A Political Glimpse from Ireland

The whole furor with regards to the Olympic Torch is quite interesting because I was watching the “Daily Show” on Comedy Central the other day when John Stewart mentioned that the Torch relay ceremony started in Germany during 1936. I was literally shocked at that statement (yes you historically aware people can laugh) because I had always assumed like the Olympics that the Torch ceremony was invented by the Greeks. I could not have been more wrong and here is an excerpt from a PDF available on the IOC’s website:

In 1936, Carl Diem, Secretary General of the Organising Committee of the Games of the XI Olympiad in Berlin, proposed the inclusion of a torch relay in the programme of the Olympics. The flame was lit in Olympia and transported to Berlin via a torch relay.

From 1936 leading up to the start of World War II in 1939, you can consider 1936 to be a growing Nazi Germany and some critics of the Olympic Torch relay have stated that the whole process of the Torch Relay was started as a way for Germany to advocate their Aryan theology. This is quite a conincidence in 2008 where we have Beijing pushing for the Torch Relay as not being political yet many people ask whether we can seperate the policies of China from the olympics? I don’t think so since the Torch Relay was started during questionable times and might even end in questionable times according to the latest statement by the IOC. They insist that the relay will not be cancelled  this year however for the next Olympic games, that might be a different case.

Now I am not normally a conspiracy theorist but one cannot help but wonder if the Chinese government “greased the palms” of the members of the IOC. This would not be the first time if you think back to the Salt Lake City Olympic Games:

Philadelphia Inquirer - NewsBank - Jan 13, 1999
International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch should resign because of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal, the only person ever to quit …

This “greasing” could go as far back as the IOC awarding the olympic games to China. Given the human rights record of the PRC, you have to wonder of the logic involved in that decision back then and even now. The basic human rights that all people to are entitled too are not given to all groups in China, freedom of the press is still squashed with major news organizations like CNN and others still banned from attending major press events. If you look back at the press coverage from within China of the torch relay, they unsuprisingly show no distruption in the relay (I have CCTV here In Ireland can bear witness to this fact). Curious? So my final question to everyone, is whether the man below this text is taking money from the Chinese Government? (In case you did not know, this is the current president of the IOC)

Well by the time I accomplished anything on Saturday, the Taiwanese election was over and the wrong candidate won in my opinion because he advocated closer ties with the mainland. Especially with current events in Tibet, I would have though that the typical Taiwanese voter would have made the logical choice and voted for Frank Hsieh who advocated and independent Taiwan (free from CCP influence). That being said, there was a referendum on the election where the majority of the Taiwanese people that did vote, advocated not joining the U.N also known as not declaring independence.

The China Daily reports that only 35.8% of voters cast their vote in the referendum which really doesn’t tell you much about how many people want independence for Taiwan. Here is an obviously pro-China quote(It did come from the China Daily after all):

Li Weiyi, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Saturday that the result suggested that Taipei’s secessionist push has gone against the will of the people.

After President Ma’s election, many people expected him to take a trip to Beijing to cement a stronger relationship with the People’s Republic of China however he did not do that. I have also read somewhere (not sure where) that he does not advocate reunification which is some welcome news to myself and many other pro-independence supporters out there. The Taiwanese people will benefit from the election of President Ma because there will be greater economic cooperation between Beijing and Taipei which could only mean good things for the staggering Taiwanese economy (a slice of the pie so to speak).

Immediately after the election, stocks in Taiwan rose the next trading day on the election results as well as stocks in other countries like Canada who is one of Taiwan’s significant trading partners. The GOP is also happy because they did not want a candidate elected who would aggravate the situation with China. I have pointed out the hypocrisy of this position in an earlier entry so I won’t go into too much detail about it here but suffice to say I am disappointed by this response and hope that the next presidency will give greater support to the DPP and the people of Taiwan who want independence.