The Beijing Olympics has opened today with all the usual pomp and circumstance. Yippee.
It's nice to see through all the haze, pollution, and obfuscation by the Chinese government.
They've created a Potemkin vision. They want the world to see that they're ready to join the world stage and assume a place of primacy. Too bad the luster wore off well before today. All that glamour and glitz hides the grim reality that the situation in China is an absolute mess. The fact that the Chinese have to repress speech, access to the Internet to report and research stories, etc., shows that the Chinese are trying to project an image of modernity and glamour, but they know that the truth is far more grim.
The Chinese efforts have been overshadowed by their repressive human rights - both inside China and for its support of genocidal regimes in places like Sudan and Zimbabwe. The air quality problems just scratch the surface of the massive environmental damage and ongoing failings to deal with pollution wrought by the government's need to grow the economic at a breakneck pace to stem dissent. The government's craven policy that restricts media access to the Internet for fear that some reporter might report on any of the travesties imposed on the Chinese people by the Communists are what have been exposed.
Ralph Peters is conducting his own boycott of the Games. I will watch some of the events but have no interest in watching the opening or closing ceremonies.
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