A Thought on Sochi

I have never cared for the winter Olympics.

As a kid, I liked some of the summer Olympics' games, especially field and track where the US and the USSR competed in events I could understand and to which I could relate. I, however, soured on those Olympics, too, after seeing the limp reaction of the "world community" to the slaughter of Israeli athletes at the Munich games.

In sum, do away with the whole thing and I would not care. The Olympics remind me of the UN: full of anti-US and anti-Israeli sentiments and maneuvers, e.g., removing baseball, not dealing with Muslim countries anti-Israeli behavior at the games, biased judging by allegedly impartial judges, etc., at the same time that the US media market keeps the things alive. They are full of government intervention, which ensures cost overruns, corruption, cheap politics, and hypocrisy. I could never understand the desire to play host to the monster. When the games came to Los Angeles in 1984, we made sure to be on leave in Morocco.

Be gone!

So after years of campaigning and palm greasing, the 2014 winter games were awarded Russia and based in Sochi. I never have been to Sochi either under Soviet or Russian rule. I don't know for a fact if it's a genuine winter wonderland or a third-world socialist idea of one--I, of course, have my suspicions about which. Anyhow, the Russians apparently spent tons of petrodollars getting Sochi ready for the games, including hiring stray dog killers which gives some indication of the type of "wonderland." The web and other media are full of stories--Google them, I won't link to them--about how disastrous those preparations have proven. The journalists, having a blast, ridicule the Russians for lousy hotel rooms, bad water, a pillow shortage, erratic electricity, crappy food, lack of internet and phones, and all the other usual stuff that Western journalists go on and on about.

Is it true?

The press lies about so much that it proves difficult to tell. I, nevertheless, am sure that since the USSR morphed into Russia, et al, we have not seen an overnight burst of efficiency. I can believe that, and that corruption probably ate a lot of the money laid out for the games and the accommodations. I am taken aback, however, by the savagery with which the journos have attacked. It makes me wonder, and I am just speculating, if there is not an element of payback for the Russians being so politically incorrect. Putin--and I am no fan of his--has been quite open about his antipathy towards Muslim jihadis and gays. That seems an unforgivable "crime" in the eyes of the NY Times, the BBC, the wire services, etc.

This also ties in with another phenomenon I have noticed in the past 15-20 years. Russians and East Europeans, especially Serbs, comprise the last big group (along with Mormons) one can insult openly in movies and on TV. Slavs inevitably get cast as prostitutes, drug dealers, human traffickers, nuclear weapon smugglers, sadists, torturers, and murderers. When Hollywood needs a terrorist, it is likely a Russian or a Serb--you know, just like the ones who flew the planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. They are white, Christian (and Jewish), and anti-Communist (wonder why?) so, of course, they are despicable human beings. When Communism held sway, I don't recall seeing so many Russians portrayed as villains.

In closing, let me just note that the town in California where I sit much of the time, has lots of Russian immigrants. Maybe I just meet a select group, but the ones I have met are polite, kind, hard-working, well-educated, family-oriented, religious, knowledgable about the world, and--horrors!--very much enamored of the USA and worried about its future. We mustn't have those sorts around, now must we?

Maybe I am out to lunch, and still not fully recovered, but, that's how I see it.