Olympics

I've been boycotting the Olympics for two reasons, firstly the abysmal behaviour of China in the lead up to the games. Bulldozing of poor housing without providing alternatives, crackdowns on protest groups, reinforcing the great firewall, etc.

If only to confirm my feelings about the whole event, this has turned into one of the most downright duplicitous Olympics that I'm aware of.

Shall we attempt to list the crazy shit from The Middle Kingdom ?

1:Ethnic Tibetans have been banned from working in Beijing for the duration

2:During the opening ceremony, the song "Ode to the Motherland" was actually lipsynched, because the singer wasn't pretty enough

3:During the same ceremony, and to allay fears about China's treatment of its minorities, the 56 non-Han ethnicities were presented. And all were played by Han children.

4:The footprints during the ceremony were faked in the broadcast This one doesn't bug me too much. They were actually set off, it was just deemed to dangerous for the pilots to be able to actually shoot, so a pre-creation was broadcast instead.

5:One of China's gold medal gymnasts may only be 13, three years younger than the minimum age for the Olympics

6:One of the worlds foremost Chinese classical dancers was permanently paralysed from the waist down after part of the set collapsed on her during rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony. The entire thing was hushed up for weeks.

So, yeah. Go China! Woohoo!