Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Olympiad: The 2010 Religion

The religious fervor stirred by the approach of the 2010 Olympics to Vancouver and environs will be inflamed further by the lighting tomorrow of the sacred Olympic Torch by a suitably semi-clad "High Priestess" in Olympia (Greece, not Washington).

But perhaps even more significant is the Olympic scarf worn by BC Premier Gordon Campbell, which strongly resembles a priestly stole or a Talmudic prayer shawl.  He wore it to his NBC interview and he wore it when he and John Furlong presented UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon with a pair of Olympic mittens ("Now you too can be caught red-handed, ha ha").

The scarf is also similar to a style made famous by the Middle Eastern fashion-plate Yasser Arafat.  Even so, a scarf has yet to be presented to such powerful figures as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamid Karzai.  A trip to China has yet to be confirmed ("Have some more oolong, Furlong?")   

Despite all this, there are some Olympic apostates, who have failed to embrace the new religion.  But for these dissidents, there is hope:  Pope Benedict XVI has announced that rules will be relaxed to allow non-Olympians to join his somewhat older church.

1 comment:

  1. The premier's Olympic shawl also bears some resemblance to the traditional Highlander's Whiskey Tasting Shawl, a garment into which one can swiftly disappear if approached by, say, Hawaiian policemen.

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