some of the things this guy says and the reasoning behind it baffles me alot of times.
Dick Pound: “We must not forget that 400 years ago, Canada was a land of savages, with scarcely 10,000 inhabitants of European descent, while in China, we’re talking about a 5,000-year-old civilization.”
Besides exhibiting his lack of civility with the above statement, I can’t grasp the analogy he’s making between china and canada. Can someone enlighten me if they seen or heard this full interview?
His comment about China v. Canada seems completely backwards. If China has a 5000 year civilization, I would think, if anything, that would imply holding the Chinese to a higher, not lower, standard regarding human rights.
Having said that, “sauvage” is used differently in France. It tends to mean undeveloped or without official sanction. For example, you can see signs in the French countryside saying that “camping sauvage” is prohibited. This simply means that you can’t just go onto the property and set up a campsite. Unfortunately, I have no idea how the word is used in French in Quebec.
Anyway, Pound’s statement is completely inappropriate even by French language standards, and if he is educated enough to speak in French, he should be educated enough to understand that the translation of his remarks may have different understandings and implications in different languages and cultures. To use an old phrase, he is too clever by half.
He was speaking in French and that isn’t his first language. The impression was clearly left in early reports that he spoke in English to make him look as bad as possible.
He’s pissed people off but I sincerely doubt that he meant to say what ultimately came out.
I imagine his book Inside the Olympics: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Politics, the Scandals, and the Glory of the Games
http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Olympics-Behind-Scenes-Politics/dp/product-description/0470834544
wouldn’t have made him a lot of friends. Definitely worth a read.