china’s opening cermony

August 10th, 2008

Well its here again. The citizens of the world turn to their plasmas for the most outrageous display of the human body, mind, and spirit captured on television. The commentary is gripping, the action feirce an the advertising world goes into fucking overdrive… because mindless patriotism is fun right?

(the opening ceremony ends and the games begin… so I put the laptop aside)

Holy fuck.

So I just almost pulled my hair off my scalp over a badminton game. It started innocently enough.. I’d just watched a shooting event and was starting to get into the spirit when it all started. The action started immediately and boy is it quick. After I checked wikipedia to confirm that OLYMPIC BADMINTON is actually a sport I settled in to watch the first match of the event pitting the US with our northern furtrapping neighbors. Personally thats no contest for me and the fact that that this Cannadian girl looked like Rattigan from the Great Mouse Detective didn’t help either.

So anyway… we lost.

But you know what… that doesn’t matter… what matters is that millions of Americans actually watched an entire badminton game. THAT (or maybe not…) is why Beijing is the most important Olympics in history and that why I’m going to be obsessed with it for the next couple weeks… Seriously.

Remember China is no ordinary host. This bohemoth of a country has been doing capitalism proud with double digit growth for the last decade while still retaining a communist government on paper and what some would call a dictatorship in practice. Years of preparation have been put into this day and China has spent the economy of a small country transforming this ancient city into a venue that truly warrants the honor. For China this olympic games is the most important moment in their history (which is quite a statement considering they have over 5000 of it documented ) because they have a chance to publicly show to the world that China has become quite a different dragon. With the old China the world remembers the reign of Mao but with this new China they will spend their summer with HD images of Yao Ming playing hard under the net against many of his fellow NBA stars.

Citizens of the United States should reflect on these games as a symbol for the emergence of China as a serious contender for world power. With numerous resources and 2 billion people with a will use to use them we are going to have to adapt to this challenge or cede our world dominance in the next generation.

But the growth of china or the emergence of this truly globalized world doesn’t have to have to mean the decline of the US. The citizens of our country should note that no matter where they’re located, the Olympics will always have a uniquely American message. The wonders being achieved this month in Beijing should serve as a reminder to the energy produced when citizens of so many cultures converge together. America needs to remember that this is the same energy that made us the giant of freedom and truth that we are today.

In modern olympic history the US has dominated both the summer and winter games, often being represented by athletes who compete for the US only because either they themselves or their family left their home country to find a better life. Their determination is what makes this country so great. We as a country would do well to remember that our history was built on the back of immigrants.

. So the way I see it… if we can continue to accept the tired, and the poor, and the huddled masses… then we we will always be there to win the gold.

Written by Zac |