a few of the things that I thought were wrong with the Olympics. /
If that does not provide me sufficient credentials with regard to finding fault with the modern Olympics, consider that in 2003, I suggested canceling the Olympics in their entirety.
I do not retract anything I said in those commentaries above. Obviously, the IOC has not changed any of the things I found objectionable in the first rant and surely the Olympics have not been shut down completely as I suggested in the second. With all of that as a backdrop, we come to the present where we have a chorus of people in the media and in the political world – talk about symbiotic relationships! – calling for nations to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer. To all of those high-minded rhetorical gassers let me say this:
Stuff a sock in it!
The Games will happen. Let there be no idealistic flights of fancy here. The Games will happen. So, every time you hear someone call for a boycott, ask them to explain in pragmatic terms just what that will accomplish. After they are finished waxing poetic, refer back to the opening line of this paragraph; the Games will happen. Translation:
A boycott may make someone feel good, but it will not change a damned thing.
Let us look at the recent history of Olympic boycotts. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter responded to the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan with a US boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow. That was probably the harshest moment of the Carter Administration in terms of foreign policy. So, did the Red Army withdraw? History tells us that they did not – - until about 10 years later.
Then in 1984, the Soviet Union boycotted the Olympic Games in Los Angeles for some foreign policy reason that obviously had little meaning. The games happened without the team from the USSR and soon after that boycott the USSR ceased to exist – - thereby rendering their putative foreign policy objective(s) moot.
The cold hard truth is that Olympic boycotts have no real effect. They do not change the behaviors of people or nation-states. So when French President Sarkosy says he is considering various boycott options, you can feel free to yawn after you marvel at his sensitivity. When German Chancellor Merkel says she is not going to the Opening Ceremonies, feel good for her once you realize that she won’t have to sit through about four hours of mind-numbing boredom. Simultaneously, realize both of them are grandstanding and not much will come of their histrionics.
Here in the US, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declared that President Bush should not attend the Opening Ceremonies. But either Speaker Pelosi is too cowardly to call for an outright boycott or she realizes in her heart that all of this posturing has less gravitas than a pinch of pigeon poop because she affirmatively wants US athletes to compete in Beijing. That’ll show those infernal Chinese autocrats; that’ll get them to change their behaviors…
Rep. Thad McCotter (R-MI) drafted a bill that would limit the abilities of USG officials and employees to attend the opening ceremonies and the “Parade of Nations”. Said Rep. McCotter:
“President Bush, as the leader of the free world, must uphold America’s beacon of liberty… This noble cause is harmed through his attendance as a guest of this oppressive government.”
Making sure that such vital legislation has a name that will be remembered by the voting public, Rep. McCotter has called it “The Communist Chinese Olympic Accountability Act”. In addition, he says that it intends to “stop politicians taxpayer funded junkets to the Communist Olympics.” [Cue The Battle Hymn of the Republic here]
Let me make two points. Rep. McCotter’s bill has as much chance of passing and being enacted into law as I have of becoming the next American Idol. Secondly, what is the pragmatic point Rep. McCotter hopes to make here. Forget USG employees and officials attending these annoying ceremonies; there are hundreds of rather important and influential US businesspeople attending Chinese events – some related to the Olympics and some totally divorced from the Olympics – every waking hour of every day. Doesn’t their “attendance” at those events/negotiations/meetings aid and abet this “oppressive government”? Sure they do, but Rep. McCotter knows that this is an election year where job loss is already a huge issue and the last thing he needs to do is to propose something that might cause more job losses – or increases in the consumer costs.
At the instant of time when the International Olympic Committee decided to award the 2008 games to the People’s Republic of China, all of these events were cast in concrete. Nancy Pelosi needed to have spoken out then referring to whoever may or may not be occupying the White House in the present. Rep. McCotter needed to have introduced his bill back then. Anyone who believed that none of these “conflicts” or “contradictions” would obtain in the days leading up to the games probably also believes that Shawn Kemp is a virgin.
There could have been no doubt that idealistic moralists were going to have differences with the PRC government over issues of freedom and human rights and the occupation of Tibet and the status of Taiwan. All those issues were there then; they are here now; they are going to be around for more than a little while once the Olympic Games are over. The plain fact of the matter is that those issues are not linked to the Olympic Games.
I said above that Olympic boycotts do not change the behaviors of people or nation-states. I do need to amend that statement narrowly. The US athletes who trained to compete in the Moscow Games and the Soviet athletes who trained to compete in the Los Angeles Games made serious changes to their behaviors. In addition, the people who were going to provide television and journalistic coverage of those Moscow Games certainly changed their behaviors. Should the current clamor for boycotts of the Beijing Games gain traction, these are the kinds of people who will have to change their behavior once again. But make no mistake; that will be the full extent of it.
The IOC has a history of staging games in countries that may not necessarily fit neatly into the high-ideals of people who are often described as human-rights activists. I do not want to get into any current political debates here so let me tread on relatively safe ground and suggest that Nazi Germany in 1936 was such a place. There was no boycott then or any great outcry for one. What I find most interesting is that by sending Jesse Owens to Germany that year, the US government unwittingly provided about as clear a demonstration as one could provide that the Nazi concept of Aryan supremacy in all things was flawed at the core. Might something like that happen this year to demonstrate some flaw in the PRC gestalt? Probably not. However, one thing is certain; if there is a boycott, there will be no opportunity for such an event to happen.
To all those noble orators who tell me that we need to do something to “send a message” to the Chinese government, let me suggest that they write a note and send it via carrier pigeon. This same message has been “sent” to China for years; it isn’t being received. I have to wonder if the “message senders” aren’t equally interested in getting publicity for themselves as they are in actually getting a message across to the Chinese government. If changing the behavior of the Chinese government were truly paramount, then maybe they might consider changing the message in some way…
In the spirit of full disclosure, I hope that all of these do-gooders get through the current spasm of venting in the next few weeks and then they take breather for a couple of months. My long-suffering wife and I are going to China in May. We will not be sending any messages to the Chinese government; we will not be there with any grandiose purpose such as to change the outlook of the Chinese people that has taken millennia to create; we will not do anything related to the Olympics other than possibly taking pictures of the venues in Beijing that will house Olympic events in August 2008. We are going there to see China and to try to learn what we can about Chinese art and history and culture. We were supposed to go to Tibet for four days; that part of the trip has already been “redirected”. The fact of the matter is that my trip to China will not change anything either – - except my understanding of Chinese art and history and culture. So, if these folks can just put this on hiatus for a while, I would really appreciate that.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…