Summer food fun and drink - 2008 Beijing Olympics social costs · 20.08.08 by colin newell
Off the AP wire today… Chinese authorities have ordered two elderly women to spend one year in a labor camp after they applied to hold a protest during the Beijing Olympics against being forced from their homes, a relative said Wednesday.
I actually have a friend who was competing at the Oly.
She came up empty handed sadly.
One of my favorite morning hang-outs on Cook Street in Victoria often hosts a medal winner… and I would be tempted to ask him: “Is it really worth it? You know, to spend all this money… to displace all these people… and abuse human rights… so you can run and jump and splash and leap on your trampoline and ride your BMX bike?”
Yea. Who else was surprised to see BMX as an Olympic Sport? – and at the same time, the real sport of baseball is fading from view? And trampoline? A sport? Hardly.
Anyho. 79-year-old mother and grand-mother, Wu Dianyuan, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77, blind and crippled face a year in a forced labor camp. What sort of reeducation through labor can these serve? Wouldn’t it be more punishing to send them to a Beijing McDonald’s, daily, for a couple of weeks?
Beijing announced last month that it would allow protests in three parks far from the Olympic venues during the games but they had to be approved in advance. Of 77 applications lodged so far, none had been approved, and rights groups have called the zones a charade.
The Olympics are a charade, albeit an expensive charade – that British Columbia will be soon hosting – at absurd expense to British Columbia’s weary taxpayers.
In the meantime, B.C. residents should watch the gritty streets of East Vancouver – and see how our own Premiere and Olympic trumpeter, Gordon Campbell, deals with the unfortunate and unsightly stuff… as Jock Show 2010 approaches.
Summer food fun and drink - 2008 Beijing Olympics double standards | Summer food fun and drink - black hole swallow internet
Two words about the 2008 Olympics…
Rhythmic Gymnastics… This activity, water polo, BMX, and Beach volleyball have reduced the Olympic movement to a laugh fest… and like you describe: A VISA commercial occasionally interrupted by sport.
— James Aug 21, 11:33 am #