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Press release 13 May 2008

The Dutch Olympic Committee fears that The Netherlands will be taken as Orange hostage in Beijing 2008

In a letter to the Dutch NOC, the initiator of TheColorOrange.net campaign Danish artist Jens Galschiot claims that the Dutch should be proud. As the only ones, they have the opportunity to support the human rights in China without risking being expelled from the stadium. So the artist emphasizes that his campaign by no means is an attack against the Dutch athletes.

Annemiek Van Der Meer, communication chief of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) feels uncomfortable about the Orange idea. She said in the weekend: ”The Dutch NOC is unhappy about the action and fears ‘politicisation’ of the Dutch sports colour in their promotion. We’ll have a look at it and find out how to react”.

“With orange Holland has a colour that is scarcely used by others. Read and blue are more common. It cannot be that we are unwillingly pressed to support a stance of others. As a sports organization we certainly do not react on anything happening in the world, but here we do have to undertake a critical look.”

On 13. May Jens Galschiot explains his view in a letter to the Olympic Comity of The Netherlands (NOC):

“I do not see any problems in the Olympic Team of the Netherlands showing up in their national color which is orange. I am sure that almost all Dutch people agree that the human rights violations in China are problematic. So I think that the Dutch should be proud, when we use the color orange to make this signal. There are no reasons for fearing that Dutch athletes dressed in orange be expelled from the OG. In fact they are the only ones who will be able to promote basic human rights simply by wearing their national color. Everybody else wearing Orange at the Olympic Stadiums risk disqualification if they overtly express their opinion. Only afterwards they can tell their motives.

In fact, The Olympic Charter emphasizes as fundamental Olympic principles “respect for universal fundamental ethical principles” and “promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity”. But can anybody properly claim that the Chinese government complies with these ideals? – We view the use of the Color Orange as an ethical and apolitical statement in essential unison with the fundamental principles of the Olympic Movement.

What we do is to encourage people to use Orange as an open and broad symbol of the problems about Human Rights in China. We were not inspired by the Dutch when we chose the Color Orange, but by the painter Kandinsky. He said that the Color Orange is in fact red that has been made more human by the color yellow. The Chinese color is red and Amnesty International’s color is yellow and a mixture of the two would benefit the Chinese population a lot.

We have by no means chosen the color orange to violate the Dutch national feelings, or in any way harm the people of your country. The color was exclusively chosen on the background of Kandinsky’s quote, and it is also inspired by the monks in Tibet and Burma, who have used the color orange for thousands of years, back to times, when the Netherlands didn’t even exist as a nation.

No matter what color we’d chosen to highlight human rights in China, I’m sure, it would affect some other people in a way, they did not find convenient. But you know, there are many different points of view...

The color orange has been used in many different connections; the orange revolution in Ukraine, the orange movement in Kenya, the color of the prison uniforms in Guantanamo, the orange movement in Poland under communism, the orange order in Eire, The Dutch House of Orange, Jörg Haider’s right wing party in Austria, and the name of the fruit orange.

In China red is the symbol of fire and yellow is the symbol of earth; these two elements neutralize each other like some sort of Yin and Yang. Orange can therefore also be interpreted as a kind of harmony. In the book ‘the Beginners Guide to Colour Psychology’ the colour orange is related to such positive qualities as: joy, passion, sensuality, safety, physical well-being – and to the negative qualities: poorness, frustration, immatureness.

From the above follows, that there are a lot of reasons for choosing or not choosing a particular color.

It is obvious that nobody can claim the exclusive right of using any color,

Orange regards,

Jens Galschiot and TheColorOrange team

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More information, photos, videos about the Orange activities: http://www.TheColorOrange.net

Contact to TheColorOrange in Denmark:

Jens Galschiot, Banevaenget 22, DK-5270 Odense N, tel. +45 6618 4058, evening +45 6614 4038

mobile +45 4044 7058, E-mail: contact@TheColorOrange.net, www.TheColorOrange.net

Contact to the IOC: http://www.olympic.org

Contact to the Dutch NOC: http://www.sport.nl/

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