Beijing Olympics: Five things to know

 Covid bubbles, artificial snow and human rights are making Beijing's Winter Olympics hit the headlines.

Here's what you need to know about the Games, which start on Friday 4 February.

Beijing Winter Olympics: A disaster for the environment?

 

Hundreds of snow machines have been at work since mid-November in what was previously the heart of a nature reserve. Creating slopes for the Beijing Winter Olympics requires huge amounts of energy and water, pumped in from faraway lakes.

Beijing seals off Olympic 'bubble' ahead of Winter Games

Beijing is preparing to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, but the games will look different this time.

China is continuing a zero-Covid strategy, as international teams prepare to head to China from corners of the world swamped by Omicron.

The Chinese authorities hope to manage this by keeping the media, athletes and observers in huge separate isolation bubbles which incorporate not only housing and event locations but also transport links.

BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell reports from the mountains outside Beijing where access to the Olympic region has now been sealed off.

The mountains with fake snow.  And a country with an aberrant human rights record which matters not to the IOC. It's all about the money.  

Beijing Olympics: China's human rights record takes center stage

 

When Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared after accusing a high ranking communist official of sexual assault, the international outrage threw the Beijing Winter Games into upheaval. On Dec. 6, the White House announced that no U.S. government officials, including President Biden, will attend

Peng Shuai backlash leaves IOC facing familiar criticism over human rights

 The IOC isn't concerned with human rights or the health and welfare of a hosting nations citizens.  When the Summer Olympics were awarded to Beijing for 2008 the IOC assured the world that the CCP would adhere to human rights norms they didn't.  Any citizen that complained was jailed, whole neighbours were destroyed and business were forced to shut in the name of improving the IOC profits.  The Rio and Sochi Olympics were just corruption run a muck.  And then, came the pandemic of 2020 and postponement of the Tokyo Olympics.   As the IOC's only interest is the continuation of its profit streams the Japanese government at the height of that nations coronavirus epidemic and with the complete lack of support from the citizens couldn't cancel the games.  As the signed contract only allowed the IOC to do that.  With revenue on the line the IOC was never going cancel the games.    

With the Beijing Winter Games in peril the IOC decided that playing the useful propaganda idiot for the Chinese government was the best way of the impending disaster they found themselves in. 

Analysis: Olympic committee is accused of engaging in a ‘publicity stunt’ by taking part in video call

As human rights organisations and the world’s media questioned the whereabouts of the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai, the International Olympic Committee opted for a “quiet diplomacy” approach, arguing that was the most effective way to deal with such a case.

“Experience shows that quiet diplomacy offers the best opportunity to find a solution for questions of such nature. This explains why the IOC will not comment any further at this stage,” the Lausanne-based organisation said in an emailed statement on Thursday about the case of Peng, who disappeared from public view after she made an accusation of sexual assault against a former senior Chinese official.

Yet the IOC’s approach to the Peng saga, which resulted in a half-hour-long video call between its president, Thomas Bach, and the player on Sunday, appeared to have failed to ease concerns. Instead, the committee was accused by rights activists of engaging in a “publicity stunt” for Beijing.

The Big Question About The Tokyo Olympics: Why Do The Japanese Have To Foot the Bill?

 As with any event associated with the Olympics or FIFA the citizens of the host city and country are stuck paying the full cost while the those two corrupt organizations flee the local with all the profits. 

Tokyo is just the latest in a long line of cities to get screwed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Just think, next years Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing. The only city to bid for the privilege of being screwed over by the IOC.   What is the total bill for Tokyo? Estimates start at 15 billion dollars.  The actual costs will probably never be known. 

The three parties obliged to foot the tab for both events held a year behind schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic are the Tokyo metropolitan government, the central government and the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic organizing committee.

The share for the Tokyo metropolitan government is 717 billion yen, the figure for the central government is 221 billion yen and that for the organizing committee is 706 billion yen.

Fifty-seven percent of the sum, 938 billion yen, will be covered by taxpayer money.

As usual the Tokyo Olympics ended up losing money.  One of the reasons for this is that the host cities are ineligible to receive any revenue from sales at stadiums,   sponsorship deals, television rights or any other revenue stream controlled though the IOC.    

Tokyo bans all spectators from Olympic Games

The Olympic Games in Tokyo will be held with no spectators, organizers announced on Thursday, after Japan's Prime Minister called a state of emergency in the capital.

Why are the Olympics going ahead? - BBC News

 The Tokyo Olympics start in late July, despite a surge of Covid cases in Japan

Ros Atkins looks at why the Games are still going ahead, despite polls in Japan suggesting public opinion is against them happening now

Japan's capital Tokyo gearing up to host Olympic Games

 

Gearing up for a coronavirus super spreader even all so the IOC can make a profit. 

Up to 10,000 Japanese fans at Tokyo 2020 events

 Up to 10,000 Japanese fans will be permitted at Tokyo 2020 Olympic venues, despite warnings from health bosses.

Overseas spectators are already banned but organisers said domestic fans could attend providing crowds did not exceed 50% of a venue's capacity.

The IOC is determined to make as much money as possible even that means a rise in infections and deaths from the coronavirus.

Japan argues over looming Olympics as Covid emergency extended

 

With just weeks until the Summer Olympics are due to begin in Tokyo, debate is raging in Japan over whether they should go ahead.

Anti-Olympic petition gains over 175,000 signatures

 Two things to remember: One the IOC's only interest is making money and not really about sport and the Japanese government isn't about the cancel the games because the public feels dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is more important. No, the government of Yoshihide Suga is not only all in, they don't want to lose face by canceling the Olympic Games. 

An online petition calling for the Tokyo Olympics to be canceled has gained more than 175,000 signatures since being launched in Japan only days ago.

The rollout of the petition comes with Tokyo, Osaka and several other areas under a state of emergency with coronavirus infections rising - particularly new variants. The state of emergency is to expire on May 11, but some reports in Japan say it is likely to be extended.

The postponed Olympics are to open in just under three months on July 23.

The petition is addressed to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, who has tentative plans to visit Japan later this month. He is expected to meet the Olympic torch relay on May 17 in Hiroshima, and perhaps also travel to Tokyo where small anti-Olympic are protests being planned.

Japan, IOC agree to postpone Tokyo Olympics for one year

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach agreed Tuesday to postpone this summer's Tokyo Olympics for one year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese leader said.

After speaking with Bach on the phone, Abe told reporters that they will aim to hold the Olympics and Paralympics next year in summer at the latest.

It is the first time ever that the quadrennial sporting event has been postponed.

The IOC will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss the postponement of the Tokyo Games, Abe said.

The Sochi WInter Olympics Were A Sacam And The 2022 Games? Beijing Or Almaty Kazakhstan

Revelations that the Winter Olympics held in Sochi Russia were nothing more than a scam are not surprising given the ridiculous amenities and facilities required by the International Olympic Committee  and that Vladimir Putin used his connections to some of Russia's wealthiest individuals  to   fund his pet projects.   Now its been learned that those same  oligarchs  are saddling the Russian tax payers with their debt while still reaping the financial rewards.

 

Today, almost exactly a year after the opening ceremonies, AP dropped a big story on the Games's finances. You'll be shocked to learn that, with oil prices dropping and Russia facing a financial crisis, the plan has fallen apart and the Russian people will end up biggest losers, ultimately paying for the entire thing with their tax money.

The saga over the ski jump and the Russian bank that paid for it is especially illustrative:

Sberbank, which is Russia's largest bank and is run by close Putin ally German Gref, stepped in to buy the ski jump and ski resort at the government's request. It took out a $1.7 billion loan to fund more than 70 percent of the infrastructure project. Today, the project loses money and the bank remains saddled with the massive debt.

For Sberbank, the solution has been to obtain Kremlin authorization to swap its Olympic project, which cost nearly $2.7 billion at the time, for the Sochi Games' media center, which was owned by the regional government. Ilya Dzhus, a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, confirmed the deal to the AP.

It's not clear how much the media center — similar to a large convention complex — would fetch if sold on the market. But the key to the deal is that by giving the ski jump, which is still used by the Russian national team, and the ski resort to the regional government, Sberbank is washing its hands of the $1.7 billion loan. Sberbank, which has the state as its majority stakeholder, did not respond to numerous calls and emails seeking comment.

Given the corruption of the International Olympic movement is it any wonder that the only two countries bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games are China and Kazakhstan both of which are governed by repressive authoritarian governments.

One thing the Games are unlikely to do, said Peh, is improve the human rights situation, as many had hoped the 2008 Summer Games would do.

"The story of China after the 2008 Games has been one of tightening controls" on dissidents and freedom of expression, he said. "And looking at Xi in the last two years, he is not veering off this track."

Not that Kazakhstan, which has been run by President Nursultan Nazarbayev since independence in 1991, is much better an alternative in this regard. Human Rights Watch, in its 2014 global report, said the country's "poor human rights record continued to deteriorate in 2013, with authorities cracking down on free speech and dissent through misuse of overly broad laws" and maintaining "strict controls on freedom of assembly and religion."

Which Countries Hope To Host The 2022 Winter Olympic Games? Dictatorships

As the games have become more expensive fewer countries are stepping up to host the games. Why? Having to build facilities which will be used once under enormous cost placed upon them by the IOC why bid on a future white elephant?

The Olympic movement faces a new reality change or see the games disappear because corruption of the bidding and building processes have become untenable.  But there's always the fall back position pick countries run by dictators I'm sure nothing will go wrong.   

The effect is the bidding for the 2022 Winter Games, which is now down to just two cities. The final vote comes next summer.

There's Beijing, China, which doesn't actually sit within 120 miles of a usable ski mountain, and there's Almaty, Kazakhstan, which in its bid touted itself as "the world's largest landlocked nation."

It's down to these two cities not because the IOC narrowed the field, but because every other city in the entire world said no.

Seriously, every other city said no.

That even includes cities that previously said yes and made it deep into the bidding process only to stare directly into the corrupt, humiliating voting system, not to mention eventual unnecessary construction costs, environmental effects, blown resources and white elephants built to opulent IOC code. They promptly high-tailed it the other way.