Mount Everest: Rarefied Politics

The climbing season on Mount Everest is well underway. Teams are at basecamp. Ropes are being fixed. Climbers are acclimatizing. But what's different this year is that the Olympics are being held in Beijing in just three months; and as part of the festivities, the Chinese Government wants the Olympic Torch to summit Mount Everest. According to Everest News, this has not yet happened, and it's becoming clear that the politics of the Beijing Olympic Games looks to add a new twist to the 2008 Climbing Season on Mount Everest.


Everest News reports that previously published accounts from a climber that the Chinese summited a couple of days ago and had trouble with the Olympic Torch has some Chinese quite mad. EverestNews.com did NOT carry those reports on its site and have seen NO evidence that the Chinese summited Everest this season yet. Their sources indicate that climbers were fixing rope high but that the summit was not reached and that the summit was not the goal. Their sources tell them that action might be taken against those climbers or against "many" of the climbers on the South side (Nepal) because of these reports. The effects could vary from outright bans of climbers to a "few more days of waiting at base camp" before they are allowed to go up. Climbers have been warned against reporting on the exploits of the Chinese Teams or the status of the Olympic Torch on Everest this year.

In official news, the Chinese report that the climbers have been selected and that all preparations have been completed. There are 50 climbers on the team. Han Chinese, ethnic Tibetans, and other ethnic groups such as ethnic Hui, Tu and Tujia are included in the team. However, the summit bids will probably be delayed. Weather is expected to turn worse for 2-3 days and while summits are possible, conditions are far from ideal.

Earlier, Chinese climbers along with Tibetan climbers had been on the move up Everest, carrying a whopping 16 torches with them! There was a reporter from Hong Kong with the team who got altitude sickness and had to descend. Additionally, Chinese fighter jets were flying above the Summit Saturday.... The North side of Everest is still the wild wild west....


As another day passes and the sun sets on Everest, what's clear is that this climbing season, in addition to all the other hazards inherent in an Everest Summit Attempt, is about politics. The only question remaining, and to be seen as the weather is forecast to clear on Tuesday, is will politics and a Torch Relay meant to symbolize the glory of sport end up in costing someone his or her life?

Thanks for reading.

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Olympic Architecture

Yesterday while hopping around on the Blog Promotion Widget EntreCard, I came across a blog post on David Jackson's Is A Man's World featuring the Water Cube, which is the building in Beijing built for all the swimming events in the upcoming Olympics.

For some time now, I've been fascinated with Olympic Architecture. It seems that in the last 20 years or so, cities hosting the Olympics have used the Olympic Games as an opportunity to revitalize their cities and in many ways turn them into worldclass venues. But the cities haven't been content to just build functional facilities. In the modern world, form matters just as much and the Water Cube and other buildings constructed for the Beijing Summer Games are indicative of that.

When it comes to the Olympics however, there is no structure more iconic than the Olympic Torch, and I believe the following examples illustrate how host countries are pulling out all the stops to out-do each other every two years.

Albertville Games, 1992


Atlanta Games, 1996


Nagano Games, 1998


Salt Lake City Games, 2002


Athens Games, 2004


Turin Games, 2006

This blog will look at more Olympic Architecture and delve into some of its history as the year moves on leading up to the Beijing Games in August.

Thanks for reading.

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The Politicization of the Beijing Olympics

Olympic Torch Relay May Be Canceled

The Great Triumph of any Olympic Games is that the Olympics have always transcended politics. For a brief period, the world can watch the best athletes that have ever lived compete for the glory of sport. For those of us who watch, we can be captivated and spellbound with the grace and beauty and feats of strength and speed that the human being is capable of.

But every once in a while, the ugly specter of politics tries to usurp the peaceful respite the Olympic Games offer by using them as a stage to promote or to protesta political issue, usually associated with the host country, but not always. This year, the issue is Human Rights Violations in China.

The Chinese, to their credit have been working extremely hard to present themselves and their country in the best possible way to the world for the upcoming Olympic Games. Unfortunately, you can't change a dragon overnight. But to be fair, the Chinese have made great leaps and bounds since the 1950s, and drastic change does not happen overnight. Barack Obama's recent speech concerning race relations in the United States demonstrates that even we still have a long way to go. Slavery ended in 1865, but clearly, racial divides still exist in the United States. So in many ways, our protests around the world sting with a touch of hypocrisy as we struggle to put our own house in order.

That being said, security concerns for the Olympic torch's only North American stop were high Tuesday after its visit to Paris descended into chaos and activists here scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to protest China's human rights record.

Demonstrators hung banners today from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to protest China's crackdown on Tibet.

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the committee would consider ending the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay because of such anti-Chinese protests.

Rogge told The Associated Press he was "deeply saddened" by violent protests in London and Paris and concerned about the upcoming torch relay in San Francisco, where activists expressed fears Monday that the torch's planned route through Tibet would lead to arrests and violent measures by Chinese officials trying to stifle dissent.

It's sad that the Olympics, which in principle, stand for the best of humanity can be used in such a way to show the worst of humanity. Rather than a shining example of what we should aspire to--the coming together of all peoples and nations and ethniciities to celebrate the glory of sport and international harmony, the games are used all too often to by interest groups in other countries to protest what they don't like about the way other countries have chosen to govern.

I say the Olympics are not an appropriate stage for protest. I say, protesters needs to focus on their own countries and make sure their own houses are in order. I say the Olympic Movement represents the best of humanity; and what I would like to see is the Olympians taking a stand against the protesters. If indeed the Olympics truly represent the best of humanity, and I believe they do, then I feel it is incumbent on all Olympians to become ambassadors for peace for tolerance. And if human rights abuses exist in China, or anti-Semitism exists in the middle east, or apartheid exists in South Africa, or hunger exists in Ethiopia--let the Olympians be the ambassadors and use their high profile status in their own countries and around the world as agents for change within their own systems of government.

It would be so much more powerful and productive if the world's champions and role models were involved in global statesmanship the way Al Gore has become involved in Global Warming. If our Olympians advocated for issues and causes only 1/10th as loudly as the protesters, our world would be a much better place.

Thanks for reading.

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