OIympissed-off
Usually I'm a big old sap for the Olympics. (Especially when MDF Janice Scott's husband Rick Gentile was running them for CBS Sports back in the day: Lillehammer, Seoul, Nagano, Albertville, couple more.) I get all teary at the torch and the flag and the hymn and the oath and the flame lighting (the archer at Barcelona is my all-time favorite Olympic moment), and when I'm not all teary I'm mocking the ridiculous team outfits and host nation dance numbers and all that guff.
Not this time. I was thoroughly creeped out by the goosestepping militarism that the totalitarian robotic Chinese clones brought to the arena. Even those adorable kiddies in all those gorgeous costumes couldn't do it for me. Not when racketing through my forebrain were things like Tibet, and those indelible images of weeping Chinese senior citizens watching their homes bulldozed in front of them to make room for Olympic dorms (and who are now living on the streets), and all those migrant workers forced to leave town with no jobs and no way to support themselves just so the sensibilities of rich foreign tourists wouldn't be offended by the sight of them. Did I mention Tibet?
I do not like China. In fact, I hate it. It is a regressive, repressive, ruthless, humorless society that doesn't do things like normal people and insanely overreacts to outside criticism and treats its citizens like crap. Probably many individual Chinese are good and warm and intelligent people. In which case I wonder, why the hell don't they just rise up and overthrow their rigid masters? It's not as if they haven't done that sort of thing before, and I'm not talking about the Red Guard, either. They have the numbers, no question. So are they passive sheep, or what? If one Wall can come tumbling down, why not another?
Anyway, I'm not going to be watching the Big O coverage. Basically, I watched the opening festivities (not a patch on Seoul's wondrous and wonderful Go dance, btw) just to have my opinions confirmed. And they have been. And if it sounds racist, I don't really care.
Not this time. I was thoroughly creeped out by the goosestepping militarism that the totalitarian robotic Chinese clones brought to the arena. Even those adorable kiddies in all those gorgeous costumes couldn't do it for me. Not when racketing through my forebrain were things like Tibet, and those indelible images of weeping Chinese senior citizens watching their homes bulldozed in front of them to make room for Olympic dorms (and who are now living on the streets), and all those migrant workers forced to leave town with no jobs and no way to support themselves just so the sensibilities of rich foreign tourists wouldn't be offended by the sight of them. Did I mention Tibet?
I do not like China. In fact, I hate it. It is a regressive, repressive, ruthless, humorless society that doesn't do things like normal people and insanely overreacts to outside criticism and treats its citizens like crap. Probably many individual Chinese are good and warm and intelligent people. In which case I wonder, why the hell don't they just rise up and overthrow their rigid masters? It's not as if they haven't done that sort of thing before, and I'm not talking about the Red Guard, either. They have the numbers, no question. So are they passive sheep, or what? If one Wall can come tumbling down, why not another?
Anyway, I'm not going to be watching the Big O coverage. Basically, I watched the opening festivities (not a patch on Seoul's wondrous and wonderful Go dance, btw) just to have my opinions confirmed. And they have been. And if it sounds racist, I don't really care.
posted by Patricia Kennealy Morrison | 10:59 PM
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