An auspicious day
I’m on a roll; I’m on a roll this time
I feel my luck could change
I am reluctant to comment on the human rights situation in China. The media in this country, even our beloved ABC, seems to be phenomenally biased against the current regime. On the other hand, the Chinese media is so blatantly pro-red that a sizeable grain of salt is required with their reporting.
AM this morning reported on a spontaneous gathering of people in Tienanmen Square chanting the Chinese equivalent of “Aussie Aussie Aussie”, and immediately made the implication that it was some kind of state-run conspiracy to make it look like the Chinese people are all in favour of the Olympics.
Isn’t a more feasible explanation that the residents of Beijing are actually looking forward to three weeks of party time? Remember Sydney 2000? Drunken revellers swamping the city every night? Maybe Bob Carr put something in the water and we were all acting under the control of the state back then.
On the other hand, it is undeniable that there are big problems in China. After the recent unrest in Tibet, I received an email from an expat living in Lhasa which was quite chilling. China has two faces - the progressive, developing capitalist nation being presented to the world, and the secret, totalitarian communist regime firmly guiding the destiny of a billions plus citizens in the background.
Was it wrong to give the Olympics to Beijing? I don’t think so. Increased attention on the country can only be good, and as China learns to be a part of the world maybe it will absorb some of the western freedoms that we take for granted.
As for the Olympics themselves, well I don’t really understand why people get so excited - it’s basically a bunch of sports that noone really cares about, and it makes my scores at trivia evenings go down for a few weeks.
With one exception: go the Olyroos! 1-1 with Serbia and Montenegro is not a bad result, but given the tough group we have we’ll probably have to eke out a win against Cote D’Ivoire on Wednesday.
August 8, 2008 11:20 am 
