Welcome to the Jungle: The 2008 Olympics One
By Beth in Entertainment, Politics, sports, TV, pop culture, Beijing, China, Communism, Darfur, 2008 Summer Olympics on August 9 2008
The 2008 Beijing Olympics began yesterday with opening ceremonies airing in the U.S. last night.
Whatever your brand of politics might be with regards to China’s questionable treatment of its own citizens and those of Darfur, it was an impressive and tastefully done spectacle - up until the very end with some Chinese air gymnast engaging in some bizarre gravity-defying stunts. Huh? Well, I told myself that was a cultural thing, much like the appeal of campy Japanese game shows which if anything dictates that Kabuki theatre will never be entirely phased out.
But back to China and the Olympics and its opening ceremony.
Politics was in the air (the very polluted Beijing air) last night. Costumed Chinese soldiers did their android marches evoking an era less reminiscent of the futuristic feel of Blade Runner and more befitting of Mao’s China or a Mel Brook’s production mocking Germany of yesteryear.
Only today’s China isn’t some silly movie that ends rather disappointingly after a 2 hours of build-up nor are its visuals of devastation - from the 1.5 millions displaced peoples whose mere existence was inconvenient for new Olympics construction to the percentage of those very people who were then forced into a life of migrant work and hard labor at their own expense just so we could all cheer for a cute little kid rescued from an earthquake in Sichuan and feel better about ourselves for endorsing a country who’s so hard-pressed to find a symbol of hope that they have to dig out a 5-year-old from an earthquake who isn’t quite old enough to question the ways of his country to be their mascot.
The ceremony left audiences with an everlasting reminder that however fashionably forward China’s Capitalist pretense may be in the global community, at heart they remain true to their Communist doctrines. These principles do little to win public opinion, mind you. In the days and weeks leading up the Olympics, perhaps the most critical network to air coverage of the event was the one that dumped the most moola and has the most invested in its success.
Still, NBC is stuck with the Olympics. We’re not. Which means we can decide to change the channel, but unfortunately, can’t turn a blind eye to the goings-on in China. I decided not to change the channel last night. “It’s better to know and be cognizant,” I told myself.
Besides, the place our imaginations take us is far darker than what our eyes will allow us to see. Or is it?
Leave a comment