I am not a participant in any sport but I do admire and
respect the commitment and spirit of those who compete at
the highest level.
I do not yet have any significant symbolic markers which
most of society uses to differentiate and discriminate
against some people in society, ie I do no have a
'disabled' identity although that may happen at some time
in the future, who knows.
Why do I feel uncomfortable with the apart-heid that exists
between the Olympic movement and the Paralympic movement?
Is the inclusive argument not applicable in sport?
Jim
On Wed, 11 Oct 2000 17:59 +1000 Ria Strong
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> As I have only recently been made aware-- and most still aren't-- the
> Olympics and the Paralympics are actually quite seperate organisations
> with different logos. As someone emailed, in response to the petition:
>
> > The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is based in Lausanne,
> Switzerland
> > and was (until recently) run by our little friend the 'Waanster'.
> > The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is based in Bonn,
> Germany and
> > not directly linked to the IOC.
> > For obvious reasons the two organisations co-operate in a number of
> ways
> > but there is no direct contract to hold the games at the same time
> or even
> > in
> > the same place.
> > The five rings are a symbol which represent the olympic movement
> and are
> > owned exclusively by the IOC. Nothing to do with Michael Knight,
> nothing
> to
> > do with SOCOG.
> > The paralympics are a separate and independant organisation and
> should be
> > recognised as such.
> > The paralympics has its own symbol which is the three curvy lines
> going
> > throught the little ring thingy.
> > Instead of confusing everybody by wrongly using the olympic symbol
> to
> > represent the paralympians we should embrace the paralympic symbol
>
>
> Maybe we should lobby to have the Paralympic symbol above the harbor,
> where the Olympic rings were?
>
> - Ria
>
> *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
> Ria Strong
> Melbourne, Australia
> *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
> [log in to unmask]
> *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>
> __________________________________________________________________
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----------------------
Jim Wood
University of Exeter
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