Seeing as how china was granted the olmpics on the proviso that it would clean up it's rather dubious approach to human rights, it is refreshing to read stories such as this one:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7532813.stm

Awful. Did you see this?

http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Olym ... dChannel=0


Pretty strong language there. And what's the big deal regarding the Iraqi athletes? They had no problem accepting there when Uday Hussein was managing them.

Ah, the Olympics are bullshit anyway. They should just be limited to pure physical challenges that a single person can do: who can run the fastest, who can pick up the biggest rock, etc. Fuck ice skating and hockey.

And this:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/fears-of ... -3hkb.html

Wow. I think they picked the WRONG place to hold the Olympics--for obvious reasons. Now I can't even buy a beer in Beijing? ...like I'd even want to now--knowing that's how they felt about people. Is China really ready for a world event like this one?

It's all about money.

anyone watch the recently aired Ted Koppel special on the Discovery channel? i found it fascinating (it does touch on China's human rights issues, and you do get a sense of how censorship affects some of its citizens) with a fresh point of view - not saying it is an end-all account of what's going on there, but i learned quite a bit about their rapid expansion and how it affects everything

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/ko ... ights.html

my take on it is that they're saying that issues such as human rights, the environment, etc. are secondary and their main concern is to bring their population of billions out of poverty. whether or not you agree with how it's done, it's insane to see how how much progress has been made in such a short period of time.