As quoted from the official Olympics website: “Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, educational value, good example and respect fundamental ethical principals.”
One hundred years after staging its last Olympics, Paris hosts the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
That seems to have been proven to be the opposite of what has transpired at this years Olympic games.
Delegates, politicians and spectators will flood the French capital for more than a month of competition as athletes vie for gold and a place in Olympic history.
It’s also a fantastic time for small shops, sidewalk cafe’s and businesses in general to make a few dollars from the tourism of not just those that come to see the games, as stated above, but maybe a chance to have an Olympian come to eat at your restaurant, snapping a few photos, lots of “thanks you’s” and fond memories to hang on the restaurant wall.
That too deemed to be the opposite as most, if not all shops and restaurants were blocked off from any kind of easy access.
Who chooses the hosts for the Olympic Games? The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chooses the location of each Olympic Games.
It is the members of the IOC, meeting at their session, who choose the hosts. Electing hosts for the Olympic Games is one of the responsibilities of the session.
A host is elected by a majority of the votes cast by secret ballot. Each active member has one vote. An IOC member must refrain from voting if the election concerns a country where he or she is a national.
The honorary members, honor members and suspended members are not allowed to vote. If a majority is not achieved in the first round of voting, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and a further round or rounds of voting are held until a majority is obtained by one candidate.
International Olympic Committee Members can be seen and read about here: International Olympic Committee Members
It’s blatantly obvious to anyone/everyone around the world that the “committee” didn’t pay attention to anything past selecting where the games were to be held. It should be noted that if you decide to read any of the committee’s bio page’s, you’ll see that some of them are they themselves gold metal winners.
With that in mind, the wheels started turning while those with the knowledge and power to make decisions started planning on how to fatten their bank accounts while completely ignoring the basic principles of what the Olympics are about to start with.
Case-in-point is the hiring of Thomas Jolly to be the artistic director of the opening ceremonies.
Thomas Jolly, born February 1, 1982 in Rouen, France, is a French actor and artistic director of La Piccola Familia, a theater company that he founded in Rouen in 2006.
Jolly directed the national drama center Le Quai d’Angers from January 1, 2020 until November 2022. He resigned after being designated in September as the artistic director of the ceremonies for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
Jolly grew up near Rouen in Normandy, the son of a printer and a nurse. From a young age, he exhibited a penchant for the theatrical, often staging shows at home in La Rue-Saint-Pierre, a small village in Seine-Maritime.
Maybe while Thomas was growing up, he didn’t bother to understand in school that the very arrogance that he displayed/voiced in retaliation to the criticism that he received for his show was brought to him by 9,238 American’s (this could have been any country and the representation would be the same) that died for his freedom of expression, citing “I live in a free country and can do what I want.”
Thomas grew up in Normandy, where I’m sure a short trip to the cemetery would have enlightened him as to why he has his freedoms to start with.
His opening ceremonies stunt, was just that; a stunt.
While the outpouring of anger about his show came from the Christian community as a whole, there is one point that many have made; a simple point. What if he had chosen to offend the Muslim community. Or any other religious community.
It literally takes no brain cells to figure out what would have happened.
Thomas tried to defend himself be saying “I wanted to include everybody.”
The truth is, he wanted to arrogantly jam an ideology down everyone’s throat while creating mass separation of the very love that he proclaimed.
Thomas gained his claim to fame, but not for the right reason. We can only hope that he is sent to exile for a few years till he has a chance to figure out what the word “inclusion” actually means.