I’ll admit, the IOC just plain bothers me, and inevitably anything I read about it, I juxtapose it with its decision to remove baseball from the summer games. In fact, even during the recent winter games the removal of baseball crossed my mind a few times. Like when that Georgian died while he was riding that pie plate on top of knives. And then when Nickelback took the stage at the closing festival.
But this sure caught my eye today:
IOC says it aided N. Korean Olympic athletes US$115,000
Yeah, I know the Olympics are supposed to be in the spirit of competition, for the love of the game one might say. I’m sure the five North Korean athletes that were given (according to the story) $1,500 each month since 2008 worked hard and competed in good spirit.
Then again, think about how much of that money went straight to the North Korean government, or toward something like a gold plated hand gun. And how much of it didn’t go to people starving in North Korea?
It’s still a drop in bucket compared to, say, the 400 million Hyundai handed North Korea in 2000, or what U.S. taxpayers likely ponied up for last year in getting Laura Ling and Euna Lee freed.
But it still stinks.
11 responses so far ↓
1 Chady // Mar 9, 2010 at 12:29 am
It may have more to do with me being an obnoxious American than anything else, but I absolutely hate the IOC. I can’t think of a more incompetent governing body in all the world of sports.
2 Patrick // Mar 9, 2010 at 1:18 am
Anyone have pics of the North Korean Mercedes?
3 DJ // Mar 9, 2010 at 3:44 am
I second (or, I guess, third) the contempt expressed here for the IOC. For me, it’s representative of every powerful supernational entity: Corrupt, elitist, arrogant, hypocrtical, and transparently self-interested. It’s so, I dunno, EUROPEAN. The way it coddles despicable tyrants and dictators is beyond reproach. But, sadly (and sickeningly), never surprising.
4 simon // Mar 9, 2010 at 10:21 am
FIFA and IOC would be pretty neck and neck I’d reckon.
5 Shinsano // Mar 9, 2010 at 11:04 am
Is FIFA that bad? I didn’t realize that.
6 baekgom84 // Mar 9, 2010 at 2:22 pm
As much as I hate FIFA, I still think the IOC is worse. The politics that goes on within the IOC seems to be even murkier than within FIFA (no small feat), and their crackdown on ‘intellectual property rights’ fills me with enough rage to power a thousand suns.
7 Gus Lonzo // Mar 9, 2010 at 7:37 pm
It does stink. Almost as bad as when America ships relief there in the form of sacks of grain, and then the people are told that this is the “tribute” exacted from the “Evil Empire” by their “Dear Leader.”
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FIFA and IOC would be pretty neck and neck I’d reckon.
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