Only the most naive of wishful thinkers would dream for a moment the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will be void of politics. Sport-loving China is, after all, run by a mysterious communist government with a penchant for ultra-capitalist economics and authoritarian politics.
Moreover, history shows us the Olympics have always been politicised. From their formation in 776 BC, the games were seen as away of cementing peace, the tradition being there should be no fighting as long as the games were on; war by other means, fought through sporting competition was the goal, and this institution lasted for 12 centuries without a break until it was abolished in 393 AD at the 293rd Olympiad.
So why should Beijing 2008 be any different from other Olympics - Athens 776 BC, Berlin 1936, Munich 1972, Moscow 1980, et al - all of which were blanketed in politics, one tragically so?
And so it was, very early on Friday morning, 150-plus journalists assembled at the Olympic Tower in smoggy north Beijing, boarded coaches for the Great Wall and witnessed a snippet of what's to come over the next two years: the good, the marvellous and the truly laboured sloganeering of Olympic political pomp and cultural ceremony.
There, at the most visited part of the wall, Badaling, amid fireworks, dancing, drumming, singing, and the inevitable politics, the media witnessed along with hundreds of school children and Olympic volunteers, celebrities, black-suited officials, uniformed police and PLA guards, the gala launch of the Fourth Beijing Olympic Cultural Festival.
The three-week jamboree includes 28 sports-themed cultural events, engineered to be fun and to plug the people into the Olympic spirit - plus force home the odd party political message or two.
'The festival is a key measure in creating a suitable atmosphere to host the Olympic Games but is also a critical step to illustrate the splendour of Chinese culture,' Beijing organising committee vice-president Jiang Xiaoyu told the audience assembled below the dramatic ramparts of the wall, a potent sign of culture and politics if ever there was one.