I asked the other day, after so much fakery and resutling mockery, where is the original goal of Olympics? Goodwill towards mankind in general?

The most interesting events on TV, such as Gymnastics and Swimming are simply very boring for the audience.

if the locals are voting with their feet, good for them. China can do what it can to control every aspect of the Games, but they cannot control every aspect of the reaction to it. Cheating scandals, pretty girl lip-syncing great singer who just didn’t fit the image…in the long run this could actually do the country some good, the more egg the Party gets on its face.

Maybe the people of China do have some semblance of a right to free speech. They can refuse to attend the Olympics in Beijing which, as we all know, is a monumental propaganda coup for China. Throw in the Chinese illusions and Chinese cheating, and maybe the Chinese people just decided they don’t want to be a part of the farce. Bleh… fat chance.

I’m shocked that the Chinese haven’t started rounding up the people and forcing them to attend the Olympic events in the same fashion they rounded up the people and forced them into prison lest they embarrass the communist country while the world’s eyes are on China.

Our boycott is going well, by the way. I haven’t watched one minute of Olympics television, and I haven’t patronized one Olympics sponsor, nor watched one NBC show. We’re very proud of ourselves. I have to admit though, I’ve been tracking Michael Phelps and his quest for 9 golds in one Olympics.

Who watches water polo for christ’s sakes?!!

Alden Pyle on August 13, 2008 at 11:35 AM

Or badminton.

Or handball?!

And the IOC dropped baseball and softball in 2012 because they needed to make room for squash or roller “sports”?!

When we were in Beijing, we got police escorts that our buses followed, thus clearning the congested traffic. Even then, the pollution was not nearly what it is today. I don’t even recognize that air there now. We had clear and sunny days, but it was in April, too.

The Chinese people we came across were very open and friendly to us. In fact, they had not seen that many really big sized people and thought it was special. I am a big person and many wanted their pictures taken with me. It wasn’t mockery, it was very friendly. I was pleased to be in a society that was not so mean to big people.

I hope some day that the Chinese people can live in a free society. That rebellion in 1989 made a huge impression on me. Many Chinese have entrepreneurial things going on in their household, to earn extra income. They will have a middle class sometime in the future.

We visited the children’s schools where the really talented children were taught their craft. We got to visit their music school, sports schools, etc. These children are often housed in the dorms there, far away from their parents. Their parents consider it an honor. However, with the one child rules, it does create a hardship on the parents when they age, since their kid isn’t near them.

I liked it there very much. I would go back sometime. But I will wait until it is not so horrible to travel by air. With the luggage restrictions, restricitons on fluids, etc, it is just too crazy. I am now choosing cruises that involve no flight time. This year, it is driving to Seattle for another Alaska cruise. Next year, driving to San Diego for the Hawaii round trip cruise. Maybe someday air travel will be better and I will go back to cruises in and around Asia.

I cheer every time an American wins, and my family’s getting sick of hearing me talk to the TV: “Yeah, you totalitarians – that’s right – that ‘s the sound of freedom!”

Hafta say that the Americans’ choice of flag-bearer for the opening ceremony – a former boy-soldier from Sudan, now a naturalized American – had to be a real middle-finger salute to their communist hosts.

All of those points make a lot of sense, but how does that explain the tickets selling out? Would people really buy tickets and not show up, or buy tickets specifically so that there would be an empty seat there?

Seems odd to me.

Esthier on August 13, 2008 at 10:50 AM

Scalpers.

“May I suggest two reasons why?”

While you do have points with respect to the control of travel, the censoring of the press, the smog, the authoritarian regime’s heavy handed control, there are many more rational arguments that account for low attendence.

Cost for one, epitomized by the popularity this summer for taking Staycations and the weak world economic situation based on record high oil prices that only broke, what 3 weeks before the start of the Games?

It isn’t ordinary for the Chinese to put visa travel restrictions on tourists. Don’t fluff with things you have little substance for asserting.

Athens was a huge bust for attendence, and IIRC Atlanta was not what was expected. I don’t remember what Sydney was like. Anybody?

As for Chinese staying home, food prices are going through the roof as is transportation costs. On average, their discretionary income isn’t what we are accustomed to, not to mention Chinese aren’t partial to spending like drunken sailors. Many more average Chinese employees don’t get the two weeks vacation to choose to take off from work when they choose or on a whim. But, considering that, what’s wrong with businesses giving free trips to their employees, wearing matching shirts and coming up with standard cheers. (Just to note, when the Chinese run tours it is normal for them to be given something to wear something that makes them standout, usually a hat but often a shirt instead. It helps them from getting lost and also having the tour guides to find each them.) You talk about that as though people wouldn’t naturally take an all expense paid day trip (or for a minimal fee) to the Olympics and need to be forced on the buses.

Some of your points are valid, but overall, Ed, ignoring many sound reasons for what is occurring while hyping your PC reasons, sounds as shaded as a NYT’s editorial, or a Clark Hoyt explanation.

I would be powerul interested in a follow-up story on all three people: protestor hero dude, point tank Lt., and the HQ Col.

But of course we in the West will never who who those dudes were or where they are today. I bet you another donut they were both sacked and sent to China’s famed Bullet-Hole to the Head-Spa & Resort.

Mike D. on August 13, 2008 at 1:00 PM

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The protester died in prison; deaths in the square and in the following 5-6 months in prisons are estimated at 12,000. Don’t know about the army dudes, but I would guess you are right on target.

This Olympics is an artificial event. Beijing does not appear as it normally does. The local food is not as it normally is. The fireworks are fake, the anthem is lip-synched.

I’d say that is true of all Olympics from the very beginning. This faux rhetoric of a brotherhood of athletes putting aside national differences to compete in the spirit of sportsmanship is a load of what is found around equestrian events.

In the media age, every Olympic city is cleaned up and “Disneyfied” to put the best foot forward for future tourism/business opportunities. The US venues are a little different but most of these Olympics are national showcases of “happy villiagers welcoming the world” instead of a more realistic portrayal. The IOC itself is cleaned up where the happy band of sportsmen facade covers a corrupt parochial organization that would do the UN proud.

On the other hand, they might be lying, but this might still be due to logistical problems; e.g., thinking that people were willing to pay through the nose to attend a smog-filled Olympics, when they can visit China in the future with a lower cost, fewer crowds, and no need to spend so much time at sports arenas of questionable structural integrity getting the same view they could from the comfort of their own homes.

By the way, unless China really does something even more blatantly horrible than usual on the international stage, I think it’ll be one of the few places in which the Olympics will be a net gain. I know far more people eager to go to China once the games end than I have in past years. Was there a significant tourist bump from Atlanta, Utah, Nagano, or Turin?

They are also encouraging residents to apply for access to the heavily secured park.

Residents need to apply for access? What kind of application is it?

Good for them. My issue has never been with the Chinese as a people, but the Commie dictators are a big problem getting bigger.

I have to wonder though…the Chinese know the names and addresses of every person who was given or “bought” a ticket to an event. Sadly, I bet you a donut that after the thing is over, some of these folks will be visited at their huts by dudes in track suits and handguns “asking” why they were missing from the stands.

PS – heres a question for allyall thats interested me for years now, re Tianammen Square in 89 and the dude who stood down the tanks.

That anon dude is rightly considered a global hero. But while I grant that 100%, he’s is not the only star of that show.

First, the Looie in charge of the tank had to stop think about it and call back to tank battalion HQ. At that point, some other officer told of the situation, had to say “run the guy over,” or “dont run the guy over.”

So theres really two unknown people who showed some unexpected humanity on that in deciding not to just run the dude over. The tank HQ guys had less than no idea that the event was captured live on CNN. How could they know? Is CNN on at Peking tank battalion HQ? Prolly not.

so yes, guy standing in front of the tank column is unquestionbly a hero, arguably the most iconic photo taken anywhere in the last 50 years in my personal view. But the point tank commander had to show some humanity too, as did the guy at tank HQ.

Both of those guys have to decide not to run the dude over. If the lead tank Looie says gun it, protester dude is toast. If tank HQ Col. tells tank column Looie, “run the dude over or its gulag-city for you and your whole family,” protestor dude is dead.

I would be powerul interested in a follow-up story on all three people: protestor hero dude, point tank Lt., and the HQ Col.

But of course we in the West will never who who those dudes were or where they are today. I bet you another donut they were both sacked and sent to China’s famed Bullet-Hole to the Head-Spa & Resort.

I dont know why, but I am extra mad at the blatant ChiCom Cheating in gymnastics (with the ages) and the favoritism of the judges.

That’s why, if the Olympics can even remain viable, they should do away with events that score subjectively.

If you can’t judge the event by a timing device or non-subjective scoring like volleyball or baseketball, then get rid of it. The Chinese – as well as previous communist regines – have long been known to pay-off judges in events like boxing and gymnastics.

Actually my wife just got back froma 3 month visit. She is from the northern part of China. She didn’t want to saty there for the Olympics. She thought it was going to be a nightmare with crowds.

I also was talking to a waitress at a local restaurant the other night. Her daughter just came back froma school trip or something and was annoyed she couldn’t stay for the games. The waitress also gave me adrink on the house for the warning about the air quality. Her daughter has asthma and didn’t know how bad it would be. She took extra medicine and precautions.

The waitress said if her daughter had gone as she originally planned, she would have spent most of the trip in the hospital instead of seeing the Great Wall.

On a side note: Wang Nan defeats her Croatian opponent in Table Tennis. Wang Nan is from the same city as my wife, so she was glued to the TV and calling all her friends. :D

BigD on August 13, 2008 at 11:51 AM

Ha! Ooops! A thousand pardons. Please forgive.

They are also encouraging residents to apply for access to the heavily secured park. …

I just want to highlight that sentence, in case any of the people that like to trash talk the US and all of our “lost freedoms” are reading this blog.

I dont know why, but I am extra mad at the blatant ChiCom Cheating in gymnastics (with the ages) and the favoritism of the judges.

Squid Shark on August 13, 2008 at 11:19 AM

Indeed. How does the Chinese girl who fell off the beam get a higher score than Alicia? Our girl fell off doing a much tougher maneuver, and the overall routine was simply better. It became a non-issue on the floor, since we had several mistakes there and China’s 12 year olds were almost flawless, but still.