Thoughts on the Paris Olympics 27/07/2024
I was watching the opening ceremony yesterday, and while I thought that, well, they were going down the Seine by boat, so they had to have a ceremony on the riverbank, I still felt something was missing.
Yesterday I wrote that maybe the Olympics could be stopped. Seeing the athletes from each country on the sightseeing boats all waving their national flags and celebrating, I felt that it was really nice to be able to participate in the Olympics. Yesterday, I wrote that the authority and dignity of the Olympics has already fallen to the ground. The expenses are only increasing, and preventing terrorism requires huge human and material costs, and I wrote that maybe it's time to stop.
At the same time, I also wrote that I praised the power of the IOC. I don't know how many countries and regions participated, but the IOC decides who can participate. This includes countries and regions in conflict and those in the midst of war. Yesterday, I wrote that I appreciated the IOC's organizational power and leadership, and that its organizational power and control over countries far surpasses that of the United Nations.
My thinking stopped there. I should have gone deeper. If the IOC has power far surpassing the United Nations, and if the UN is powerless to resolve conflicts, I thought that the IOC should consider whether it is okay to use its political power.
In short, it is a declaration that countries involved in wars will not be allowed to participate. With this statement, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, and others will lose their eligibility to participate.
The IOC has declared that it will not bring political judgment into Olympic participation, but if a peaceful sports festival is held, I think it is possible to expect some conflicts to be resolved early, simply because countries involved in wars and countries in civil wars will not be eligible to participate.
There is no logic to holding a sports festival without being involved in the continuation of the war. It is fine to exclude countries involved in conflicts. If you want to participate, come after peace has been established. They could say that they want to come only after they have resolved their conflicts.
They may consider themselves noble in being free from political power, but there are far too many regions where the slaughter of war and civil war continues on a daily basis. Which is more important: holding a sports festival or achieving peace? At a time when the UN is currently unable to fully fulfill its functions, if Japan has more control over each country than the UN and has absolute power over the decisions of participating countries, surely it is ok to use that power politically? I doubt the other participating countries would object. In a spirit of love of sport, I think they would say that if you want to participate, you want to come only after you have achieved peace.
Photo from WWD JAPAN
