A newspaper article in tomorrow’s Sydney Morning Herald (that is correct – the article’s date is 23/08/00), considers the side-show atmosphere of the Torch Relay around Australia. Its main gripe is the tight control the SOCOG (Sydney Olympic Committee something or other) has clamped down on the epic event. At each stop along the road, there’s been celebrations, the biggest of the day being held wherever the torch is tucked in for the night.
I always thought the relay was a simple
occasion – at least, I did until I witnessed part of the torch relay for the
Atlanta Olympics for myself. The once-modest number of
vehicles that accompanied that torch has swollen to over 50 in the current
relay.
Looking at all the hoop-de-do that
accompanies the flame, snaking its way through Australia, it can be hard to
remember that it was lit in at the Olymypic flame in Greece. Let that soak in and all the stuff and
nonsense that tags after it fades into the background.
I am wondering what people out in rural
Australia – and there are few places in developed countries as rural as it gets
Down Under – are making of it. Some of
these spots are beyond the beyond, and here is the torch coming through THEIR
town. Countless country towns find
themselves in the national spotlight, if only for one moment.
One commentator was comparing this torch
relay with the one run before the Melbourne Games. Whereas the relay back then was run day and
night, in 2000 the torch gets tucked in for the night before setting off again
in the early morning, with a big part of its journey taking place in a vehicle,
which stops at the edge of towns, where it is then run through streets before ending
up at ovals and show grounds.
Local celebrations await the torch's
arrival. The highlight of these
lunchtime and evening events is the
lighting of the "community cauldron."
The Atlanta Olympics took the relay to a
higher level, wending around the USA.
The current relay is a paragon of organization, apparently without too
many goofs or hitches, which I find remarkable considering the size and some of
the desolate areas they’re at least driving through.
The relay, with its simple images and sense
of historical purity, is boosted by now fewer than fourteen (14) sponsors, from
an oil company and a car manufacturer to the News Limited, published by the
always colorful and good-for-a-story Rupert Murdock (born in Australia, now an
American citizen). It seems that News
Limited has special sponsorship privileges, including a not-so-secret
contractual arrangement which provides a flow of information about the torch
relay denied to its rivals and others. Sweet, as Elsa would say.
Unfortunately, while News Limited has
access to the names of the runners and where and when they will be bearing the
torch, the rest of Australia, including local councils (governments) responsible
for helping to stage the relay left in the dark. That is not playing well.
How foolish that seems – the relay is
supposed to be about fostering community spirit, yet communities aren’t allowed
any specifics? I read that one person
managed to put together a list for her area, but it took her a month to get it
done. Even then, by the day of the relay
she was missing two names, so the town wasn’t able to contact them about
joining post-torch celebrations. As one
local official put it, this is all wrong, because it should all be about people
and their communities, she believes, not super secretive.
I can sympathize with the problems being
caused by the Olympic Committee’s fanatical protection of its symbols or
anything that might even remotely resemble them. Towns
and communities that wanted to gussy themselves up with full-Olympic regalia
found they couldn’t use anything that gave even an impression of the Olympics’
5-ring icon. Seems some folks out in the
far reaches of Australia thought that was taking things way too far. For people with loved ones running in the
relay, it was especially hard to understand the double blows - - lack of information of when friends or family were scheduled to run and the clamp-down on what seemed
natural decorations for what would be some of the small towns’ biggest moment
of the year, maybe the decade.
I know how I would feel if Karen or Scott,
Carolyn or Leanne were running and we couldn’t get straight answers on when or
where. Actually, now that I think about
it, the blokes in charge of that information would have Kerry tracking them down!
It seems unbelievable to me that the local
officials were also kept in the dark. Is
the relay about drawing the nation together, giving big and small towns a
moment to bask in the spotlight, to give local athletes and others a chance to
participate in the Olympics ~ or ~ is it
just an event to showcase sponsors?
The thing that would really have gotten my
knickers in a twist is how the Sydney Olympic Committee seems to be treating
locals. In some places, it is reported
that hardly any of the runners are actually from the town. That seems incredible. In 1956, the runners that carried the torch
through a town came from there, they were well known to the people who lined
the streets, whether it was 2:00 p.m. or a.m.;
this year, torchbearers from areas whose slots were already filled were farmed
out to other places, places where they might never have stepped foot before,
where they were complete strangers. Shouldn’t
this be an event celebrating locals?
Still, as the article points out, the
symbolic value of the torch is unquestionable, connecting communities within
Australia and even with the wide wide world.
Crass sponsor preferences can’t put a dent in the pride felt in
communities large and small across the land I love so well.
Days -
the entire relay will take 100 days nationally, with 31 in my adopted
“state” of New South Wales
Distance -
27,000 kilometers will be run from start to finish, with 5,393 kilometers
in NSW
Torchbearers - 10,000 men, women and children will carry the
torch throughout Australia, with 3,141 in NSW
Cities, towns and villages - the
torch will pass through 1,000 from coast to coast to coast to coast, with 300
in NSW
Official community celebrations - 180
nationally, 61 in NSW ~ and one here, at Squirrel Haven, where I will be
cheering them all on in spirit.
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