I wish China, and her people, all the best of luck in the Olympic Games. While the excitement of the sports will remain the same, no matter where it is held, the location does seen to be bringing out very strong feelings with some people. In everything I read, there seems to be one controversy or another.
China seems to want to prove something to the rest of the world; and that is coming across in a rather pointed way. Everything needs to be strong, perfect, spotless and unblemished. I thought the Olympics was supposed to be about competition and acceptance, not intimidation and social unrest. Rather than saying what a good job China has done, people were talking about Tibet, Internet censorship, or the opening ceremony miming incident. It is unfortunate; because, even though I am a casual observer at best -- I find myself thinking about the political and social issues, as opposed to The Games. I cannot remember the actual Olympic Games being turned into a propaganda opportunity. I have only read about this kind of thing in history books. It's quite strange -- everywhere I turn, China wants to flex its proverbial muscle.
Aren't there sports in the picture, at some point? Sure, there are, if one wishes to focus on that, but they seemed to be running a poor second, to everything else that's going on. It's quite bizarre.
Even with everything else, I'm sure China will make a good job of this year's Olympic Games. Hopefully, everybody will remember that the sports and culture are the main reasons everybody travelled to Beijing.
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