"We believe the Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations and we hope that all people attending the games recognize the importance of this." Thus spake Samsung Electronics, one of 12 major corporate sponsors of the Olympics, when asked last week whether recent events in Tibet were causing them any concern. Coca-Cola, another Olympics sponsor, has stated that while it would be inappropriate "to comment on the political situation of individual nations," the company firmly believes "that the Olympics are a force for good." The chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, was also quick to declare that "a boycott doesn't solve anything"—just as quick as he was to dismiss the demonstrators who waved a black banner showing five interlocked handcuffs, in mockery of the Olympic symbol, at Monday's lighting of the Olympic torch in Greece. "It is always sad to see such a ceremony disrupted," he declared, rather pompously.And no one was surprised: Companies that have invested millions in sponsorship deals and Olympic bureaucrats who have invested years trying to justify their controversial decision to award the 2008 Olympics to Beijing are naturally inclined to use those sorts of arguments. But that doesn't mean that the rest of us have to believe them.
Look a bit closer, in fact, and none of those statements holds up. A boycott doesn't solve anything. Well, doesn't it? Some boycotts do help solve some things. The boycott of South African athletes from international competitions was probably the single most effective weapon the international community ever deployed against the apartheid state. ("They didn't mind about the business sanctions," a South African friend once told me, "but they minded—they really, really minded—about the cricket.") The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics helped undermine Soviet propaganda about the invasion of Afghanistan and unify the Western world against it. I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing that from the Soviet perspective, the Soviet bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics four years later was successful, too. Presumably, it was intended to solidify Soviet elite opposition to the United States in the Reagan years, and presumably, it helped.The Olympics are a force for good. Not always! For those who don't remember, let me remind you that the 1936 Olympics, held in Nazi Germany, were an astonishing propaganda coup for Hitler. It's true that the star performance of Jesse Owens, the great black American track-and-field star, did shoot some holes in the Nazi theory of Aryan racial superiority. But Hitler still got what he wanted out of the games. With the help of American newspapers such as the New York Times, which opined that the games put Germany "back in the family of nations again," he convinced many Germans, and many foreigners, to accept Nazism as "normal." The Nuremburg laws were in force, German troops had marched into the Rhineland, Dachau was full of prisoners, but the world cheered athletes in Berlin. As a result, many people, both in and out of Germany, reckoned that everything was just fine, and Hitler could be tolerated a bit longer.
The Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations. Aren't they? Actually, the Olympics seem an ideal place for demonstrations. Not only is the world's press there with cameras running, the modern Olympics were set up with a political purpose: to promote international peace by encouraging healthy competition between nations. Hence the emphasis on national teams instead of individual competitors; hence the opening and closing ceremonies—since copied by other sporting events—as well as the national flags and national anthems.
These elements make the Olympics special, different from other international competitions, but they also sometimes give the games a nasty edge. The old United States vs. Soviet Union basketball rivalry; the parade of East German women with husky voices; the lists of who has won how many medals—all of that is evidence of the decades-old politicization of the Olympics. There were black power demonstrations at the 1968 Mexico City Games. A Palestinian group attacked and killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Games. Australian aborigines protested at the 2000 Sydney Games. And everything associated with the 2008 Olympics, from the massive Beijing building program, to the Olympic torch that is due to be carried across Tibet, to the Chinese Olympic Committee's Web site ( it describes China's commitment to promote "mass sporting activities" on an "extensive scale, improving the people's physique, and spurring the socialist modernization of China") is blatantly designed to promote the domestic and international image of the Chinese state.No wonder, then, that everyone who hates or fears China, whether in Burma, Darfur, Tibet, or Beijing, is calling for a boycott. And the Chinese government and the IOC are terrified that they will succeed. No one involved in the preparations for this year's Olympics really believes that this is "only about the athletes," or that the Beijing Games will be an innocent display of sporting prowess, or that they bear no relation to Chinese politics. I don't see why the rest of us should believe it, either.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
The Olympics are the perfect place for a protest.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Beijing Olympics - The stunning new Beijing airport
The airlines that will use airport initially include Air China, Sichuan Airlines, Shandong Airlines, Hong Kong's Dragonair, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Qatar Airways, Qantas Airways, El Al Israel Airlines, Emirates and other Star Alliance members.
Visitors walk past a giant bronze decoration at the new terminal building T3.
Photograph: China Photos/Getty Images
Beijing Olympics - The stunning new Beijing airport
The airport building has integrated environmental control systems to minimise energy consumption and carbon emissions, report say.
Workers at the departure hall of Beijing's giant new Terminal 3 ride an escalator.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Beijing Olympics - The stunning new Beijing airport
The inside view of Senlingongyuannanmen Station of the Olympic branch line of Beijing Metro. Two Airport Lines, scheduled to open before July, are elevated lines connecting the airport with the transport hub of Dongzhimen. The Olympic branch line has 4 stations, each with a theme. This station's theme is 'white forest'.
Photograph: Hao Xiaotian/ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images
Beijing Olympics - The stunning new Beijing airport
According to Norman Foster, the airport's architect, the airport is 'so big that under a certain amount of light you can't see one end of the building from the other.'
The baggage conveyor belts at Beijing's giant new Terminal Three at Beijing Capital International Airport.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Beijing Olympics - The stunning new Beijing airport
The size of the new Beijing airport can be gauged from the fact that it boasts of 64 restaurants, 80 retail stores, 175 escalators, 173 lifts, 437 travelators or moving footpaths, and 300 check-in counters.
A visitor makes a phone call near lines of public phones in the new terminal building T3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport.
Photograph: China Photos/Getty Images
The stunning new Beijing airport
The new terminal will have a capacity of 75 million passengers a year. It features an extremely high-tech passenger baggage system -- on 50 km of conveyor belts -- that can handle 19,800 bags per hour.
Beijing Olympics - The stunning new Beijing airport
British firm Arup, which has provided engineering and architectural design services for the Hyderabad International Airport, built the airport.
The departure hall of Beijing's giant new airport Terminal 3. This is the latest in the Chinese capital's stunning infrastructure boom ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
The stunning new Beijing airport
The airport was designed by British architect Norman Foster, who has also designed Hong Kong's famous Chep Lap Kok airport.
A man walks in a tea house at the new terminal building T3 (Terminal Three) at the Beijing Capital International Airport. T3 is a main project for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Photograph: Feng Li/Getty Images
The stunning new Beijing airport
Almost 50,000 workers toiled round the clock in 8-hour shifts and built the colossal $3.75-billion terminal in only four years. China wanted the airport to be ready before August 8, when the Beijing Olympic Games begin.
A sculpture welcomes passengers at the departure hall of Beijing's giant new Terminal 3 at the Beijing Capital International Airport.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
The stunning new Beijing airport
The terminal has walls of glass. The skylights of the terminal building are designed to look like scales on a dragon's back and to let natural light into the building. The dragon is considered a sign of strength and luck in China.
A view of the dragon-shaped Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China. Over time, T3 will have an annual capacity of 75 million passengers.
Photograph: Tian Baoxi/FZWB/ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images
The stunning new Beijing airport
The roof of the swanky new terminal looks like a dragon from the air with its wing spread running 3.25 km. The giant dragon-shaped terminal is 100 hectares in size: that is as big as 170 soccer fields.
This makes the airport larger than the Pentagon and almost 20 per cent bigger than all five terminals of London's Heathrow put together.
An artist's imagination of the top views of the dragon-shaped Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China.
The stunning new Beijing airport
This is the Beijing Capital International Airport. It is the world's largest airport building and the centerpiece of China's multi-billion-dollar infrastructure boom and provides a glimpse into China's vision of 21st-century air travel.
The futuristic airport has been built in preparation for the millions who are likely to visit China for the Olympic Games and to meet the country's booming air traffic.
An airport employee cleans the floor at the new terminal building Terminal Three -- T3 -- at the Beijing Capital International Airport. This is the world's largest terminal.
Photograph: Feng Li/Getty Images
