Playing with Pawns

I listened with restrained incredulity to the report. Apparently, the residence housing the Cuban athletes in Athens is adorned with a gigantic banner of Fidel Castro playing chess. 'No', I thought, 'not possible'. Surely the Francisco Franco faction of the IOC would be less than thrilled with the display of a despotic chauvinist from the left side of the tracks. So I went to the net and found this (look down the page a bit) and this. Apparently, in the eyes of a coldly rational and completely impartial journalist, Fidel gets filed somewhere between cute inflatable kangaroos and English telephone booths. (Okay, that was a cheap shot; the story in the last link is mainly about U.S. Olympian John Magera and life in the village.)


Well apparently there is the odd bit of sensibility at the Games as we see in this story, that notes the Cubans have been ordered to remove the banner (along with a real swell Hollywood sized banner of everyone's best friend, Che Guevara; another misunderstood fellow who is better remembered for his chess playing rather than his ability to source ammunition). If the IOC doesn't put a stop to this sort of thing, then the Koreans may put up a poster of Kim Jong Il eating pasta or the French may cover the entire venue with a giant white sheet thus symbolizing their militaristic ambitions. Canada may stoop to insult the U.S. by hanging a banner of hero Benedict Arnold on the side of their residence... Never mind.