I'm back to inform you that I am alive, well and extremely busy, as is the reason why I havent posted a thing here in quite some time.
I thought I might as well throw in a thought or two while I had some free time, and what better than to dish out on than the Olympics!
A lot of people I know have been following the Beijing Olympics quite closely and good for them, but its not really for me. Dont get me wrong, I enjoy and appreciate the Olympics - especially the Winter Olympics, but am not overly enthusiastic about them for a variety of reasons. Particularily this year.
I think that the Olympics should be a place where every country in the world can have its athletes compete and not have to be pressured by activist or lobby groups no matter what the circumstances. The Olympics should be a place of fair, healthy competition in a enjoyable, inviting environment. After saying that I'll try and not get too political in this post.
First off, I dont feel that Beijing was a suitable host for the Olympics in the first place. Not only is the city/country plagued by over-population, poverty and pollution, they have also been a massive component in unemployment in our own country with head offices, and factories moving their production lines to China where production costs are slashed to miniscule percentages. However, overseeing that, there are still other reasons why I think China has abused their privelage of hosting the Olympics.
Lip Syncing and Voice Doubles:
In what was clearly one of the most shocking deceptions of the Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing, the national anthem singer was replaced with a “cuter”, younger lip sync artist. Yang Peiyi was actually pre-recorded singing the anthem, but was apparently not attractive enough for the ceremonies and did not meet their standards of “perfection.” Supposedly, it was her teeth that did her in. Chinese officials explained that they wanted the perfect performance - the perfect voice and the perfect look. Perhaps we should forgive Milli Vanilli as well? I mean, they just wanted to be the perfect performers, right? The problem is, and we will see it time and time again, that everyone was led to believe that this cute little girl was actually singing - or at least sang it her self in a studio at some point.
Flawless Fireworks:
Apparently the folks at the Olympics thought it was too dangerous for helicopters to film the actual fireworks at the stadium during the opening ceremonies, so pre-recorded, computer-generated fireworks. Sure. The display we see appears to be miles away (and that is assuming no zoom is used on the camera lense) - not exactly sure how that could be safe. I am not doubting that fireworks were shot off from the ceremonies, but I am not convinced that the Chinese decided that it was too dangerous. My guess is that, just like the fake voice-over used for their national anthem, they decided that the “perfect” image the rest of the world should see is one they can’t really created.
Fake IDs
The most heinous fakery going on right now has to do with the ages of two girls competing on the Chinese women’s gymnastics team. I am not exactly how we can use “women” to describe a team made up of pre-pubescent children, but apparantly that is what they are calling it these days. At stake in this disagreement is the much coveted gold medal in women’s gymnastics. There are only a few medals for which both the United States and China compete closely, and this one is certainly the most popular. Two 14, I mean, 16 year old girls on the team, He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan are supposedly of age, but records indicate that they are probably as young as 14 years old. China produced passports for the two children which show them to be 16 years old. Of course, birth certificates are unavailable, but even they would be incredibly easy to fake as well. This would not be surprising, considering China’s “Gymnastics Gulag” where athletes are beaten and abused starting at as young as 5 and 6 years old. There is a huge advantage to having young gymnasts - they are much smaller, and thus able to perform more dangerous techniques and, unfortunately, far more willing to perform those techniques despite the risk.
Fake Weather
Even the weather has been faked in China during Olympics. Over 1000 rockets were
fired into the coulds to keep the rain from coming down during the opening ceremonies. The controversial technique of firing silver iodide crystals was the largest known effort in the history of mankind toprevent rain. It seemed to work, as the event went off flawlessly. I certainly understand the wish to make the event go by without any rain, and it wouldn’t be the first time in history that silver-iodide was used to seed rain clouds, but the big question really starts to form — what is the real China like?
False Promises
Perhaps the biggest deceit of the 2008 Olympics is the gross difference between the China that is portrayed and the China that is. This shocking photograph depicting China’s “One World One Dream” slogan on a wall built to shield the true nature of Chinese poverty from the prying eyes of the World. The sad truth is that China is fooling no one, but nearly everyone doesn’t care. Sometimes, it is easier to pretend you are duped than deal with the truth.
Original Source Here.
The main problem I have about The Olympics, no matter who is hosting, is the amount of Bandwagon Jumpers that seem to magically appear. These people become rabid over the athletes and scrutinize every aspect of their performance. These BWJ's as I will call them all of a sudden seem to be the biggest fans of these athletes yet where were they the past 4 years? I'll tell you where they weren't: They weren't there following the athletes training, following their progression, following their funding or following their person lives. Now because the Olympics role around, these people seem to care so much about every athlete that its pathetic.
In all honesty, I present a weak argument, but I thought I would just organise my thoughts and see what you all had to say.
Please comment.
