Next month we will all be watching in awe as the greatest sportsmen and women in the world strut their stuff at the Beijing Olympics, but at what point will we all have a bad taste in our mouths. China is at present dealing with a human catastrophe from the recent earthquakes which toll runs into tens of thousands. The world reacts with sympathy but the large countdown clock in Beijing continues ticking

Its ironic to think that if you put all the money spent on and generated by the Olympics together, there would be enough money to help every earthquake survivor with enough left over to donate to the Burmese cyclone victims and maybe one or two starving African countries. A few weeks ago all the talk was about the air quality in Beijing, and the Chinese nation’s human rights record in Tibet, causing a great stir in the western world with demonstrations during the torch bearing jogs through our cities. Since the earthquake these stories have completely ceased.

Don’t get me wrong; I love the Olympics, and will be watching every moment I can, but does that make it all right?

This years tournament will be remembered for a lot of new reasons, one of which is the expectation that for once the British nation will get it’s fair share of medals, including a young diver called Tom Daley who at the tender age of fourteen is a massive role model for young and old, and the list goes on. We will also possibly be seeing for the first time a disabled athlete, Oscar Pistorius , run in the men’s 400m if he manages to improve on his qualifying time by at least a second and if the lawyers manage to fight his case for inclusion.

There will be the usual drug cheats uncovered and there will be some super human efforts by some athletes to come from nowhere and take gold, but that’s what we have come to expect from the Olympics, and that’s why we love it.
But lets not forget, while watching the sport from the comfort of our sofas, that China is not so far away in this day and age, and that the horrific scenes we saw on that same sofa a few weeks ago should not be forgotten amongst all the razzmatazz. Vernon.

From tenerifenews.com