Beijing under the microscope

Newsdesk • Last updated 7 Aug 2008 10:41 0 Comments

THEY call it the greatest show on earth and, with all due respect to Barnum & Bailey, and forgetting for a minute the inevitable drug cheats and the crude commercialism, in sporting terms it probably is.

The motives of the International Olympics Committee for granting the 2008 games to Beijing have been under the microscope ever since the award was made, and many sceptics would suggest that expecting the world's largest secret society to melt into open democracy would be as fanciful as it is naive.

Under the constant threat of potentially violent protests by supporters of a free Tibet, the knowledge that thousands of Chinese families have been evicted from their homes to make way for Olympics-related building projects, and the more mundane problems of Beijing's desperate smog, it is understandable that the authorities would want to keep a close check on the flow of information.

Whether the Chinese government is directly behind the ban which prevents Reading's Australian goalkeeper Adam Federici from sharing with Chronicle readers some impressions of his once-in-a-lifetime experience, or it comes as a result of over-sensitivity from his own national delegation or the IOC itself, is something that might get lost in muddied waters.

But if it is the latter, then that is surely a highly disturbing development, particularly with London the venue for the next edition of the Olympics in 2012.

While for many reasons the dream of the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, has long since been ground into the dust, one of his ideals was that the young people of the world should be able to meet in friendship as well as competition.

Preventing the likes of Adam Federici describing what the Olympic village looks like and the colour of his curtains is hardly in the Coubertin spirit, and stopping young people from posting photographs and thoughts on Facebook is the modern equivalent of sending past generations to their room without any tea.

But with London only four years away, the bills already vastly outgrowing the original estimates and costly skeletons regularly threatening to pop out of some high profile cupboards, the temptation to hide behind a curtain of secrecy in a bid to ensure nothing is allowed to spoil the perception of success may well prove very strong.

It matters little whether that curtain is made of bamboo or a locally produced material.

The truth can only hurt so much.

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This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 07 Aug 08

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