This rant has nothing whatsoever to do with writing, but everything to do with equality and fairness.
Women's ski jumping is being excluded from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. This is causing a bit of a local controversy. The ski jumpers are claiming discrimination, while the IOC is claiming the female ski jumpers simply don't meet technical requirements. Here's a quote from the Vancouver Sun article, by an IOC official:
IOC spokeswoman Emmanu-elle Moreau said the organization understands the "heartfelt emotion" displayed by the female ski jumpers but is unwilling to break its rules to satisfy them.
So why is it, I ask you, that heartfelt emotion is such a bad thing? Hillary Clinton shows the faintest sign of tears and is derided for it by old-boys-clubs everywhere. Female ski jumpers are simply catering to "emotion" by crying foul over being excluded from the world's premier sporting event. I'm sick of women being dismissed for expressing themselves and standing up for basic fairness. There are more female ski jumpers representing more countries than another Olympic sport slated for 2010: women's ski-cross. The IOC's argument simply doesn't wash.
I am especially incensed by Dick Pound, the Canadian representative on the IOC, who had the gall to say in a TV interview, when told that the Canadian government was getting behind the ski jumpers' cause, that the government should not meddle because the Canadian government is "not hosting the Olympics, the IOC is hosting the Olympics."
Well I'm very sorry, Mr. Pound. The IOC is not hosting the 2010 Olympics. My British Columbian and Canadian taxpayers' dollars are hosting the Olympics. I'm paying you, with my hard-earned cash, and that means I get a say too. Get rid of your patronizing attitude and political platitudes and let those women compete.