The Warpfish Chronicles

"27 years on the planet, and I still haven't figured out what's going on."

We Want a Six! -- February 12th, 2002

Then, I watched the Pairs Figure Skating competition today, in Salt Lake City. And we saw the honour and integrity drama played out in front of millions of people. We saw Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze win over Sale and Pelletier in, what the press calls a 'controversial decision.' Anybody who watched the competition knows it was robbery, including the Russians.

I'm not a figuring skating judge, which appears to be a good thing, because that means I can view the event with some objectivity. Equivalent difficulty elements, both beautiful, well skated programs, the audience reacting very well to Sale and Pelletier's program, not as well to Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze, and, most importantly, the latter pair made a mistake, while Sale and Pelletier skated perfectly.

Now, I will put in the disclaimer -- I am a Canadian, and I'm very proud of it. But, this isn't about a close decision; the Canadian skaters skated a perfect program of equal difficulty and artistry compared to the Russian program, where the Russians made a mistake, and the Russians won the competition.

Questions of integrity and honour now become international questions. What does this say to our young children about trying your hardest? What does this say about us, that stuff like this can happen in front of millions, and nothing can be done about it?

What does this say about our society that dishonest men and women can achieve success, and we applaud them for it?

Let it be clear -- I have no arguments with Elena and Anton. I thought their program was beautiful, and, if skated perfectly, I would have no argument with the split. My argument is with the ISU, and, using them as a symbol of one of the cancers eating away at the world today.

On a slightly different note, I would really like to know what the judges were thinking. If they could justify their results in some way, if I could know that, given their experience, they saw a bobble, or something that could be held up to the light of objectivity, I would be much happier. I would really like to know what the ISU is thinking right now, after having just finally put to bed the Ice Dance judging controversy.

In the end, though, using this as a metaphor, I can't help but feel demoralized. The Olympics, supposedly a symbol of honest and clean athletic competition, become nothing more than an international excuse. The cynics were right; the pessimists were right -- those who believe in the right failed to rise to the challenge, and now it's too late.

I saw three US snowboarders, and the celebrations they had for sweeping the medals. I wonder, now, what'll happen to them when the politics of judging come into play? Can we prevent the same corruption that has crept into our personal lives, our national lives, our international lives from sneaking in there, something new, and, thus, something that has yet to be tainted? Or is it already too late, my optimism born out of my admitted lack of knowledge of the politics of the sport?

I keep hoping that people will learn to grow up, that, as we as a civilization supposedly progress, we all will learn dignity and trust, and integrity -- that keeping your word is important, and that treating those around you with that same integrity and honour is important. I hope this for the children of my friends, recently born, recently adopted, and expected soon in this word.

But as I sit here typing in the dark, as I look out into the window of the night, all I can see is cloud and shadow. The battle that good men and women wage against the dark is ongoing, and as the events of the last month has shown, the dark is strong and everywhere.

Yet, I still have hope that, in small victories, we can still make a difference. Perhaps the dreams of a romantic, but, the only other alternative is surrender. And, speaking for myself, that is something I cannot do, not for something as important as this.

You know, who would have thought personal integrity, something so fundamental, would be so difficult to find in the world.

Addendum: February 12th, 2002

I had a chance to sleep on it, to calm down a little -- and the problem appears that, if people are unwilling to take responsibility for themselves, they have to be made responsible to somebody. But no such mechanism exists in many endeavours -- ultimate power lies with somebody, and, if that somebody is corrupt, or ignorant, we all lose.

One thing I'll grant the American system, for all its imperfections, at least everybody has to answer to everybody else.

In any event, today is one of those days I wonder what God thinks of our world. Not because specifically about the Figure Skating (because, in the grand scheme of things, it is small potatoes), but about the world in general.

I also wish there was some objective measure of the world's honesty, to sit down and and see if we are getting better (and it's just media saturation that is making us see all this stupidity), or, if we turned a corner somewhere and we're headed for the abyss.

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