Home > Business Insider > Archives > 2008 > August > 08
Friday, August 8, 2008
Former Mayor Young on China’s Olympics
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young understands the impact of the Olympics on a city as well as any one in our city.
He went around the world using his multiple personal connections to help Atlanta win the 1996 Summer Games. He co-chaired the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games. And he chaired the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in 1996 as the city was hosting the largest sporting event in the world.
Young, speaking to the National Council for International Visitors Southern Regional Meeting Thursday in Atlanta, spoke of the first time the Olympics became ingrained in his psyche.
It was 1936 when track and field athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin. Adolf Hitler had ascended to power pushing the Nazi movement and promoting Aryan superiority among the races. Jews and ethnic Africans were viewed as inferior.
So, Jesse Owens, an African American, performance at the Berlin Olympics not only flew in the face of Hitler’s theories, it also provided an opportunity for blacks in the United States to take great pride in one of their own during a time of segregation.
“With Jesse Owens winning those four goals, ingrained the Olympics in my mind,” Young said.
Fast-forwarding to 2008, Young talked about China’s hosting of the Olympic Games that will hold the opening ceremonies today — 08-08-08.
“We are going to have a different view of China two weeks from now than we have today,” Young said, adding that all the televised images of China among all the Olympic sporting events will portray a modern country defying our sterotypes.
Young also offered a counter viewpoint on the criticism China is receiving about its policy towards Tibet and other human rights issues. Remember, Young was a leader in the Civil Rights movement along with Martin Luther King Jr. He also has been a longtime advocate of human rights along with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
“I think our attitude towards China is very hypocritical,” Young said. “They have human rights problems. But so do we.”
Then Young explained the Chinese governments desire to keep the world’s most populous country united.
“There are 104 different nations in China,” Young said. “It doesn’t make sense to fragment China. I think the best thing for them is the exposure with the rest of the world. They will be criticized and they will be judged.”
But Young added that that experience will help open up China in a similar way that the American South evolved into an integrated society from its days of segregation.
Services »
