The first big Olympic story I was truly aware of in real time was the African nations’ boycott of the Montreal Olympics, 1976. I was all of 22 years old. Then came 1980 (the US and other Western nations), 1984 (the tit-for-tat for 1980 – USSR and Eastern European nations, which spawned that Ted Turner sponsored the late-but-not-lamented Goodwill Games).
For me the biggest Olympics news, besides the medal counts etc., prior to that was the Munich massacre, killing of 11 Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terror group in 1972. It is only later I came to read up on all the earlier controversies, even about the Black Salute at Mexico Olympics. So, Olympics-wise, for me the Montreal Olympics boycott was the coming-out party!
I am now 57 years old, will be 58 by the time the London Olympics will be rolled out. Therefore the current controversy, stoked by that world power in sports, India, will be my going-out party.
I hope no one is naïve enough to argue that sports and politics should not mix. The argument now is not about whether to mix but about how to mix. The Olympics organization has bowed down to the power of DuPont; the former cannot afford to sacrifice the latter’s sponsorship, Bhopal or no Bhopal.
India is beating its breast about DuPont being let off too easily, after the company disingenuously claimed, through legalese, that they are not liable for what Union Carbide did or did not do at Bhopal decades ago. It seems to have the support of the Indian Supreme Court.
But the government, with its compulsions to pacify some restive do-gooders, is making a virtue out of necessity by publicly yet non-legally arraigning the company of guilt, or at least of letting the guilty go. But the government knows it has reached the end of the road in this “protest”. If the country thinks that its threat of boycott carries any weight, that borders on stupidity. That position would have no takers, not even among the minuscule athletic contingent (and the large managerial one) approved for the Games at London.
It would be lonesome not to attend the party, even if only as a flower in the wall paper (this is the status for winning a solitary gold, a few silvers etc. and bronze fetches zero premium).
India does not, if it ever did, have the moral authority on the world stage to compel other nations to recognize its claims on the moral plane. It is all economics, you stupid. And, DuPont beats India. Truly humbling.
Then, why this song and dance? Oh, for my going-out party! Bye, bye Olympics!
Raghuram Ekambaram
For me the biggest Olympics news, besides the medal counts etc., prior to that was the Munich massacre, killing of 11 Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terror group in 1972. It is only later I came to read up on all the earlier controversies, even about the Black Salute at Mexico Olympics. So, Olympics-wise, for me the Montreal Olympics boycott was the coming-out party!
I am now 57 years old, will be 58 by the time the London Olympics will be rolled out. Therefore the current controversy, stoked by that world power in sports, India, will be my going-out party.
I hope no one is naïve enough to argue that sports and politics should not mix. The argument now is not about whether to mix but about how to mix. The Olympics organization has bowed down to the power of DuPont; the former cannot afford to sacrifice the latter’s sponsorship, Bhopal or no Bhopal.
India is beating its breast about DuPont being let off too easily, after the company disingenuously claimed, through legalese, that they are not liable for what Union Carbide did or did not do at Bhopal decades ago. It seems to have the support of the Indian Supreme Court.
But the government, with its compulsions to pacify some restive do-gooders, is making a virtue out of necessity by publicly yet non-legally arraigning the company of guilt, or at least of letting the guilty go. But the government knows it has reached the end of the road in this “protest”. If the country thinks that its threat of boycott carries any weight, that borders on stupidity. That position would have no takers, not even among the minuscule athletic contingent (and the large managerial one) approved for the Games at London.
It would be lonesome not to attend the party, even if only as a flower in the wall paper (this is the status for winning a solitary gold, a few silvers etc. and bronze fetches zero premium).
India does not, if it ever did, have the moral authority on the world stage to compel other nations to recognize its claims on the moral plane. It is all economics, you stupid. And, DuPont beats India. Truly humbling.
Then, why this song and dance? Oh, for my going-out party! Bye, bye Olympics!
Raghuram Ekambaram
2 comments:
we live in the past
and love to rake up issues from the grave..
we need to move on...
My point was also that our focus should be on the issue and not in frivolous and ultimately futile efforts, DS sir.
I strongly feel that the Bhopal victims were short changed (compare the actions after Bhopal against Union Carbide v Deep water Horizon accident and BP).
RE
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