Never too late for commentary

The Olympics in Beijing last year will be remembered in the UK as the most successful for Team GB since the Second world War, giving the nation's sports projects a boost ahead of London 2012. However, there was a dark side to the event that has been all too readily forgotten. These were the totalitarian Olympics, even more so than Moscow 1980 (which was boycotted by a large slice of the world); indeed, only Berlin 1936 can rank as more disgraceful. The IOC (but also FIFA and other sporting bodies) has never been particularly picky about the political proclivities of a host nation, but the People's Republic of China did make promises at its bid, promises it did not keep. The IOC's mantra that sport is separate from politics is a chimera. Okay, so this is only the third time since WWII that the Olympics has gone to a non-democracy (aside from Moscow, the other was Mexico City 1968), but in the 21st century, a post-Cold War era, higher standards should be kept. Sochi 2014, the Winter Olympics, in Russia (and not so far geographically from Chechnya and Georgia), prove that to be a forlorn hope.
Undoubtedly, the Chinese leadership used the Olympics to glorify the regime and its way of doing things. Even its slogan for the 2008 Games - 'One Dream' - smacked of creepy conformity. 'Protest parks' were supposed to be where licensed dissent occurred (i.e.nothing spontaneous or about Tibet), but not only were no licences granted but the police arrested a good deal of those people who did apply. Thus the protest parks were gloriously undisturbed. The grotesque absurdity of it all is a gift to internationally aware satirists (since no Chinese person could mock it and escape consequneces). It is a good mirror to communism, the idea sounding splendid in theory, but is hollow and redundant in practice.
The regime also grudgingly opened up to journalists, but was most displeased when they started covering issues other than sport. Certain dissidents were rounded up and locked away before the Olympics even began, while Tibet was off-limits to all foreigners. The Szechwan earthquake while a great personal tragedy was very useful to the communist leadership as it distracted the world from its brutal repression of a Tibetan rebellion. Some Internet sites became uncensored but that was only for the duration of the Games. It was purely of show, as was the fakery in the opening ceremony, indicative of the emptiness of the regime's promises, demonstarting that only economic growth has kept it in power. The Chinese communist party is rotten to the core, the endemic institutional corruption can only be tackled by democracy but it would take anothe revolution, a true people's revolution to achieve that. London 2012's unveiling may not be as outstanding but it will be a good deal more honest. The CGI fireworkd, the little girl not only miming, but miming to less pretty child's voice, the various ethnic groups who were all just Han Chinese dressed up. It is the equivalent of the local Chinese communist party that painted the side of a quarry green to convince others of its environmental credentials (while it pocketed the rest of the money allocated for the department) or the other local party that built an exact replica of the US Capitol building in a town of only a few thousand. China may have big reserves, but its foundations are shaky with the slowdown in world economic production. Teh above two examples smack of pre-Revolutionary France - the hierarchy hopelessly out of touch in running the country.
The IOC, meanwhile, should fire its official spokeperson. When faced with stern questions that China had broken its promises at it bid (for instance, the protest parks or keping air pollution down), the spokeswoman spouted something completely unrelated and off the topic and then had the bald-faced temerity to say that she had answered the question, when it was blatently obvious that she hadn't. Such stonewalling wasn't deflective, but, on the contrary, exposed her bosses to ridicule. Fine, so she was uncomfortable with defending the indefensible, but her representation made the IOC look like a joke. A smooth dissembler would have been far more appropriate to put up at those press conferences and, at the time, I thought of several avenues of though that could be pursued with far more success against inquisitive western journalists than her technique. Just because its been 28years since the IOC has faced ushc stern questioning over a host nation does not excuse such a performance. But then it summed up how the spirit of the Games had been totally trampled over at these Olympics.