How will Beijing 2008 be remembered? As the perfect Olympics, masterminded by a rising world power? Or as the ‘genocide’ Games? 
The two images are miles apart. But in the past week, from my vantage point in Beijing, they have seemed virtually inseparable.
Criticism of the Games has once again flared up abroad. First, there were reports that British Olympic chiefs would gag their athletes from talking about human rights in Beijing. Then, Steven Spielberg dropped out as artistic adviser for the opening and closing ceremonies, saying he was concerned about China’s ties with Sudan.
Yet, wherever I turn in Beijing, a very different Olympics more or less hits me in the face. Television programmes, street billboards, callers-in on radio - all are building to a crescendo of triumphant celebration.
And organisers have considered even the tiniest of details to ensure the Games go off without a hitch. An example: riding the subway this week has given me a new command of fine-grained sporting facts. To get the population up to speed, Beijing has started running video introductions for all Olympic sports in subway cars, laying out their basic rules, right down to the size and weight of equipment.
Chances are most Beijingers have never wielded a fencing foil. But they should know by now that, under Olympic regulations, a foil may be no longer than 110 centimetres. Or that a water polo goal is 0.9 metres high by 3 metres wide. Or that softball pitchers must throw the ball within 20 seconds of getting it from the umpire.
That thought has been given to such minutiae is of a piece with Beijing’s remarkably thorough preparations. It has taught people how to cheer , groomed medal presenters, clamped down on public spitting and improved queuing habits.
But while China has left no stone unturned, the British controversy and Spielberg’s defection together serve as a reminder that there are some mountains it cannot move.
Reuters photo of Steven Spielberg by Mario Anzuoni and Etiquette training of medal presenters by David Gray.
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10 comments so far
On one hand, you have a country trying to use the Olympics as a catalyst to solve countless social issues, improve infrasture and testing out new enviromental policies. On the other hand, you have activists from the other side of world who goes on condeming the country because it refuse to ratify economical sanctions they wanted to place on Sudan.
That’s the situation, and I don’t think Spielberg is stupid enough not to see it, but his carrier is at stake and getting harassed by those “activists” for the rest of his life is not something he want to face.
- Posted by iewgnemNot only Sudan, but what about the Chinese oil market funding and driving the genocide in Darfur?
And has everyone forgotten about the colonization and illegal occupation of Tibet…and the mass genocide there?
China deserves nothing from the international community, not our support, not our respect, and certainly not our beloved Olympic tradition…until they learn to respect the value of human life and human rights to life.
The Olympics are about to repeat the same mistake in China in 2008, as they did in Germany in 1936.
That is giving international credence to a government with no ethical considerations and no restraint in the face of humanity.
I will not watch one second of this farce.
It is only contributing to the terror of genocide in this world.
I was very upset with Spielburg’s ignorant contribution, but now, I am glad he did go along for so long. Now, his resignation may help to shed some light on China’s mass human rights abuses. In case anyone has forgotten about Tienneman Square, Darfur, Sudan, and Tibet, the world needs to be reminded that we as an international community need to stand up and resist in the face of murderous governments, not complacently huddle around our televisions to watch them rejoicing in putting on a good face.
The Beijing Olympics are a farce and a slap in the face to millions and millions of helpless people and their families who’s lives have been taken or left grieving the loss of their loved ones, their cultures, their homes, and their peace.
- Posted by AdamThe spielberg’s resignation as artist director of the Beijing Olympic games by linking the Darfur situation to the Chinese Government policy is absurd.
First of all, the Darfur situation is the business of the people in Darfur and it is the responsibility of the Darfur government.It is nothing to do with China and the Chinese people.
How could Spielberg blame China for a conflict thousands of miles away from China. However, why not Spieldberg himself does something about it? Or should we boycott Spielberg’s films by accusing him not doing enough for the Darfur situation? Should the world demand Spielberg to donate all his wealth to the people in Darfur?
Unlike the western powers, China has the foreign policy of not to intervene other country’s internal politics. Why should Spielberg try to impose the western value on an Asian country such as China? Why didn’t Spielberg blame his own country rather than China?
The worst impact was that Spielberg’s message had misled the world by presenting a wrong impression
as if the China policy of non-intervention was the major cause of the Darfur conflict. For this consequence, I would like to suggest that the Chinese government should sue Spielberg in an internation court for compensation.
Obviously his purpose of linking the Darfur situation to the Beijing Olympic Games was ulterior. Moreover, Spielberg’s attempt to politicise the Olympic Games is in total contempt of the Olympic spirit.
However, Spielberg’s intention is obvious. He just wanted to boycott the Beijing Olympic Games.
- Posted by Wing Kai HoBut,can he?
1984 Olympic Games held in LA. This is the year Iraq used chemical weapons on its own people. Did you find any link between U.S governmnet support and Iraq’s brutality?
- Posted by JackIf not, why do we have to try this hard to find a link between the Chinese government and what’s happening in Dafur?
Donald Rumsfield, a special envoy for president Ronald Reagan, was shaking hands with Saddam Hussein right before 1984 LA Olympic Games. Why? Because there were American interests to be sought in that area. Why the Chinese should be refrained from what Americans have been doing?
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAE BB82/
I am not a great fan of the chinese regime; however, i do believe that the chinese are being made a scape goat in this saga. One only has to take a fleeting look at the history books to discover how much damage the west has done - slave trade, uganda (who supported and armed Idi Amini?, iraq, vietnam, Leopolds Congo and countless other atrocities that their selective memory has conveniently pushed to the outer recesses of their membrane.
- Posted by TammyGranted, some of these atrocities happened well before my time, but “by the same measure ye judge others, ye shall also be judged”.
And China never asked for gag order:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jh tml?xml=/sport/2008/02/12/sochin112.xml
“a number of national Olympic committees in Asia, China has put no pressure on countries to silence their Olympians”
“Several national Olympic committees said yesterday they had no agreements limiting free speech and denied there was any pressure from China”
Alas the “no protest t-shirt” rule has been part of IOC regulation for decades:
“No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”
Did Sydney get “Free Maori”? Did Atlanta get “Davidian Is Good”? Will government related group hang “One Fist Nation” flag at Whistler 2010?
Not when Hu Jingtao has no First Nation activist in his pocket like Stephen Harper’s Tenzin Khangsar.
- Posted by Charles LiuAdam, Darfur is in Sudan. And genocide in Tibet? You must be joking.
Charles Liu: Sydney did not get “Free Maori” because it is in Australia. The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. Otherwise, I agree.
- Posted by chriswaugh_bjGenocide in Tibet? A lie from western media.Really funny. Separatists ought to be suppressed.
- Posted by ChineseSpielburg should resign from American movie industry because US is killing local people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and days ago an American soldier raped a Japanese girl!
- Posted by ChineseHypocritical Americans.
The first Olympic boycott was at the 1956 Melbourne Games. Because of the Suez Crisis and Russia invading Hungary, a number of countries stayed away whilst others refused to attend the opening ceremony. Even some governments had ordered their athletes not to mix with other athletes in the Olympic Village. Then there was a near riot during the Water Polo match between Russian and Hungarian players.
As a young school boy at the time, I was very concerned that the Olympic Movement was being torn apart and that the athletes were being used as a pawn in a political game. The athletes had come to the Melbourne Games under the umbrella of the Olympic Movement and did not want to be part of the political game.
I remember an old saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword”. I wrote a letter to the organizing committee with an Idea, which was to get all the athletes together for the closing ceremony and to ask them to intermingle, regardless of race, colour or religion, and walk freely around the Stadium as One Nation. And so it was done and I was awarded an Olympic medal for my idea.
Will all these calls for boycotts and disruptions hurt the Chinese government and the Chinese people? You bet it will. Will the Chinese government change its policies at this late stage? No!
The Chinese people are a very stubborn, but a proud nation. They have achieved so much in such a short time, much more than any country in the last 100 years. If they get hurt, they will simply close its border to the rest of the world, and so what have we achieved. It will be the athletes, although not all, who will feel that the spirit of the Olympic Movement has been torn apart.
At the Melbourne closing ceremony, some athletes walked arm in arm whilst others were waving and laughing to the crowd in the stand, conveying a message of goodwill, peace and harmony to the world. During that brief moment for them, war, nationality and politics were forgotten for they had formed the first Olympic Nation.
The IOC must share most of the blame for what is happening. In the last two decades, it has been getting itself involved with world politics and with the United Nations.
Recently, the president of the IOC Mr Jacques Rogge said the Olympic Games were about sports and not politics, and the two do not go together. Yet the IOC is putting pressure on the Human Rights and Civil Liberties groups, to force the Chinese government to amend its human rights policies, and to intervene in other countries policies.
In October 1999, an IOC panel were discussing reforms to the Olympic movement, “In areas of conflict during the Olympic Games, the IOC should implement the proper measures in order to symbolize or enforce the Olympic Truce,” read a proposal put before the 80-member reform panel. The word “enforce” met immediate objections from former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, a member of the panel. “Many conservatives in America will go crazy when they see this,” said Kissinger.
For the IOC to interfere with world politics can be very dangerous for the whole of the Olympic Movement. It may in the future, find itself into a political crisis which it cannot handle. What happens if a country decides to retaliate with violence against the host country during an Olympic Games.
Has the IOC thought about the safety of the athletes? Is the IOC after the Nobel Prize?
Isn’t there another young person out there in this world who can sort out this Olympic mess?
If you care to read my story, you can go to my website: http://www.johnwing.co.uk
Thank you
- Posted by John Ian WingJohn Ian Wing