yoda Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 No' date=' it doesn't. If I fail an exam or gain weight sitting on my ass, I feel embarrassed. But not for our olympic performance. I felt proud and happy that we got 6 medals. I never expected to see this .[/quote'] Well if you felt proud that we got 6, what did you feel when we got 3 or 1 in earlier Olympics? I am glad we won 6, but that number seems good only because we were even worse earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straighttalk Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Its all about incentives.. if you do well you get stuff, else you well basically go down the drain.. North Korea Labour Camps. :P China you should really take a look at the Discovery documentary it was exhaustive. The kid gymnasts working hours are grueling The problem though is the fact the kids do have a choice, perform or perish and they will go any lengths to perform not because they like the sport or want gold that becomes the only way to pull their families hopefully out of poverty. Kinda like kids in India and studies but on a much larger scale where you cannot even rebel against the system and the system will do whatever it can to make you or break you On the other what straight talk does not talk about or the reports do not go into detail is what happens to those kids who done make it. Only the elite get anything, two levels below and you are left with a battered body and not even a future that you could have made, if you had been in any other field. It is not difficult to see that the people who succeed from China are not from the upper class or even the middle class, they are most from the poor, unless you have party affiliations you are screwed. Just speak to the Chinese.. Is it effective hell yeah Does that mean TigerMoms are great? hell no I would like to see the Discovery documentary. Regarding your point, these children (mostly poor) are being offered a chance to lead a honorable life..out of poverty or the prospect of child labor. they are properly fed and given a roof for shelter. And most importantly they have a choice to say no. Physical fitness makes you strong and confident and opens up many opportunities for employment...army, physical trainers in schools/colleges, coaches, etc to name a few. of late the chineese sports school also teach these students in response to criticism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straighttalk Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Lurker (and straighttalk), your points were quite similar so my this is a unified response. Lurker, I do not understand what exactly you mean when you say I'm in denial. In denial of what? I know that we don't do all that well in the Olympics, so what exactly am I denying? Does a 8-0 loss in cricket or a low medal count in the Olympics embarrass me? No chance. These are trivial things. Just games. You lose some, you win some ( in our case, very few). Why should I be embarrassed if the Indian cricket team lost 8-0? They should be embarrassed. So should the BCCI. And the comparison to cricket team is not even fair. The Cricket team does represent India. A sporting loss never embarrasses me. Sports is supposed to be fun. When we win, like we did in the WC, I'm ecstatic. If we lose, I'm sad for a day at max, but never embarrassed. Am I embarrassed by the fact that we have amongst us some hooligans who desecrate the statue of the Amar Jawan? yes Does the power failure of the northern grid on 2 days embarrass me? yes Does the fact that female foeticide is so rampant among a section of the urban educated ( and the elite too, I dare add)? yes Does a low medal count in the Olympics embarrass me? not at all. I think you (and straighttalk) have really bought into this Olympic hype. As far I know, the Olympics were originally an event that brought various athletes together and saw them compete in various events. The spirit of the event is competition. I do not subscribe to notion that nations should compete against each other in Olympics. It doesn't matter what nation the athlete belongs to.This is the reason I am against team games like Basketball, Hockey etc being a part of the Olympics. Saina or Sushil Kumar or Vijender should be participating in the games because they want to win, representing themselves. This whole idea of athletes in individual events representing a nation is preposterous. On the topic of the thread, it is a very well documented fact, that East Germany, Poland, Romania and the USSR had cheated ( doped) their way to victory in multiple Olympics at multiple events. And mind you, this wasn't a case of an odd athlete or coach who cheated, but the Olympic committees had institutionalized cheating (doping). Winning became so important, that any means were considered fair. Some of the adverse effects of mixing nationalism with sports. I'm afraid that's what you guys ( and the Chinese are doing too). Why does crime against women, power failure, etc embarrass you? Because in your mind, it is a collective failure of India as a nation. A failure of its people. Sports is for fun when you are playing with your friends. But professional sports is for competition and winning. Why do you think most people are embarrassed by our failure -lowest per capita medal in olympics. That is because it gives a telling account of us as a nation - soft, averse to physical fitness,weak, unhealthy, can't compete. You are right in the sense that sports and nationalism should not be mixed. But then why do we follow a different standard in India-Pak matches..why isn't it just another match for us. Imagine the Indian cricket team loses each and every match from now on. Will the world end but we will be in the same boat as West Indies now. You might say its just a sport but it hides a far deeper malaise of the society. A culture of physical fitness that has been embedded in western countries and promoted in china..along with proper diet can drastically reduce health care cost. Have you seen too many fat Chineese people? US-is obese because of its diet but a good majority of the population is in super shape...and compare that to the Indian public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
India-KXIP fan Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 ^Agreed professional sports are not for fun. It makes a person proud when they are No.1 and embarrassed when they lose 4-0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coffee_rules Posted August 15, 2012 Share Posted August 15, 2012 Well if you felt proud that we got 6, what did you feel when we got 3 or 1 in earlier Olympics? I am glad we won 6, but that number seems good only because we were even worse earlier. I was pleasantly surprised that India won gold in 08. Where is the expectation from India coming from, to feel embarrassed about India's non-performance? Have you seen India's performance from 80s to 96. We never won a medal other than hockey (except for 1 in 1952). 1996 was a breakthrough year. Since then, we have an account in the medals tally. Going from 1 to 6 is a huge step for India, where sports is seen as a hobby or distraction for young kids. Now that we have 6, we can expect to go further in future with govt involvement and more people taking up sports as a profession. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triam Posted August 16, 2012 Share Posted August 16, 2012 some thoughts about this, very similar to my own but written far better of course http://greatbong.net/2012/08/07/some-thoughts-on-the-olympics/#more-41268 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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