With sports fans counting down to the opening of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy on Friday, the president of the UN General Assembly has appealed to all countries to revive the ancient Greek tradition of a two-week period of peace surrounding the global athletic competition. | Last time I looked, the ancient Greeks were dead. |
Security at the event in northern Italy is tight. President Jan Eliasson of Sweden, who is also a member of the Board of the International Truce Foundation, issued a statement calling for “measures to ensure a peaceful global environment for the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.” | Winter Olympics are mostly Nordic style events, aren't they? The Followers of Alan are a bit miffed at the Nordic countries right now. What's the over/under on the body count? |
The General Assembly has urged member states to observe the Olympic Truce from the seventh day before the opening to the seventh day after the closing of each Olympic Games. That observance should come during the XX Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Turin from 10 to 26 February, and the Paralympic Winter Games, also in Turin, from 10 to 19 March, the Assembly said. Last month UN secretary general Kofi Annan urged all warring factions to lay down their arms during the Games, saying the Olympics offer a long enough period “for the protagonists and people who are destroying their own countries and killing each other to pause for a moment, look around them and see what damage they are doing.” | Ah, Kofi? What if they look around and like what they see? Hello? |
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