Is the IOC finally waking up?

Is the International Olympics Committee finally waking up to its moral responsibility?  This from Reuters:

Gerhard Heiberg, a Norwegian IOC board member, said the IOC may seek talks with China over the situation in Tibet and human rights issues if they threaten the success of the Beijing Olympics. He said, “We have the possibility of influencing the Chinese government. There’s probably no one who has so much influence and power in China as the IOC right now.”

We could have told them this years ago — wait, we did!!

The Beijing Olympics are and have always been about politics, certainly from the Chinese government’s perspective (do you think they’re spending billions of dollars because they’re such huge sports fans?)  It was always disingenuous for the IOC to argue that giving the Olympics to Beijing was not political.  The IOC and the Chinese government themselves claimed the Games would bring reform and human rights improvements to China.  Then the Chinese government started using the Games to legitimate its territorial claims to Tibet: making a Tibetan antelope their Olympic mascot, bringing the torch through Tibet and up Mt. Everest, using propaganda pictures of “happy, dancing” Tibetans celebrating the Games. 

By its silence, the IOC is giving tacit approval to Beijing’s brutal crackdown in Tibet.  Now at least one IOC member is finally, belatedly waking up to the truth that the IOC has a certain moral responsibility that flows from its decision to reward China with the Games. 

Maybe the IOC will follow Mr. Heiberg’s lead and wake up to its moral responsibility and unparalleled influence; truly a combination that cries out for action.