Olympics fingered by satirists

If satire was an Olympic event, then the Bruces and Sheilas behind Shame 2000 would win gold every time.

Not content with the squeaky clean image of the Olympics, a group of journalists, designers and others have come together to expose some of the hypocrisy that surrounds the Games.

Shame 2000 is hosted at unolympics.com and will be updated throughout the three weeks of the quadrennial sports event.

As well as hounding politicians, Shame 2000 is also using its platform to out Australia's record on human rights especially with regard to the treatment of indigenous Australians and refugees.

"We're not anti-Olympic," says Graham Catt, Unolympics.com Media Assassin and Content Manager.

"If the world is going to be focussed on Australia for three weeks it needs more than just the hype.

"We'd like the world to know about the real issues, and have a laugh at some politicians while they do.

"As Australians we've got a proud tradition of taking the piss to uphold," he said.

The site's design was based on the official Olympics Web site. According to Unolympics.com's Net activist and producer, David Gravina, any resemblance between Shame 2000 and the official Sydney 2000 Olympic site was "purely intentional."

Said Gravina: "We wanted to build a site that was visually unattractive and very difficult to navigate. The Sydney 2000 site proved to be inspirational." ®