Image via WikipediaIn just a few short hours, the Olympics will begin in Beijing, and China will finally become a full-fledged western-style super power (or something like that).
As usual, I am writing about the events of the day, a day early. That is because, with time zones, China is about half a day ahead of the US. So it really is the 8th. And, by the time the opening ceremony starts it will be the 8th around the world. It is somewhat of a lucky coincidence that 8:08pm (the start time for the opening ceremony) in Beijing occurs when it does. And luck is what the date and time are all about. Eight is a very lucky number in China.
Today (the 8th) is going to be a very interesting day. There have been hundreds of protests leading up to this Olympics because of China’s slow progress on human rights and more are expected throughout the day. Many organizations including Reporters Without Borders and the US Campaign for Burma are calling for a boycott of the opening ceremony. They are doing this because a complete boycott of the games would only hurt the athletes, but boycotting the ceremony simply sends a message to China that they have not held up their end of the deal and we noticed.
Many parallels to the 1936 Summer Olympics have been noted as well. Germany made no promises, but by the time of the games, things were not the way the rest the world had expected them to be. Germany’s human-rights record by 1936 was not quite as bad as China’s but it was becoming obvious that the new German government did not embrace the values promoted by the Olympics. There was talk of boycott, and some who actually did. Germany did a major clean-up and removed evidence of the Jewish repression during the Olympics. The US president stated publicly that sports events like the Olympics are not political and should be kept that way. The parallels are uncanny.
Like I said, this is going to be an interesting week. To kick things off let start with a quote:
“The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn’t separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the countries in the spirit of peace. That’s why the Olympic Flame should never die.”
– Adolf Hitler, commenting on the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games
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