On the Olympics and all that jazz

It's bread and circuses on a monumental scale. It clouds real issues of social injustice and environmental degradation. It highlights specific people with specific sporting abilities and elevates them to celebrity status, or ignores them completely. It mirrors life, in that the rich (both financially and in terms of time) get the rewards and the poor come last.

On the other hand it's great television. At times, anyway.

So what about these Beijing games in particular? China's a repressive regime, sure, but gee they've come a long way in a short time. I can remember President Nixon (of all people) brokering the deal that sold them Boeing 707s for gold bullion back in what must have been the early 1970s... they were very much keeping to themselves before that and not open to change at all. To move such a large number of people from total state-control to a (yes, imperfect, but aren't we all) semi-empowered state is the remarkable and inspiring thing. That they haven't conquered their fear of letting strategic locations like Tibet "go" is certainly lamentable and oppressive. But full credit to the Chinese people for making a huge stride forward from obscurity to the world stage in just 30 years or so. That's me trying to be balanced about it!

And yes, let's keep the pressure on all nations to improve their care for and of their people, their rights and the planet and its non-human cargo as well. Maybe the showy excesses of big events like the Olympics cloud the real issues at times, but perhaps also it moves us all closer together in understanding. That's if we bother to think about it.