While I have naught but goodwill towards Toronto (Being half-Canadian by blood) I was referring to cities that had ALREADY hosted an event in the past, and thus might still have some of the support structure in place. I realize that obviously within a 12-18 month window of the games beginning, it's point-of-no-return for moving the competition, but the IOC must have seen China dragging its feet for YEARS even after winning the bid.

True, other countries/cities that had bid & lost might feel some disappointment at having China pulled and the games return to an already-chosen location, but given the shortened timeline & circumstances, I think any rancor would quickly pass in the spirit of the actual purpose of the games: Goodwill.

I agree with Olympic principles that the games should be exempt from political exploitation, but the very nature of the whole set-up is meant to express & inspire the best in humanity. We've fallen short on both sides, in my opinion, this summer.

Maybe six months ago that could have been an idea - and that's a big maybe. With almost two months to the day until it starts, it's too late under any circumstances to move the games, unless you are going to cancel them and hold them later.

As an aside, it's incredibly unlikely that the committee had any serious intention of holding China to any kind of human rights or open-ness standards. At the time, I don't recall any benchmarks that China would have to meet or contingency plans if they didn't. I do recall people thinking that having journalists in the country for the games would shed light on their actions and maybe create international pressure. And in that regard I think we've seriously underestimated the Chinese government.

Context.

Clearly that's the correct reading of events. As China has been restructuring their economy to be a beacon of capitalism, we are seeing a great flowering of democracy, huh?

I'm just absolutely disgusted that China has been awarded the Olympics, the supposed symbol of freedom and world peace in sports.

How their record of atrocities against the Tibetan people and indeed their own population can be overlooked by the powers at be is beyond me.

I've got a feeling that there's going to be some serious uprising in Beijing whilst the Olympics are on.

The world cannot stand silent and allow China's disgraceful record of human rights abuse to continue.

Wanna bet?

Thanks for mentioning that. I was about to point out that finding fault in the Chinese government for cracking down on opium smuggling because China has a history of opium use is the historical equivalent of finding fault in Sierra Leone for cracking down on human trafficking because they have a history of slavery. WTF?

I've got a feeling you've never been to Beijing.

You're welcome. I should be clear, though, that I think we have plenty of legitimate grounds for criticizing the current Chinese government. I just don't think that their opposition to opium is one of these legitimate criticisms.

Of course.

Well no i haven't been to Beijing. I imagine the police presence will be massively overwhelming during the olympics.

Yep, its a disgrace.

Also, Beijing is doing pretty well in a lot of ways these days. If there's going to be some 'serious uprising', I think it'll happen out in the country where people are seriously fucked.

Yep thats a good point.

I just have had a feeling all along that these olympics will not go smoothly at all. With all of the protests surrounding the torch relay, i dont think that that's the last we've seen of the protest actions.

+1