Olympics will ‘rebound’ says Rogg

It is difficult to tell about Jacques Rogge, head of the International Olympic Committee. Maybe in an Ideal world the ideal of the founders of the Olympics might actually hold sway and the games wouldn’t be inexorably bound up with the world of politics.

On planet Earth it is - and to pretend otherwise is to be blindly idealistic and naive. Mr Rogge may be many things but it is doubtful he either of those. It is unlikely he would have been able to work his way into the position he holds if he were.

According to the BBC he has told a meeting of national committees in the Chinese capital that they “should assure their countries the Games would succeed.” I hope that is a misprint and he actually said “be assured”. But equally we know they will anyway and it could be his Freudian slip showing.

We all know that the Chinese state will ruthlessly assure the games are not ‘blighted’ by further protest, once they are under their control ‘in house’ so to speak, no matter what the cost, we have heard their representatives say they will ‘show no mercy’ to anyone who attempts to disrupt them anywhere they hold sway.

Chinese security officials have already behaved like “thugs” according to Lord Coe - and that is in the West, what they will feel free to do on their own turf is anyone’s guess.

Rogg is also reported as having said the games will “rebound from crisis" after days of protests along the torch route. The crisis will certainly be less obvious, as mentioned, anyone brave enough to protest, once the route is under Chinese control will most likely never be able to be seen by the media and will be dealt with swiftly and mercilessly if they do.

Any such protesters will require incredible courage and must be aware their efforts will be a forlorn hope and the price for making them will be high indeed.

The athletes will be happy to turn a blind eye. It is their moment in the sun - and many of them are insulated in their world of sport.

So on the surface things will look ok and that is what Mr Rogg and the Chinese Government want. That way they can pretend to the world under the cover of a threadbare fig leaf.One wonders if the then head of the International Olympic Committee Count de Baillet-Latour was equally concerned the 1936 Olympics should go off without any hitches. They went off well by all accounts.

Strangely, threadbare pretence seems to satisfy them - and the many dispicable and unpleasant leaders and governments on the world stage, such as the likes of the ‘democratic’ Robert Mugabe.

Surely they don’t imagine they are really actually fooling anyone?

Amnesty say Olympics are actually making things worse in China

One hears much guff that engaging the Chinese Government over the Olympic Games. There has been much talk about the possibility that the presence of western media (around 20,000 reporters) might help improve China’s human rights record.

It was not a good sign when British authorities, apparently colluding with Chinese oppression, decided to force UK athletes to sign a gag order, preventing them criticising the Chinese government, before they will allow them to attend the games. Why they felt it necessary to do this when other countries did not remains open to question.

Now it seems this may not necessarily result in an improvement after all. According to Amnesty International it is in fact making things worse.

Clearly the Chinese authorities see the prospect of any dissent as an embarrassment and are ruthlessly pre-emptively suppressing anything, or any one, that has the potential to flair up in front of the western media before they get there in numbers.

One only has to look at how they ejected reporters from Tibet and manipulated reports and figures. down playing the number of Tibetans killed by a factor of 10 or more. Or the vast numbers of troops they have sent into the country to suppress the native population.

Poisoned Olympic Chalice

Why would the UK be insane enough to bid for the 2012 Olympics? Oh yes! The greater Glory of Cool-Britannia, Nu-Lab and Red Ken.

It seems costs have now risen from £2.4 billion to £9.3 billion, MPs have warned. One suspects it will be astronomically unlikely they will remain anywhere near as low as even £9.3.

The Olympics are heavily politicised, plagued with athletic doping, they present a massive security problem and at the end will we end up with anything in the way of a ‘legacy’ (don’t you just hate that word now) actually worth having?

We would probably be much better off cancelling them, or if Nu_Lab can’t bear the thought of that, get some credit for bogus ‘European togetherness’ by offering at least half of them to France, as a joint enterprise.

With the Channel Tunnel Rail Link a special ‘Olympic Service’ could be run, the publicity might even do them some good. At least sharing the Games would be sharing the headache - That way we might stand some chance of keeping our share of it to something under £10 billion…

Tessa Jowell still backs Olympic Logo

Tessa Jowell, the UK Culture Secretary, is still doggedly backing the controversial ‘Lisa Simpson’ Olympic logo for the 2012 games to the hilt. Endorsing it as: "terrific", "adaptable" and usable in a "variety of different contexts”

When asked if it was worth its £400K price tag she replied: "I think it was, yes." , though she did admit the logo caused a storm when it was unveiled last week she said:

"One thing you can say for this logo is that it has got people talking. It has got people talking about the Olympics, it has got people talking about what they like and what they don't like”

Ken Livingstone suggested that the furore over it was over the top. "It is a logo. It is not the meaning of life, or a secret code that will identify the bloodline of Mary Magdalene. It is a logo that will grow on you."

We’ll know it has really on the way out if Tony Blair announces it has his full support. ;-)

Joking aside – it will have plenty of mileage in it yet, from what I understand, the prime minister-in-waiting’s Wife got her career start at the ad agency who came up with it, Wolff Olins, also Michael Wolff d-reamed up Nu-Lab’s red rose logo.

Olympic class... Rubbish

Yet another example of staggering Government incompetence – The new Olympic Logo has been unveiled. Apparently it took a year to design and cost a mere £400,000 (around $800,000 bucks).

Quite frankly it is rubbish, but what is really irritating is that a lot of money was spent on it. Money better spent on something else.

They could have got something better more-or-less for free, if they had organised a schools competition with the prise as VIP tickets.

No they have to spend a fortune and end up with something else that sounds ok ‘on paper’ (in the pub after a few drinks mre like) but is as usual not fit for purpose. They will hang onto it like grim death because people won’t get sufficiently worked up about it to complain loudly for long enough, unlike something like H.I.P.s