Cancel the Olympics
by Jody Coughlin
How backwards can the human race be? Seriously? I was watching the Weather Network last night (riveting, I know) and there was a little news blurb on it about the Olympics and yes, the Winter Olympics coming to Vancouver is a glorious thing. There is much to celebrate. Spring rain falls on the hopeful hearts of the beloved sportsmen. Canada unites in triumphant athletic leadership… Yeah. Awesome.
But do you know what I think of when I see this stuff on television? First of all, the new design of the torch perplexes me. It looks (to me anyway) like a missing part from an airplane. I don’t know where the design came from and yes, I am too lazy to research it (so don’t even go there with me all you Olympic aficionados).
Secondly, I think to myself that these Winter games and the subsequent millions of dollars investors and advertisers throw at them remind me of a playground. On this playground in my mind I see all the rich kids, all the jocks and all the cheerleaders (not to stereotype-but come on) huddled around what could only be called a buffet table. There is lots to eat and lots to drink and plenty of mutual admiration all around. It’s so perfect it could make you puke.
Then, in my mind’s pretty blue eye, on the other side of the playground, I see the kids who came to school with no lunch money. I see the kids that had the shit kicked out of them and then had their lunch money stolen and I also see the kids who brought along a baggie of peanut butter and crackers and a sad, shriveled up apple. I see oblivion on the behalf of the kids at the buffet table. I see utter, basic human needs going unmet on behalf of the poor kids with nothing.
In my mind it is the Olympics versus the earthquake tragedy in Haiti. It is the babies being born in sweltering heat under the tent roofs of a makeshift neonatal unit. I see the look in the eyes of the mothers as they wilt in what must surely be exhaustion and absolute fear and despair next to their babies makeshift cribs. In my heart I weigh these images that have been broadcast on almost all major news channels by now against the warm and fuzzy heralding of the sportsmen’s wet dream otherwise known as the Olympics. I see these things and I am utterly appalled.
I know that the world (and all the fun therein) doesn’t stop because there is a need in some foreign country somewhere. I realize this particular bit of writing is the most depressing thing anyone has probably read in a few days. So what? I don’t care. I am depressed. I am depressed that I live in a world where frivolities flourish amid tragedy. I am depressed that the Olympics take precedence over the rebuilding of a hospital in a disaster ridden nation. It brings me way low down when a stadium is built (and maybe even rebuilt) to suit the aesthetic appeal of ceremonial bullshit instead of a school.
Maybe I am too harsh, but I fail to see where it matters that somebody can perform something faster or more deftly than anyone else in the world when there is an entire nation of orphans needing a home. I’m sorry Olympians. I know you’ve been training your asses off, but in terms of checks and balances it makes no sense to me. Cancel the Olympics. Rebuild Haiti.
