Because You Never Asked

     (This essay, written in the early 90’s, should be read in conjunction with the one that precedes it, “Chinese Olympics”.)

     If we lived in a “Christ-like” world totally devoid of hypocrisy, and the American position on China’s moral fitness to host the Olympics were accepted, there would not be a nation on Earth qualified to do so. Is there a country anywhere without a few (a lot?) Watergate tapes to destroy? I doubt it.

     Let’s examine a few of the countries that have hosted The Games in the past, countries that could pass before the Martha Stewart-like scrutiny of our national conscience and be considered entities with the taste and dignity necessary to host our magnificent athletes (considering the jail time served by Martha since this essay was written, her use as a metaphor seems even more appropriate).

     Let’s start with Mexico, Olympic hosts in 1968. The party that has ruled Mexican politics for more than six decades is known as the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, or PRI (pronounced pree). Mexico is a country that has elections and political parties and Deputies and Senators and all that kind of stuff deemed necessary by the gringos for non-leper status in the world. The only problem is that the PRI, with some face saving, choreographed exceptions, wins almost every election at all levels of power. If you think this is an accurate reflection of the PRI’s competence and popularity in Mexico, you probably believe storks deliver babies and Santa Claus only works one day a year. It is more rational to assume these results are the product of coercive activities Martha Stewart would frown upon, like bribery, thuggery, blackmail, and even due processless incarceration or even murder (or how about illegal insider trading, ha, ha, I couldn’t resist). Although there seems to have been some recent liberalization in Mexico’s political affairs, such developments are most likely just a strategic, temporary retreat by the powers to be, and not any true reform.

     If anyone can explain to me why Mexico (which is a country I know well and have true affection for) is more morally suited than China to do anything, I’d like to know why.

     In 1960 the Olympic Games were held in Rome, Italy. With the exception of J. Edgar Hoover, everyone is aware of an organization known as the Mafia, an entity that has helped Robert DiNiro and Al Pacino earn a handsome living. The Mafia has a way of doing business that really isn’t less honorable than the Exxon kind of business. But their disputes are resolved in a somewhat more direct fashion, bypassing such things as stock options, corporate buyouts, mergers and such, as well as the omnipotent clout  these corporate giants wield over the political system, things such underworld operations were generally not privy to as they built their own business empires. They’d rather “whack” someone than fight it out with lawyers.

     All cultures have underworlds of one sort or another, sifting and filtering through the mainstream façade of legitimacy with which a culture presents itself officially. But in no other place is the confusion of the underworld and legitimacy so smoothly blended and camouflaged than in the Latin world of the Mediterranean and their colonial offspring in the New World. Anyone familiar with these cultures can attest to the fact that “Mafioso” is a term which comfortably applies, indiscriminately, to the political-judicial-financial spheres of these places.

     Being that there are people who unsuccessfully devote their whole professional lives trying to prove such assertions, it is not for me to offer concrete, incontrovertible proof of such things. By now (with the help of the Pacino-DeNiros of the world), the Mafia’s ironic mix of the obvious and the clandestine has given it an almost romantic quality. Everyone knows who these people are and what they do, but how they do it is masterfully shrouded in varying layers of confusion (which is not much different from the legitimate corporate world. See essay, “The Real World Order Revisited”) . Trying to put it all into focus has still left a lot of fuzz on the screen.

     Notwithstanding the nebulous qualities of their operations, I’m not uncomfortable when I say there is no segment of Italian society, at the highest levels, where there is not “underworld” influence, and I did not need the recent, scandal plagued falls of such heads of state as Craxxi and Berlusconi to make such a comment. If the Olympic Games are held in Italy, the Mafia has a piece of it.      

     The next country to fall under scrutiny here might surprise you, for its official image is the opposite of what we’ve just discussed. Most people would think of it as the Shirley Temple of nation-states, so cute and wholesome in every way.

     Switzerland, I do believe, has hosted the Winter Games.

     Thoughts of Switzerland conjure up visions of hard working, prosperous people, happily skiing, hiking and yodeling their lives away amidst the oom-pah-pah of their pristine Alpine splendor. There’s wonderful chocolate, tasty cheese, and perfectly crafted time pieces. There’s little crime, poverty, and no war. Most of all, there is no dirt! Finding litter in Switzerland is something like trying to find a blond Chinaman.

     As that famous Zen master Andre Agassi has said, “image is everything”. In Switzerland’s case, this is the ultimate truism. Switzerland is not really Shirley Temple disguised as a country. Switzerland owes its privileged position in the world to its most important pursuit: banking. Switzerland is the world’s foremost refuge for illegally earned money. The strictly anonymous banking that Switzerland’s good fortune rests upon, makes it possible for such respected institutions as the Medellin cartel to function and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Swiss banks have a long tradition making it possible for embezzling, tyrannical, third world dictators to live out their years of forced retirement in comfortable repose on the Costa del Sol. Admittedly, I’m no expert in banking practices and cannot specifically enumerate and explain the subterfuges of this misty world of mega-finance. But that does not keep me from accusing the Swiss of being important allies to some of the most dastardly criminal elements of this planet. I’ll give better than even money on that.

     The next time you find yourself thinking about the “war on drugs” and all the time, energy, money, grief and sorrow it is causing our society, think of that proper Swiss burgher in his three piece suit, smiling his way in a cloud of expensive after shave to and from the bank every day. Then ask the United States government why The Games belong in Switzerland more than in China.

     But seriously folks --- Mexico? Italy? Switzerland? Minor Leaguers really. The United States, Germany, Japan, France, England, Russia --- they’ve all hosted The Olympics. These guys are the true professionals of colonial-imperial atrocity. Big Leaguers.