The Olympics Today: International Cooperation

Alright: I'll be the first to admit it. International cooperation sounds like a phrase taken directly from an advertisement for peace and happiness worldwide, idealistic and shallow. Normally, idealistic and shallow terms like this bug me. They come directly from a language I like to call "buisness-ese," a language where people are fooled into believing impossible ideals with the use of tricky words and key phrases, which in the end are meaningless.

But in this case, I'll make an exception, because if we can't have an altogether peaceful world, we might at least have a world where the governments and people work together, regardless of imaginary lines drawn on a map. International cooperation means that, for any project or task, people can work together as the best of the best. A talent pool of three hundred million people is large, yes. The United States has that. But if you work across borders, that already large pool becomes enormous, about twenty times larger!

How many problems in the world could be solved if a team was assembled all across the world, made up of only the best? How fast could we cure cancer, perhaps, or help alleviate global warming, if British and Chinese and Russian and American and heck, even North Korean scientists banded together to tackle these issues?

Admittedly, it sounds impossible, and it still might take forever to fix such problems. But it starts with tiny steps. Little, itty bitty steps, involving the world banding together for something. Which is why the Olympics are so important to me.

The Olympics represent something far greater than most of the world can even see. Now, I'm sure that in the background there are little blips of schemes and marketing plans going on - but for the most part, the Olympics are incredibly unique. Nearly all the world watches them. Participants come from all walks of life, yet have common goals. Normally, it sounds impossible: to have people from the middle east walking comfortably and without fear among Americans, and vice versa. Yet, at the Olympics, this could happen. After all, they're each there for one thing. All the athletes want to bring home the gold medals for their country. Plotting an attack of any kind on the side might just damage those chances. 

This is why I love the Olympics.

The problem is that so few others see this. My father would rather watch an outdated movie for the third time instead of seeing the opening ceremony of the Olympics. When I told him about the Georgian luger who died (bless your soul, Nodar Kumaritashvili) during the warm-up runs, he shrugged, said it was tragic, and moved on. That's it. Apparently, the Olympics, and other countries, don't matter as much.

It seems to be a common theme, too. Asking around, I find that only half the people I ask are paying much attention to the Olympics. Why is that? Shouldn't there be more interest in a world-wide competition? The one great event that brings everybody together? 

This lack of interest bothers me greatly. If people were more interested in the Olympics, perhaps people would be more interested in other cultures and countries. In other people. Maybe they would reach out to those people, and bond over the Olympics. From there, it's only step by step until countries could truly work together - not in war, not in competition, but in the spirit of true international cooperation. What could we get done? What could we, humanity as a whole, accomplish?

And could the Olympics be the single, subtle key to bringing this all about?