generalspeaking

IOC's Antics

Ludicrous beyond belief that the International Olympic Committee has put its foot deep into foul excrement yet again. This time giving recognition to an odious regime whose head is slaughtering his own population which has brought a popular revolution into the international arena. Libya has the forthright censure of the Arab League, though not of the African League. It has the combined forces of NATO in its airspace, bombing government infrastructure and its leader's compounds.

Yet Libya's National Olympic Committee, headed by one of Moammar Gadhafi's sons, Muhammad al Gadhafi, has proceeded with the IOC as though nothing were particularly amiss in his part of the world. He has requested, as is the due of any nation's Olympic Committee head, for his share of free tickets to the Games. And those tickets were allocated as per request, allowing Mr. Gadhafi to proceed with selling them and making them available to his father's inner circle.

Predictably enough, when word got out, a protest ensued, with a member of the British delegation remarking "The IOC are responsible for putting Britain in the hugely invidious position of bombing Libya one day and having to give them a huge heap of Olympics tickets the next." That's a real bitch of a contretemps, isn't it?

So the IOC hastily backpedalled: "To be absolutely clear, no tickets have been printed or paid for. The IOC has decided along with the organizing committee ... that no tickets will be handed over to the Libyan NOC until the current situation becomes clearer. Quite sensibly, we will retain this 'wait and see' policy until we can be absolutely certain the the tickets can be used correctly. However, we remain committed to allowing athletes from whatever country to participate in the Games."

The imagined spectacle of Moammar Gadhafi floating in to London to watch his teams take part in the Games rather disturbed the sensibilities of a senior government figure in Britain, perhaps forgetting that the man is subject to an international travel ban. And the entire absurdity was put into perspective when a spokesman for the National Libyan Transitional Council had his say:

"It is astonishing that while the whole world is unified against the vile acts that Gadhafi and his family are carrying out, we see that the Olympic Committee is still trying to deal with them."

Isn't it? And aren't they something else again? Resolutely irrelevant.

Labels: Conflict, Political Realities, Traditions

posted by Pieface @ Friday, June 17, 2011