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| The Olympic Dream |
I was among those cynics who thought the Olympics would end
in some kind of catastrophe. I boycotted
the opening ceremony – or at least stopped watching after the initial green and
pleasant land/rural idiot sequence, to be told afterwards that I had missed the
finest piece of left wing propaganda since The
Communist Manifesto. But of course all turned out well in the end – and I was
forced to revise my opinion, (hence the humble pie, not a dish I indulge in
often) despite Boris’ self-serving antics.
But I think my cynicism beforehand was justified
by the shoddy commercialism that surrounded the torch odyssey. Our village was lucky enough (?) to be on the
route, and we were constantly hounded with instructions that had originated with
the sponsors about what we could and couldn’t do. So the idea of Ronald MacDonald as a torchbearer,
with a Coke bottle taking the place of the torch, was irresistible.
