I attended the Good Luck Beijing Games yesterday, the Synchronized Swimming Event in the Water Cube, The cube is amazing! I was wondering how Beijing Committee preparing for uncertainty and "unexpected events" in the games, were these types of social-political problems anticipated? Security was certainly high for these pre-events but what stood out the most was the incompleteness of the facilities and the lack of transport options to and from the park. Likewise, the air pollution here is as tick & choking as ever. The entire sound system in the cube also crashed (stopped) during the Venezuelan duos performance, how terrible for them!
the most popular phrase here now is "don't be like CNN", so the foreigners here are laying low. The anti-western media backlash in the Chinese Media is intense, however, the sentiment on the street seems as though locals are indifferent to the ongoing international banter. This phrase from a NY Times article for me articulates the main ideological difference between our cultures, that being differing views on the rights of the individual vs the greater, collective good:
"Bai Ru, 22, a business management student originally from Inner Mongolia, said she trusted the government to take whatever measures were necessary to ensure a seamless Olympics. She said personal sacrifice, including stifling one's dissatisfaction with the political status quo, was for the collective good."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/18/world/asia/18china.html?ref=asia
