Yesterday, the world was treated to a visual spectacle as the Beijing Olympics finally arrived. Watching coverage of the Opening Ceremonies, I noticed that every time a new country arrived in the stadium for the Parade of Athletes, the commentators pointed out the star athletes in that team or at least what sports they would be participating in. Sometimes, they even shared stories about what one athlete in that country’s team had endured or what they went through to get to this point – stories that helped heighten the sense of wonder and appreciation for all the years of hard work these athletes did to reach this pinnacle of sports. Noticeably absent in these commentators’ remarks were any comments about China’s human rights record or political stances on world issues. And that is exactly as it should be – after all, how many of us would appreciate watching the Stanley Cup, the World Series, Wimbledon, the World Cup or any other major sporting event and hear comments being made about the host nation’s foreign or domestic policy? Is that really why we’re watching these events? No, it’s not. It’s not about any of that; instead, these are sporting events where the focus must be on the competing athletes and their respective performances. Click here to continue reading »”Beijing Opening Ceremonies – Let the Protests, er, Games Begin”

A new controversy surrounding the Beijing Games erupted this week and once again, in a rather predictable fashion, calls for boycotting the Olympics rang out across the Net. Reporters from around the globe arriving in Beijing this past week to cover the Games found themselves being denied access to certain sites on the internet. It turned out that the Chinese government’s assurance that they would not censor the internet during the Beijing Games had gone unfulfilled. In addition, there were reports that the air quality in Beijing was still a concern as a haze could be seen in the air despite various efforts put into effect by the Chinese government to curb the levels of air pollution.

Apparently, that was then and this is now. Speaking at his first press conference in Beijing today, IOC president Jacques Rogge announced that many of the internet sites that were found to be blocked earlier in the week are now accessible to foreign journalists and Olympic officials have announced that the air quality in Beijing for the last six days has been deemed “adequate” for the Olympic Games. Click here to continue reading »”The Beijing Olympics Fiasco – Who’s Really To Blame”

While away on vacation, I heard a news report about the upcoming Beijing Games that, in addition to being responsible for causing a fair amount of head shaking, had me pondering about how the Vancouver Olympic Games in 2010 will be received. The report in question dealt with the announcement by Chinese officials that they will be putting in place a ban on the serving of dog meat, known in China as xiangrou (translation – “fragrant meat”), in all official Olympic venues during the Beijing Games next month. Apparently, like the 1988 Seoul Games, the Chinese Olympic officials want to make sure there won’t be any dog meat offerings on restaurant menus out of fear that it would upset the tourists. I don’t know about you, but I found this news rather disturbing.

Now to be clear, this isn’t about any issues regarding the farming or slaughter of dogs as a source of meat, nor is it yet another vegetarian’s attempt to demonstrate the evil behind eating animals since I’m not a vegetarian. Click here to continue reading »”Hello, Beijing – Hold the Dog, Please”

At the end of this past school year, I helped organize a school-wide “Olympics Day” where numerous sporting and recreational activities were set up with the various grades assigned to participate in the activities at different times during the day. As the school wanted to do something different this year, I suggested this activity as a way to celebrate this being an Olympic year. Of course, given how it was my suggestion, they knew this would mean they’d have some fresh blood helping to organize this year’s event. And so, as you can imagine, it was an easy sell.

And yet, while we were planning out this day of activities, I couldn’t help but feel some trepidation that we’d encounter resistance from some parents about the school carrying out an activity celebrating this Olympic year. After all, we’ve all seen and read about the protests that occurred in numerous countries during the Olympic Torch Relay, some being so hostile and dangerous to the torch relay runners like the one in Paris, where they actually had to extinguish the flame. Most of these protests focused on China, the host country for this year’s Summer Olympics, and their appalling human rights record as well as the on-going conflict over Tibet. However, the protests didn’t remain limited to these issues for very long as other protest groups soon joined in chanting against various issues ranging from China’s support for Sudan to the status of Taiwan. This dramatic rise across the globe of protesters using this Olympic event as a platform for political/social protest has even become a serious concern for Click here to continue reading »”Beijing Olympics – A Sad Sign Of The Times”