Melville Cooke DURING THE early Olympics, if what is bandied about is true, warring nations would put the blood-letting on hold and compete in athletics. Which was not putting warfare on hold, mind you, as the athletic contests of strength and agility were very much preparation for the less technologically based ways of mass killing of the day.
Press skip on the CD player of history, select the 2004 Olympics and warfare is still very much a part of the spectacle. Not in the sense of toning the javelin arm to toss a spear into a heaving chest, 'Lord of the Rings' style, but moreso the politics around the matter. If religion is the opiate of the masses, then sports is the LSD. It puts many of us on a giggly high as we look at the noblest of endeavours, person against person and team against team in fair competition, vying to see who is best and the loser accepting defeat graciously. (This is, of course, the best case, theoretical scenario, before Ben Johnson slowed down and raised a finger in cruising to 9.79, the USA came to mean the United Steroids Association in some okay, my quarters and Maradona redefined the 'Hand of God' forever).
The political centrepiece of the current Olympics is the Iraqi football team, which has been touted by Bush and co. as a triumph of democracy, even as their selected government dances on the strings. With the Iraqis progressing, reaching the final four, the Bushites (who betrayed the Saddamites) have been rejoicing. They put out a campaign ad which rejoiced: "In 1972, there were 40 democracies in the world. Today, 120. And this Olympics there will be two more free nations. And two fewer terrorist regimes."
There is one slight problem, though. The Iraqi players are not enthused about Bush. As one player, Ahmed Manajid, said: "How will Bush face his god after having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes." Score one for the Iraqi football team. The unprovoked invasion of two countries, the murder of thousands, the dislocation of American soldiers who are not there to question why but kill as required is worth it, by Bushian logic (and that is illogical in itself) as long as there are a couple more entrants in the Olympics.
LSD OF THE MASSES
Much closer to home, though, sports has also been the LSD of the masses. Recently, a few miles away in Haiti, the mighty Brazil played the Haitian national team. There was a very instructive picture in a local newspaper, of a Haitian who had fainted in the rush to get tickets being carried away for medical attention, an indication of just how high the country got on the match. It was billed as a 'Peace Match', what with Brazil leading the peacekeeping force in the country which has enforced the coup which ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. So a few piles, kicks and goals are supposed to get the Haitians on such a high that they forget they are being ruled by a murderous government which they did not elect. They are supposed to concentrate on the pitch and forget that there is a much greater game with higher stakes on a smaller ground, with far fewer spectators, as Louis Jodel Chamblain and Jackson Joanis are freed of the 1993 murder of Antoine Izmery in a trial that makes the MoBay Street People dumping probe look like justice of the highest order.
SPORTS NO LONGER PURE
Sports have long ceased to be pure expressions of noble intentions and hard work. Between corporate coverage and the women's 100m record being almost good enough for a men's quarter final Olympic spot, that dream died a long time ago. However, the cynical manipulation of this dream that many still hold to on the world stage still hurts. It is one thing to use the Olympics in weaponless war, via boycotts in 1980 and 1984. It is quite another to use sports as a band-aid on a mortar wound.
Jamaica has not been short of its own political kicking around of sports. In the aftermath of Jamaica qualifying for the 1998 World Cup (and I am taking odds that nobody over 30 who saw Jamaica in the World Cup finals will ever see it again), P.J. Patterson announced a public holiday. We should seek a repeat now that Veronica Campbell has won the women's 200 metres at the 2004 Olympics. After all, the law should not be a shackle to us, should it?
Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.
