The Olympics

Except for football I’m not really much of a sports aficionado. But the Olympic games are hard to avoid, even if one wished to avoid them. I saw most of the opening ceremonies which were absolutely stunning, as well as incredible. Two thousand and eight drummers playing in perfect synchronization – wow! Then I watched while all the athletes from the various countries entered the stadium. I thought this was a bit tedious but I watched anyway and was struck by my geographical ignorance. There were many teams from countries I had never even heard about. I rationalize my ignorance by telling myself that I have no reason or need to know all these countries (but it doesn’t keep me from feeling really ignorant). Then I woke up to read the Sunday paper and encountered an item from Ouagadougou about some miners being killed in an illegal gold mine. My immediate reaction to this news was that it must be a joke, what place could possibly have a name like that. But then I saw that Ouagadougou was the capital of Burkina Faso, which further convinced me it was all made up. However, curiosity got the better of me and I found out that Burkina Faso is a nation in West Africa, and has been for quite some time. This just reinforced my abysmal ignorance of geography and such. I don’t recall Burkina Faso being represented at the Olympics (but perhaps they were). Anyway, I found the Olympic events fascinating. I would never have thought I could get so passionate about badminton (I had no idea this was an Olympic sport, I thought it was a children’s game), archery contests (I thought these ceased with Robin Hood), beach volley ball (which I thought was just played on beaches to pass the time), and things like skeet shooting, water polo, synchronized diving (when did this become an event?), and who knows what to come. I can’t wait for the ping pong and I wonder when tiddely winks might be added. I also can’t help but wonder what the ancient Greeks might have thought about ping pong and beach volley ball? I guess we’ve come a long ways.

I guess the Russians have now entered Georgia to punish them for invading South Ossetia where many Russians live who are more loyal to Russia than to the West. I don’t know what exactly is going on but I hear that Georgia, with the instigation of the U.S., moved on South Ossetia. It could be argued that this is analogous to Mexico suddenly moving on New Mexico (what would we do, just let them get away with it?). Now the Georgians, being badly beaten, want to know where their ally, the U.S., is in all this. Of course we are nowhere, for the simply reason that we do not have the troops or the power or the nerve to engage Russia militarily in its own sphere of influence. Thus it is amusing to listen to McCain”s totally inappropriate and presumptively Presidential blustering about what the Russian have to do and bla, bla, bla. Obama was much more restrained and diplomatic in his comments, which proves of course that he is weak, weak as water (that’s what we are going to be told no matter how ridiculous it might be). What it really proves is that McCain is an all out warmonger who thinks American military might should allow us to do whatever we want, wherever we want, an idea that should surely have been completely discredited by now. This should leave little doubt in anyone’s mind that McCain would be far more risky as Commander-in-Chief than Obama would be. But, of course, there are millions of Americans who will fall for this macho blustering. It is well past time that we get over the absurd idea that we should be able to intervene everywhere on earth and impose our will on everyone. We may think we’re an empire, but at the moment we’re more like an empty shirt. I’m sure the Chinese are finding it hilarious that George W. Bush is telling them how they ought to behave. Russia is not intimidated, nor is Iran, or most other countries anymore. It’s true, the American century has passed and we’ve blown it.

LKBIQ:
People who say, if they had to do things over, they wouldn’t change a thing, must not have truly lived.
Morialekafa