By Sujit Bhar
India wants to host the 2036 Olympic Games. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has confirmed this wish and the bid will be prepared and presented to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in due course. As an Indian and a sports lover, I feel excited, especially now that cricket is on the 2028 (Los Angeles) roster; at the same time, as a logical person, I see absolutely no reason why any country should host this grandiose event in its current form in the first place.
There have been enough protests around the world against the Olympic movement and the all-encompassing consumerist animal that it has become. There were protests in Tokyo, outside the Summer Games’ venues, protests will surely be in Paris next year, and for 2028, protests are already bubbling up from the thick broth of public discontent.
As the modern Olympic movement started, it tried to showcase the Fundamental Principles of Olympism, which proudly proclaims: “Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
Today, if anything, it sounds more like the exhortation of a despot from an election podium. There is nothing ordinary and commonplace in an Olympics today; that died with the entry of publicity and TV packages. In Atlanta (1996), we from the print media and others were initially prevented by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) to even go into the conference room for a press meet within the Main Press Centre. The NBC held the broadcast rights and the sheer audacity of this huge corporation to even think that it controlled press conferences too, was astounding. NBC relented when we put our foot down.
We, however, could not even think of entering any arena with a Pepsi bottle (of even water) because Coca Cola had it all sealed up.
While covering the Olympics, it would be natural for any journalist to start believing that the entire show was being put up jointly by a few mega multinational corporations, and the IOC is no more than a mere tool in their hands. With the world today reeling under horrible wars and standing at the gates of another recession, the common man does not need another decision by his/her government that virtually debilitates the economy of his/her nation, just to guarantee profits for those multinationals.
This happened to Greece in 2004, when it went into at least a US $12 billion debt just for having to host the Olympics that its citizens never wanted. Among the other misadventures of the incumbent dispensation in the country was the forceful building of stadiums, elaborate civic amenities that Athens did not need and facilities that have since become white elephants. Common Greeks were so fed up that they anyway took their annual holidays to the islands as the Games rolled in and I, for one, was surprised to see such empty roads of the city in the initial days of the Games.
Later, locals told me how disgusted they were at their government refusing to listen to the common people and to common sense. As the common man kept paying back interest accrued on brand new facilities (mostly built by foreign multinationals), the Olympic Games became one of the primary reasons why Greece dived into economic disaster. The IOC did not feel a thing, and the multinationals left with their share of massive spoils.
Everybody knows that this Olympic “movement”, in its current form, leaves countries with massive debt which it can barely service. Everybody knows who is finally deputed to pick up the pieces. As a common citizen of India, I do not wish anybody to be having to delve deep into empty pockets, searching for salvation after the extra cess has been paid.
The Political Statement
Engendering economic disasters isn’t the only objective for countries. The promotion of Olympism is used as a means to political ends. Atlanta (1996), once a city with high crime rates, saw all its beggars, stragglers and the homeless mercilessly driven out of city limits for the duration of the Olympic Games. Did it fool any journalist? No. There was enough talk about it, as well as of the continuing marginalisation of the substantial coloured population of the state of Georgia which was for all to see.
It was pathetic: When almost the entire US basketball “Dream Team” (much of it intact after 1992, Barcelona), comprised of coloured athletes, when Carl Lewis was scorching the tracks, the coloured community of the city seemed kept at arm’s length.
It was, in a way, worse in Sydney (2000) where artisans from the aboriginal population of the country were showcased in designated areas throughout the Olympic park and across Sydney town, as if like museum pieces or like special exhibits in a zoo. One played the didgeridoo at a street corner, while scores of aborigine dancers, naked to the waist were made part of the opening ceremony. If this level of insensitivity, labelled a “ceremony” of civilisation, had been part of any other forum, it would have been castigated by all. Such is the power of Olympism, the “movement” and, of course, sheer consumerism that blinds all.
Within all this lie issues about human rights and laws of the land that had been written by people who cared about the entire population, not dividing them in sections of caste, creed, religion or ethnicity. Within all this lies the economically weaker section of society that participates in the celebration of sports superiority, but fails to feed its own, upcoming talent.
The Solution
The Olympic movement must learn to honour the traditions of the land it visits, its culture, its laws and its people. Olympism cannot stay as an elitist, big-ticket event that only the well-heeled can attend. Olympism must be moved out of the clutches of this extreme consumerism propagated by multinationals, and stadiums or other facilities should only be built if old facilities aren’t enough or in bad condition. The IOC must be part of the development process, share its profits with host countries and every person displaced due to the Games, permanently or even temporarily should be the joint responsibility of the host nation and the IOC.
The entire games can be broken up into several sections, the disciplines being handed out to different cities, countries even, while the IOC provides help. Finally, the immensely rich IOC has to bear responsibility for the real estate price speculations.
Only that can ensure true Olympism.