Left Flank

Originally uploaded by Eddie Law

Is proximity a more important factor than acclimation for Olympic athletes seeking a training advantage? Of course, humans aren't horses (and some Swiftians would find that fact depressing), but then all those concerns about smoggy, humid air transcend species boundaries.

As of Thursday, 15 foreign countries had decided to send a total of 499 athletes to South Korea. The teams are to train in some dozen disciplines in Seoul, North Chungcheong Province and Jeju. Egypt has agreed with the Korea Olympic Committee to send about 40 athletes to South Korea in March. Bulgaria and Algeria are considering setting up training camps for all members of their Olympic teams here.

A total of 11 local governments are trying to attract foreign Olympic teams. The Korea Tourism Organization has published a guidebook on training camps and mailed copies to the national Olympic committees in foreign countries.

Japan has reportedly attracted about 20 foreign Olympic teams. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, 150 Swedish athletes in 19 events will train in the city of Fûkûøká. Osaka has agreed with the British swimming team to supply a long-term training camp. Hokkaido, where the G8 summit for 2008 will be held, has invited the ambassadors from the G8 countries, and Hokkaido Governor Harumi Takahashi handed them promotional pamphlets.

"Yellowy" Seoul, I guess, would count as a suitable substitute for Beijing in the spring and early summer.

Beijing will delay democratic elections in Hong Kong until 2017, when the current leadership in Beijing will pass behind the gray curtain. "Preserving stability" seems an awfully lame excuse by which to delay the full democratizaion of Hong Kong, as demanded by the Basic Law.

Mr. Tsang and a senior congress official, Qiao Xiaoyang, justified the decision to wait another decade before introducing universal suffrage on the grounds of preserving stability of a community still divided over how and when to achieve full democracy.

Hong Kong still faces a long process of hard negotiation over how the new electoral system will work, and the proposed timetable could be derailed.

The democratic and pro-Beijing forces are deeply divided over many practical issues, including the rules governing a nominating committee that will select candidates for chief executive and how many of them will be able to run.

Beijing's dread of fragmentation was also uttered through Tsang mouth.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang welcomed the ruling, urging Hong Kongers to shelve their differences and work together to hammer out the details.

"We must treasure this hard-earned opportunity," Tsang told reporters. "I sincerely urge everybody to lay down all disagreements and start moving toward conciliation and consensus."

The same fixation on stability that will see Pakistan through, and probably steer relations with Tokyo into calm waters, will delay democracy in Hong Kong.

PACOM's Admiral Timothy J. Keating lets Beijing have the US Navy's most dámnìng insult:

Adm. Timothy J. Keating, the head of U.S. Pacific Command, and Adm. Gary Roughead, the chief of naval operations, both took sharp exception to the Chinese government's refusal to allow the minesweepers to come into port when threatened by rough seas.

"As someone who has been going to sea all my life, if there is one tenet that we observe it's when somebody is in need you provide [assistance] and you sort it out later," Roughead said.

Roughead noted that neither of the vessels was damaged by the storm and both were refueled at sea by a tanker.

China's denial of refuge for the minesweepers was perplexing and at odds with international mariner traditions, Keating said.

"This is, kind of, an unwritten law amongst seamen, that if someone is in need, regardless of genus, phylum or species, you let them come in; you give them safe harbor," Keating said. "Jimmy Buffett has songs about it, for crying out loud."

This is what comes of inviting the Dalai Lama to dinner.