发信人: roy_young(金陵二胡)
整理人: roy_young(2001-07-14 17:14:13), 站内信件
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Grabbing the Gold
Beijing Wins the Vote to Host the 2008 Summer Olympics
July 13 — Beijing bested Paris, Toronto, Istanbul and Osaka today, winning the International Olympic Committee's vote to host the 2008 Olympics.
China, with its 1.3 billion citizens offers a huge local audience for the games, and the biggest consumer market in the world for sponsors. Beijing was long favored to win the election.
But China's abhorrent human rights record posed a significant threat to Beijing's bid. Commentary from around the world expressed fears that awarding Beijing the games would legitimize the more oppressive aspects of its rule.
But others said a Beijing Olympics would do more good than harm, by opening it wider to the free world, and encouraging further reform.
"Our bid is an expression of our desire to improve human rights," said Liu Jingmin, Beijing's vice mayor and member of China's Olympic Committee.
That was certainly the opinion of Taiwan's leaders, who believe the threat of a Western boycott of the Olympics will diminish the threat of war across the Taiwan Strait.
Hou Dejian, a Taiwanese singer and songwriter who participated in the 1990 Tiananmen pro-democracy demonstrations told Reuters, "It'll help liberalize the mainland and reduce animosity between the two sides."
Eight years ago, Beijing lost the 2000 Olympics to Sydney, Australia by only two votes.
One in, Four Out
Paris and Toronto were considered Beijing's two primary contenders for the 2008 games, but neither city's bid had nearly as much momentum as Beijing.
Toronto had touted its international character as a reason to host the 2008 Olympics, but its mayor made a well-publicized, racially insensitive gaffe just a month before the elections.
He remarked to a journalist that he feared attending an Olympic meeting in Kenya — because he had visions of "myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me."
Mayor Mel Lastman apologized for the remark shortly after the making it, and a number of African IOC members said they forgave him.
On the eve of the election, Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chretien apologized again — but apparently that wasn't enough.
Paris, on the other hand, had long touted its world-class backdrops and experience after successfully hosting the 1998 World Cup.
But with Athens as the site of a 2004 Olympics, members were reportedly discouraging about a consecutive Olympics based in Europe.
The IOC gave Osaka and Istanbul received a negative review in earlier in the spring, and they were not considered contenders.
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