Dirty Olympics

contentions ^ | 8.8.2007 | Gordon Chang

[Contentions]

Next year, at eight seconds after 8:08 on the evening of August 8, the most important event in the most populous country in the world will begin. At that moment, the Olympics in Beijing will start—and the People’s Republic of China will announce its arrival in the century it believes it will own.

Today, to mark the one-year countdown to the XXIX Olympiad, Beijing staged a grandiose nighttime ceremony in Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of the Chinese nation and the scene of mass murder in 1989. China’s Leninists are good at organizing gargantuan rallies glorifying themselves, and this extravaganza, which included International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, was no exception. The anthem for the event was “We’re Ready.”

[Bookwoman]

Just don’t eat the food, drink the water, or breathe the polluted air.

[Bookwoman]

And don’t brush your teeth.

[toldyou]

Thanks. I’m planning a trip there in October. I’ll try to follow your advice.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

How about the beer?

[UCFRoadWarrior]

...and watch out for those Tanks

[pnh102]

I predict these will be the lowest rated (in the USA) Olympics ever.

[wideawake]

Purely for demographic reasons, the 21st century will not be China's century.

The average Chinese woman is 34 years old.

The average Indian woman is 25 years old: 9 years younger.

31% of India's population is under age 14.

Only 20% of China's is.

China has twice as many old age pensioners as India does.

India has easily more than 4 times as many English speakers on paper and probably has 10 or 20 times as many truly fluent English speakers.

[steel_resolve]

Don’t forget the One Child policy and the MASSIVE gender imbalance it has wrought. China is a corrupt, creepy basket case waiting to explode. Dear Russia - try and enjoy yourself when it happens - we’ll be sitting an ocean away with the popcorn.

[montag813]

Will the medals be made of Melamine?

[Hegewisch Dupa]

...the 21st century will not be China's century.

Hell, at least the bad guys are learning to set their sights lower. The Berlin Olympics were supposed to kick off the Thousand-Year Reich.

[N. Theknow]

An hour after each event they will have to do it again.

[Past Your Eyes]

ROFLMAO!

[pacelvi]

Don’t eat the buns either.

[discostu]

It’ll probably be the worst rated summer Olympics ever just because ratings have been trending down on the Olympics. But I doubt it’ll be as bad as the winter games have been, there’s more sports Americans like in the summer games.

[GeorgeKant]

I predict the opposite. People tend to only watch Olympics hosted by “big” countries.

[GeorgeKant]

I think there’ll be a lot of US and China gold medal competition in 2008, I bet you people in the US will watch and pay attention to the medal count. Also the 13 hour time difference helps with watching morning events.

[pnh102]

Either way I think the biggest embarrassment will come from the hoodlums and gangstas that will represent us on the basketball “Dream Team” this go-around. I expect them to win the lead medal.

[GeorgeKant]

31% of India's population is under age 14.

Yeah, but 25% of them are illiterate.

India has easily more than 4 times as many English speakers on paper and probably has 10 or 20 times as many truly fluent English speakers.

That is hogwash and you know it. India has no more than 50 million truely fluent English speakers. And there are far more English-language reputed international scientific journal articles written from China than India.

[quark]

An American coworker of Chinese & Vietnamese parentage recently returned from a four-week trip to visit to family & friends in Hong Kong and on the mainland. His overarching observation: The country is severely polluted (air, land, & water), extremely corrupt, and intensely lawless in the cities and the countryside.