Shame On You Jacques Rogge

The International Olympic Committee has released a review of the Beijing Games that gushes over how well China ran the games. It even says that China made great improvements in the areas of press freedom and the environment.

It completely ignores that there were major human rights violations during the Games themselves, with the government arresting anyone who tried to protest or even applied to demonstrate in one of the "protest areas" set up by officials. For the record, also ignored by the I.O.C., not one single person was given permission to demonstrate in those designated areas. Many who applied were instead sent off to reeducation camps, including two elderly women.

Even the claim of improvement in press freedom is a lie, with access to web sites blocked and many incidents of journalists being harassed by authorities.

The I.O.C. said that giving the Olympics to Beijing would improve human rights there and bring China into the mainstream.

It didn't.

But the I.O.C., taking a page from the George W. Bush playbook, just issues a report claiming that that's what happened, so no problem.

It is bad enough that the International Olympic Committee has turned the original spirit of the Olympic Games into a corporate whore full of bribery and corruption. Now they also capitulate to evil regimes like a 21st-century version of Vichy France.

I.O.C. president Jacques Rogge is an evil man, interested in his own power and prestige than the rights of his fellow human beings. While human rights violations were happening in the midst of the Beijing Games, the only thing he ever really spoke out on was to bitch about the way some kid was celebrating after races.

It's all about priorities, eh Jacques?

This was the final straw for me. I really used to like watching the Olympics, but I certainly won't ever again after this fiasco.