The 2008 Summer Olympics: Communist China’s Big Coming Out Party
Right Minded Fellow wants to feel excitement and good will for the beginning of Olympiad XXIX, but at best feels a painful gnawing sensation. The Olympics have certainly been tinged with corruption, excessive commercialism, and cynical manipulation for a long time. From the onset, political exploitation has been a central theme no more apparent than Hitler’s grand performance on the world stage in Berlin during the summer of 1936. How wonderful it was that Hitler’s racist evil was upstaged by a brilliant young African-American, Jesse Owens. His accomplishments single-handedly spit in the face of Nazi ideology and promotion of the “master” race. Few could imagine just how extreme Hitler’s murderous fascism was becoming. Sadly, the problem of racism and religious persecution wasn’t a hot topic in most of the free world at that time. Move forward to the 1972 Olympics held in West Germany. The air was ripe with cold war politics pitting the free democratic remains of the bifurcation of Germany against their former countrymen living under a puppet government tightly controlled by the Soviet Union. East Germans amassed tremendous victories in Olympic competition as whispers grew to roars over the years that their competitors were "medically enhanced" for competative advantage. While all international tension seemed to fall on the Cold War adversaries, world politics would play out in its ugliest, most horrifying extreme in Munich.
Who would have known as the Olympics were underway on September 5, 1972 that on that date, a horrible chapter in world history would begin? Terrorist group, Black September, agents of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, kidnapped and slaughtered eleven Israeli athletes and coaches marking the opening salvo of the war waged by Radical Islam against the Judeo-Christian West, an ever more complex conflict that besieges us today. While the world attempted to put on its best face united in the pursuit of the Olympic creed, “Swifter, higher, stronger,” the hateful, murderous, genocidal specter of Islamic Terrorism began its evil crusade to become the world’s greatest menace as the religion of Islam became warped as the uniting ideology of a host of terrorist movements of both Shia and Sunni Moslem radicals inflicting torture and death on all continents of the world.
The Olympic movement would be changed for ever by those hateful Islamic thugs. Extreme security measures now required helped diminish the free and open atmosphere of the games. Gross politicization would increasingly become a greater part of each subsequent Olympic event.
Corruption and politics are integral parts of how the International Olympic Committee operates where members from ethically challenged nations are more than willing to accept bribes and other reward for favorable attention in granting future Olympic host cities. Crass commercialization and exploitation has become another dominant theme of the Olympics. “All’s far in love and war,” the saying goes, but the same seems applicable to many facets of the Olympics.
Global politics, the Carter administration’s outrage at the Soviet lead invasion of Afghanistan lead to the United States boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. Tit for tat, the Soviet Union, in turn, boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
Unseemly dictators and corrupt nations have used the Olympics in the past for maximum propaganda and self-promotion, but not since Hitler hosted the 1936 Olympics has the role of a corrupt and murderous totalitarian government taken center stage like the Communist Chinese hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing this summer.
The Red Chinese will take full advantage of the Olympics for maximum public relations purposes showing a progressive city with all the modern charms, luxuries, and technologies of any world class city. Already we’ve seen images of the cutesy little Pokémon mascots and “dancing Beijing” comes alive. That there are millions of people world-wide with serious grievances against the Chinese not the least of which is the ongoing oppression and slaughter in Tibet, saber rattling against Taiwan, support of the butchers in Darfur, scores of significant human rights violations, brutal subversion of Folun Gong, arms and technology sales to terrorist states like Iran, and brutal suppression of political dissent among its own people will be glossed over by carefully staged theatrics of singing children dressed in ethic costumes looking as cute and lovable as little darlings can be. Gleaming modern city skyscapes, clean modern city streets, and state-of-the-art sports venues will serve as pictorial backdrops for athletic competition while extreme poverty, polluted rivers teaming with floating garbage, smokestacks of acid and pollution spewing factories and power plants, or any signs of the tools of oppression wielded by the police state government will be totally hidden from the world’s television cameras. Nevertheless, for the commercial spectacle the Olympics represents, NBC and the rest of the world’s media is more than willing to play along for the privilege of showing wall-to-wall coverage of everything from the traditional track and field events, the exploitation driven basketball games, down to the menial sports like badminton.
All is not well for sure as the world recognizes the treachery of the communist dictators in Beijing. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Great Britain’s Prince Charles have all indicated they will not attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing. Perhaps ironically the warrior against the Axis of Evil himself, George W. Bush will attend.
Meanwhile, the systematic and cruel oppression of its citizens and destruction of the environment will continue as the norm for Communist China. Americans will flock to their favorite retailers to buy Chinese finished goods in increasing numbers. American companies continue to dance with the Devil sending manufacturing operations to China avoiding the cost of doing business in the more civilized and freedom loving world for the sake of ever great profit. On the surface, the cites that serve as the economic hubs in China sport a thin, western veneer with all the trappings of progressive capitalist culture. Western entertainment abounds as does American dining from McDonalds to Morton’s Steakhouse both flourishing in Beijing.
Right Minded Fellow wants to feel excitement and good will for the beginning of Olympiad XXIX, but at best feels a painful gnawing sensation. The Olympics have certainly been tinged with corruption, excessive commercialism, and cynical manipulation for a long time. From the onset, political exploitation has been a central theme no more apparent than Hitler’s grand performance on the world stage in Berlin during the summer of 1936. How wonderful it was that Hitler’s racist evil was upstaged by a brilliant young African-American, Jesse Owens. His accomplishments single-handedly spit in the face of Nazi ideology and promotion of the “master” race. Few could imagine just how extreme Hitler’s murderous fascism was becoming. Sadly, the problem of racism and religious persecution wasn’t a hot topic in most of the free world at that time. Move forward to the 1972 Olympics held in West Germany. The air was ripe with cold war politics pitting the free democratic remains of the bifurcation of Germany against their former countrymen living under a puppet government tightly controlled by the Soviet Union. East Germans amassed tremendous victories in Olympic competition as whispers grew to roars over the years that their competitors were "medically enhanced" for competative advantage. While all international tension seemed to fall on the Cold War adversaries, world politics would play out in its ugliest, most horrifying extreme in Munich.
Who would have known as the Olympics were underway on September 5, 1972 that on that date, a horrible chapter in world history would begin? Terrorist group, Black September, agents of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah, kidnapped and slaughtered eleven Israeli athletes and coaches marking the opening salvo of the war waged by Radical Islam against the Judeo-Christian West, an ever more complex conflict that besieges us today. While the world attempted to put on its best face united in the pursuit of the Olympic creed, “Swifter, higher, stronger,” the hateful, murderous, genocidal specter of Islamic Terrorism began its evil crusade to become the world’s greatest menace as the religion of Islam became warped as the uniting ideology of a host of terrorist movements of both Shia and Sunni Moslem radicals inflicting torture and death on all continents of the world.
The Olympic movement would be changed for ever by those hateful Islamic thugs. Extreme security measures now required helped diminish the free and open atmosphere of the games. Gross politicization would increasingly become a greater part of each subsequent Olympic event.
Corruption and politics are integral parts of how the International Olympic Committee operates where members from ethically challenged nations are more than willing to accept bribes and other reward for favorable attention in granting future Olympic host cities. Crass commercialization and exploitation has become another dominant theme of the Olympics. “All’s far in love and war,” the saying goes, but the same seems applicable to many facets of the Olympics.
Global politics, the Carter administration’s outrage at the Soviet lead invasion of Afghanistan lead to the United States boycott of the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics. Tit for tat, the Soviet Union, in turn, boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
Unseemly dictators and corrupt nations have used the Olympics in the past for maximum propaganda and self-promotion, but not since Hitler hosted the 1936 Olympics has the role of a corrupt and murderous totalitarian government taken center stage like the Communist Chinese hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing this summer.
The Red Chinese will take full advantage of the Olympics for maximum public relations purposes showing a progressive city with all the modern charms, luxuries, and technologies of any world class city. Already we’ve seen images of the cutesy little Pokémon mascots and “dancing Beijing” comes alive. That there are millions of people world-wide with serious grievances against the Chinese not the least of which is the ongoing oppression and slaughter in Tibet, saber rattling against Taiwan, support of the butchers in Darfur, scores of significant human rights violations, brutal subversion of Folun Gong, arms and technology sales to terrorist states like Iran, and brutal suppression of political dissent among its own people will be glossed over by carefully staged theatrics of singing children dressed in ethic costumes looking as cute and lovable as little darlings can be. Gleaming modern city skyscapes, clean modern city streets, and state-of-the-art sports venues will serve as pictorial backdrops for athletic competition while extreme poverty, polluted rivers teaming with floating garbage, smokestacks of acid and pollution spewing factories and power plants, or any signs of the tools of oppression wielded by the police state government will be totally hidden from the world’s television cameras. Nevertheless, for the commercial spectacle the Olympics represents, NBC and the rest of the world’s media is more than willing to play along for the privilege of showing wall-to-wall coverage of everything from the traditional track and field events, the exploitation driven basketball games, down to the menial sports like badminton.
All is not well for sure as the world recognizes the treachery of the communist dictators in Beijing. German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and Great Britain’s Prince Charles have all indicated they will not attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing. Perhaps ironically the warrior against the Axis of Evil himself, George W. Bush will attend.
Meanwhile, the systematic and cruel oppression of its citizens and destruction of the environment will continue as the norm for Communist China. Americans will flock to their favorite retailers to buy Chinese finished goods in increasing numbers. American companies continue to dance with the Devil sending manufacturing operations to China avoiding the cost of doing business in the more civilized and freedom loving world for the sake of ever great profit. On the surface, the cites that serve as the economic hubs in China sport a thin, western veneer with all the trappings of progressive capitalist culture. Western entertainment abounds as does American dining from McDonalds to Morton’s Steakhouse both flourishing in Beijing.
Looks are deceiving, look at the dirt swept under the welcome mat as the world descends upon Red China's capital, Beijing in the weeks ahead. For all the hoopla and entertainment, we interact with a nation that has nuclear weapons pointed right at our cities and is working on technologies to blow our satellites. The great Chinese party continues with seldom a whisper of their goon tactics, plundering the planet, and oppressing its citizens. This may not look like the China of Mao Tse Tung's "Little Red Book." Instead of talking about destroying the West by exporting Communist revolution, it is leeching the west by satisfying the materialistic urge of consumer society providing every gadget and goody imaginable cheaper than other industrial countries because its workers have no freedoms with meager compensation for their labors. Safety standards, environmental safeguards, and quality inspection are all far less stringent than what other societies will tolerate. For the sake of saving a couple bucks on a box of widgets and a store full of less expensive whatca-ma-call-its, we've sold out our dignity making filthy rich a government and economic system that has none.
The Butchers of Beijing, the terrorists of Tiananmen are ready to entertain you. Let the games begin.
The Butchers of Beijing, the terrorists of Tiananmen are ready to entertain you. Let the games begin.
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