Olympic Fever?

0Josh • 14th Aug 2008 • blog entries, Links

Like many around the world, last week we were all bonded together by viewing the marathon that is Olympic opening ceremonies coverage.  It’s the parade of nations that I’m always most inspired by, its so cool to see so many different countries and cultures converging onto one small little piece of earth for a 4-hour period of time.  The fact that a huge majority of all countries won’t get any medals (thanks for that tidbit, Costas) really highlights how much of an honor it is for most athletes just to show up and represent their home country.

My issue (like many others) with the Olympics this year fall onto the host nation.  There is a whole lot I could rant about when I think of China’s human rights issues, along with political decisions the mega-nation has made over the last few years. I won’t bore you with my normal rants, but I do think a good picture of the value that this country puts onto its people can be viewed by the following Olympic opening ceremonies story from CBS:

Olympic Singer Fails China Cuteness Test

A little 9-year old girl lip synced the Chinese national anthem because the 7-year old who sang the song wasn’t “cute” enough.  It wasn’t the director of the opening ceremonies who made this decision, he was asked to change girls by a member of the Political Bureau that views itself as “the vanguard of the people”.  They excused their actions by saying “The audience will understand that it’s in the national interest,”.

This country is so wrapped up in how they are viewed on the world stage that it is their own citizens who suffer.