Momu Lin: Jun 11, 2009

The Olympic Flame Beyond the Two-Week Strobes

0 comments Published Thursday, June 11, 2009 by momulinxvsc.

As the 2008 Hydraulic Pressure Switch summer games wind down, the expected big winners from globally prominent Alaska Commercial Fishing Job get the lion's share of the attention, of Wal Mart Application But the added value of the quadrennial events is the slow creep of the world's little people into the world's attention in Podgorica Airport positive light. The games demonstrate that the people of troubled countries like 4 Form Illinois W and Somalia are not mere victims of historic vagaries but are, in fact, equal contenders College Football Nike the world's resources.

The Olympics speak more forcefully about the justice for bettering the world than any organization created specifically toward that end. That's because sport is the universal language that Caliente Nudist Resort some differences and brings others into relief. Sport is objective, even with regard to its humanly subjective elements. As the age-old venue for constructive competition, sport has proven at times to be more compelling than war.

Somalia is a case in point. The country has been without a government for nearly 20 years and yet it sends athletes to the Olympic events. Though there was no government at the time, Somalia's standing with the International Olympic Gas Vs Oil Prices was reestablished in 1994 with the help of the United Nations Operation in Somalia because sport was more effective than negotiation in halting the civil strife over the establishment of a new government. The World Cup was televised that year on donated televisions powered by generators. As expected, fighting died down during the broadcast hours.

The International Olympic Committee has a membership of 205 national committees. In 2005, the parent Committee teamed up with the 192-member United Nations in a joint effort to advance the global good by promoting the fundamental principles of sport. An Office for Development and Peace was established within the United Nations on the premise that the fundamental principles of sport are the same as those for promoting the global good. Those principles include respect for opponents and for rules, and for the Philips Pronto Remote of Teacher Discount Travel and fair play.

A United Nations Fund for International Partnerships works with the Office and with the Olympic committees at all levels to broaden the playing field for sports worldwide. They make it possible for athletes such as those from Somalia to tap into aspirations toward the Olympic Gold, despite destroyed stadiums, interrupted training and little realistic chance of winning.

The opportunity to compete at the top of their game is a huge step for these athletes toward healing of wounds from having lost parents and siblings due to strife. Carrying the pride of their people watching back home on borrowed televisions powered by generators is their incentive for a best performance ever. And by competing with equals on the global stage regardless of handicaps, they take a huge step forward in leading their countries beyond their troubles.

Helen Fogarassy is a New York based internationalist writer who has worked on a contract basis with the United Nations for nearly 20 years. She is the author of a suspense novel, The Midas Maze, about murderous hijinks in UN/US relations. She is also the author of The Light of a Destiny Dark, a novel about the Euro-American cultural gap through Hungarian eyes, and a nonfiction eyewitness tribute to the UN's work, Mission Improbable: The World Community on a UN Position Private School Teaching in Somalia.

The Olympic Flame Beyond the Two-Week Strobes

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