And the Winner is .................

Syd-eney ... Ooops, I'm a few years late. Actually Sydney is still the winner, no matter how much China tries to claim that these will be the best games ever, they have lost the moral right to such a claim due to the fact they are not a free society and they encourage tyranny not only within their own borders but without too.

There are only a few nations that can rival the hypocrisy that is the "government" of China, and of course one of those is the current administration that has occupied the White House for the past eight years.

But I will not be watching the opening ceremony tonight, nor any of the actual games coverage if I can help it. Not whilst free speech is stifled and censored, not whilst people are being controlled and repressed in Tibet, not whilst people are dying by the hundreds of thousands in Darfur whilst the Chinese government props up and supports the government in Sudan, which is in turn aiding the genocide.

Sure, we can say "well lets forget the politics and just enjoy the sport" but sometimes it is through sport that politics can be influenced. China has reneged on many promises for these games already, and not only that but choosing to hold them in a city which is already suffering from bad pollution and lack of water supply.

Much is touted about the successful economic prosperity of China in recent years, but at what cost? Does anyone remember what happened in 1989? Probably not many modern Chinese as the events of Tienanmen Square have been "excised" from the official history books in China, and we will never know exactly how many people were killed.

I remember though, as it happened when I was 17 and studying "Power and Political People" in my final year at high school. I remember the lone man who stood in front of a column of tanks and for many minutes halted the Red Army in its tracks.

On this night when everyone else is "celebrating" what of those who died all those years ago? I am sure their relatives are not celebrating.