Beauty remains despite drug beast

The opening ceremony of the Olympics was breathtaking, even on a 20-inch screen. There was flamboyance and finesse, but perhaps more importantly, a sense of history. It is too easily forgotten that the modern Olympics are a reincarnation of the old Olympics, which some historians claim began in 1230 B.C -- and that''s a helluva heritage to ignore, as the Greeks showed so brilliantly.
The Indian contingent was a blimp on the screen, not more than 7-8 seconds, which perhaps is testimony to the rating we enjoy in international sports, but that could not have been the reason why Anju George, carrying the tri-colour at the head of the contingent, looked sombre.I hope she allowed herself some smiles during the three-and-a-half hour opening gala. The Olympics are certainly the most competitive sports event in the world, but they are also an occasion for celebration and universal bonding.
Skeptics argue that all this is hogwash and that the modern Games have lost their pristine value. Poets and philosophers like Homer imbued the Olympics with an aura that was only allowed to the gods, but that has both thinned and dimmed, they say, as chasing Mammon has gained precedence over the excellence of man.
Only the foolishly romantic will contest that. Commerce dictates the modern Games, as everybody knows. Rampant drug usage drives the quest for excellence. And sundry kinds of political lobbies use this mega-platform to make their point -- right or wrong -- including assassinating harmless, helpless athletes. The veneer of idealism, that Homer wrote hundreds of verses about, and which Baron Pierre de Coubertin used as the springboard for reviving the Games in the late 19th century, wears thin.
And yet, glory be, it is not obliterated. For a species that seeks any reason to divide and deny itself, the Olympics are a panacea: certainly more meaningful and infinitely more enjoyable than the United Nations, which has tried to bring nations and peoples together for the last half-century and more with very limited success.
The simplicity of sports strikes a chord in every soul which the complexity of political theory can never do. The United States of America has the largest contingent at Athens and is tipped to win the most medals, but the biggest applause on the opening night was reserved for Iraq.
Surely there is a message in that for George Bush about how a large part of this world feels about his politics, and also one for us as we celebrate Independence Day about what it means to be a free country.