Missed the Olympics - Again Part 2

I was talking to a friend the other day about the Olympics and the fact that I found it more than a little absurd that the world could spend up to 50 billion dollars on a two week celebration of elite sports while each day hundreds of people were dying in Syria. The person I was chatting to suggested that I was comparing apples to oranges, that there was really very little correlation between how much a country spends on sports as compared to whether or not they contribute to world peace or try to do something to stop people from starving.

I disagree. I think there is a direct link between how much money we spend on assisting those countries who are less able to function well and how much we spend within our country to support what some refer to as our cultural activities.  Clearly a country that can (or its individual citizens can) devote resources to supporting its elite athletes will have less money to devote to its international humanitarian aid . Living in a intergenerational era where reduced taxes are the ideal - there is clearly not enough money to do either well.  I think the question that needs to be addressed is what are our priorities?

 

The argument that is sometimes made (as it certainly was by a number of my students in some of the classes I taught at college) is that we as a country do not have enough money to do everything; that we should focus helping people inside Canada; that people from other parts of the world cannot and should not be our priority.  This argument might have a slight tinge of truth if there was any sign of any political will to deal with the issues of poverty, inequity of education and opportunity or the myriad of other issues that prevents Canadians from achieving their potential. But there are few indications that any political party that is, or has realistic dreams of becoming the ruling party will focus on solving those problems. Instead we accept promises of someone doing something in the future in exchange for promises to make our lives better in the short term.

While I hope I will always be uncomfortable in a world that puts personal satisfaction and comfort ahead of assisting  others, I would find it a bit more tolerable if  people would just be honest. If people could stop pretending that they gave a damn about the children and their families in sub-Saharan Africa or in parts of Central or South America or in the mindless ( and mind boggling)  chaos of the Middle East; if we could just admit that ensuring that the services we deemed to be necessary (like cheap cable and cell phone/internet rates) are the appropriate priorities of the government; that what we really want are more service for us and people like us (and that others pay higher taxes); if we could just admit that we are basically just selfish - it is not that I would be happy, but at least I would understand.

It is the hypocritical responses that drive me to toss and turn each night, of having endless arguments with myself about what needs to be said or done.  It is our seemingly endless capacity to lie to ourselves, to pretend that we are doing all that we can while doing as little as possible that sometimes paralyses  my thoughts.

Supporting elite athletes and eradicating hunger both within Canada and the rest of the world may not be mutually exclusive goals.  But they always will appear so unless we are honest with ourselves and each other.

Missed the Olympics - Again

The Olympics are over and I didn't see a single minute of the action. I do not think that I am the only Canadian who missed the whole two week celebration of  winter sports. In fact, I wonder if we could divide Canadians into three basic groups: One group is comprised of individuals who will watch the Olympics with some devotion - cancelling other activities so that they don't miss a single game or performance. The second group will watch parts of the Olympics - perhaps the finals in hockey, curling any sport where a Canadian has a chance of getting a medal or by accident if they are in a sports bar. The third group is comprised of those Canadians who do not watch the Olympics and in fact studiously avoid any mention of them. While like all crude groupings, there are numerous variations and qualifications to belonging to an individual group, let me be clear - I clearly chose to belong to the third category.

I could excuse my lack of any patriotic fever or even athletic interest in the Olympics due to the fact that I have neither cable or a satellite dish, but that would be disingenuous.  I do have internet. I could have turned on the computer and watched the full CBC coverage on my computer monitor. I could have gone to a friend's house or to a sports bar. I chose not to because  I had a list of things to do - all of which were more important to me than watching someone I do not know  glide on ice or fly down some slippery slope. It is not that I do not respect and sometimes even admire those athletes who devote a decade or two to perfecting their skills to the point that they can compete internationally. I admire their dedication and commitment to a single activity, I admire the countless hundreds and hundreds of hours that they (and their parents) have spent on ski slopes or in cold arenas honing their skills. For so many of those athletes, they know that all of their work will not make them rich (hockey players and perhaps figure skaters excepted), they compete for the sheer joy of it. Or at least I assume that is why they work so hard  as I have never excelled at any of the winter (or summer for that matter) sports.

For some viewers I understand that it is exciting to cheer on a team that they have some real or imagined affection or allegiance to. I understand that it is possible to cheer on someone that the viewer does not know, will never meet but comes from the same country. I understand that it could be frustrating to see other countries accumulate medals in specific sports that some Canadians think we should automatically or at least easily win (thus the bi-yearly editorials expressing angst at the lack of public funding for elite athletes) but I cannot understand being consumed by the whole show - to that we are oblivious to all else that is going on around us.

For the individuals who were competing  in South Korea and got to march in either the opening or closing ceremonies - well done. For most of them it may be the high point of their lives. They worked hard, sacrificed a great deal and they should feel good about themselves.

 For the 500 hundred, including 120 children (Independent)  who were killed this week in Eastern Gouta, a suburb of the Damascus, Syria  because of air strikes, saying I am sorry seems to be just not enough.  In a world where on one hand we can spend  billions and billions of dollars celebrating sport  (Forbes estimates total cost of 50 billion was spent on the 2018 Olympics) but on the other hand we cannot figure out how to protect blameless victims of war perpetuated by outside forces - I am not at all sure that any of us should feel pride in our countries.