More On Japan...

It was only hours after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami hit Japan that the International Skating Union issued a statement saying "the local conditions will permit"' the figure skating union to "regularly conduct" the World Figure Skating Championships in Tokyo, an event scheduled to begin with official practices March 20, which is a week from Sunday.

The ISU's assessment had me thinking of the way Shakespeare pilloried the amorality of such decisions.

"Thrift, thrift, Horatio!'' Hamlet says in Act I, Scene II of the eponymous play. "The funeral bak'd meats did coldly furnish forth the wedding tables.''

Hamlet is referring to the haste with which his mother remarried after the death of her husband, Hamlet's father.

Has the heartless irony of saving money even in a time of grief also clouded skating officials' brains?

Because there is no way to "regularly conduct'' a world championships while Japan will be burying its dead and likely still searching for its missing from the tragedy that struck the country Friday.

And it is time for skating officials to realize that.

Keep Reading Phil Hersh...

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PJ Kwong has posted on the topic here and From The Boards weighs in here.

Skating fans have a LOT to say, you can join a running discussion here.