Well the 2008 Summer Olympics OFFICIALLY kick off tonight, they have been having preliminary rounds in some sports (like soccer) since Wednesday. Unfortunately I really don’t care that much any more. In fact, the winter Olympics seem far more important to me now then the summer ones. More on that later though.
This shift of the Olympics as been less important to me is a major shift for me as I use to look forward to the Olympics for months before they began, especially when athletes I follow would be in them. In years / decades past I would have been thinking about the Olympic cycling road race, track cycling, kayaking, the modern pentathlon, the cross country equestrian event, and a few others weeks before they occurred. The chance to see cyclists like Sarah Hammer, Levi Lephiheimer, Carlos Sastre, Cadel Evans, David Ziberiski, Taylor Phinney, and alike would have be a big deal to me. Heck, I would even be pondering fencing and sailing competitions at this point. I would have been thinking about the traditional big swimming and track events as well. Admittedly Micheal Phelps has been hard to miss, but outside of him there really has been little buzz in my mind about Olympic competition. Bottom line, today I am really just not that interested though I will still watch some of the Olympics hoping to see something that interest me.
I think there are three (3) major reasons that have lead to this shift in my view/ interest this year. First, it is the location of the Olympics. They are in China. China, regardless of the recent PR, is still the largest communist nation in the world, and one that poses a security threat to many nations (including the US). Additionally, it is a nation that oppresses it’s people political and religious freedom.
Freedom is neither free nor common in China and for the Olympics to honor one of the most oppressive nations in the world with the Olympic games (supposedly a bastion of freedom and quality) is a travesty. I understand the idea was to put pressure on China to change it’s ways via additional worldwide scrutiny. Unfortunately, it has not worked.
If anything China has locked down freedoms of both visitors and it’s citizens even more due to the games. There have been numerous stories about international news people being surveiled constantly, and being questioned about how much money they have in their pockets when they leave their hotels. Protests are only allowed if approved and approval is not going to be coming if the protest is large, controversial, or potentially embarrassing to China.
Never forget, this is a nation with mobile death vans (story here and here). A nation that many have allegedly deals in the organ trade business. A nation that oppresses ALL that oppose it. A nation that tells the rest of the world that they have no business to speak about what occurs when their country even though international money and business is common there. This is a nation that limits / filters the Internet - including banning this site. Honestly we are sort of proud of that. Bottom line, this is a nation that deals in smoke, mirrors, lies, oppression, and complete control. They have little to no interest in truly becoming free or allowing their citizens to be free. They only want to appear open, while still tightly controlling most of those within the nation.
Yes I know there is a growing Chinese middle class and I know that China has the most Internet users in the world. I know there are thousands of millionaires in China. I know about all of that and more. I also know about forced labor camps, one child per family, Tiananmen square, political and religious prisoners, despotic rulers, controlled official churches, and the death penalty for non violent crimes - including tax evasion.
I know Russia had the Olympics in 1980 and virtually fell apart by the end of the decade. It was not the Olympics that made this happen though - it was a combination of politics, society and economic forces which lead to a Russian collapse. China is not making the same mistakes Russia did. China’s move toward freedom will only come from a powerful international desire combined with the force of a oppressed internal people pushing for change. These Olympics are allowing a oppressive Chinese government to show a large part of the world a relatively “loose” public China. That does not move China down the road toward freedom.
Honestly, if I was president I would personally not go to the opening ceremonies. I understand we need to converse, meet and such but for the leader of the FREE world to grace China with a PR gold mine by attending the games is a bad idea to me. IF I was president and I chose to attend for some reason I would begin the answer to EACH and EVERY question about China with something like “Well the communist Chinese” or “The communist nation of China” or “The oppressive Chinese government” or “The Chinese opponents of freedom and equality”. I know the state department, and many others, would hate me, but hey they work for me and my policy and views on China is suppose to be carried out by them. Of course any real student of government knows that the actual bureaucrat’s do not change election to election, so little on the ground in terms of personality and purpose changes regularly in the Federal bureaucracy. Bottom line I understand there needs to be a flexible policy toward China, but I think the presidents job is to hold a harder line publicly while flexibility is done behind the scenes.
Moving on, the second reason I am really not interested in these Olympics is the the lack of order and schedule from NBC. I understand there is a lot to cover but NBC is making it hard to find what you want to see and when it is on. With scheduling like -
Olympic Schedule Example
or -
Olympic Schedule Ex 1
Olympic Schedule 2
it is virtually impossible short of having 5 DVR’s to actually catch what you want to see and then watch it or to even know if it is going to be on or not. I think the plan is for a person to regularly check for updates and su
