It constantly baffles me how prominent (or in some cases, obscure) figures can make public apologies without actually owning up to anything. A long while back, we had Edison Chen apologizing to no one in particular for doing nothing in particular, except maybe possibly, within the realm of probability, hurting people's feelings.
Now, four American cyclists issued a formal apology to Chinese officials for wearing anti-pollution masks when they arrived at the airport. From the
NYTimes.com news article:
...insisting that they wore the masks for health reasons and did not mean to insult the host country.
...wearing the masks “was in no way meant to serve as an environmental or political statement.”
So it wasn't a political statement (Olympics is not politics!) or an environmental one (Olympics is not environment?). Ok, so that settles it. All is right again in the world. Nothing to see here. Move along now...
Seriously, how much intelligence does it take to take a look at a statement like wearing a mask for health reasons and ask the next logical question: political/environmental statement or not, the fact is that they still wore masks for health reasons. Do they think the air quality in Beijing is bad for their health?
The Olympic organizing committee has said that the air quality has improved to the extent that masks are no longer needed. Yet athletes are still bringing them. Some are even wearing them. Do they not believe Sun Weijia when he says they don't need masks? Or do they think he is talking out of his ass?
Isn't asking these questions more news-worthy than making sure the athletes understand how their actions are perceived by the host country.
It was just so I could prepare for competition in the best way I could. I hope people will understand that we meant no wrong.
But, does he think the air in Beijing is bad for his health?
I would understand someone saying something like,
We are sorry for wearing the masks. We were misinformed. We thought we needed them, but we actually don't since the air quality has improved.
Nope, but there is none of that. Instead we have,
I wore a mask because the air is polluted and is going to make me sick. I'm sorry that I offended you. BFF? (Then tack a smiley at the end) :D
Why is everyone so preoccupied with not hurting feelings rather than focusing on the important questions?
This touchy-feely world needs to watch less Oprah.
1 comment:
''I'm sorry that the air quality in Beijing is so bad that we had to wear masks'' :)
Post a Comment