Beijing Olympics 2008

[Elspode]

Its official...Michael Phelps is God.

[xoxoxoBruce]

No he ain't. Sure, he won 8 gold medals, but only set 7 worlds records, the slacker.

[Spectacle]

The Olympics are beautiful, tons of different people and hundreds of nations competing in a wide multitude of sports. It is a place where the human endeavor comes and unites everyone of every culture.

But I hate that I know what Michael Phelps eats for cereal, where he frequents for coffee, how many times his mom cried during his events. Jesus the woman gets more coverage than most of the sports! Sure they are building up the American hero, but he isn't a god. I hate that 5 or 6 times a day we are hearing where he last used the bathroom, give it a break. Phelps should be a little more humble, in my opinion too.

But I love the Olympics. Go USA!

[xoxoxoBruce]

I agree we've heard quite enough about him, but I'm more annoyed by the post-medley interviews that go something like;
"Michael, gush gush gush & 99 superlatives, oh by the way, the rest of you guys... nice job supporting Michael".

[Griff]

Team America, !@#$ Yeah!

[freshnesschronic]

Track and Field is where the Americans will probably go up by at least 10 medals on China in the medal count.

Did anyone else watch Usain Bolt of Jamaica? His 100m final was amazing. Pure athleticism, you can't teach that.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by freshnesschronic

Did anyone else watch Usain Bolt of Jamaica? His 100m final was amazing. Pure athleticism, you can't teach that.

Truly amazing. I can't believe a big guy can move like that.

[Clodfobble]

Hot male gymnasts, tonight! Get the ice cream tub ready, I'm not leaving the couch.

[Griff]

The US fencers picked up two team silvers! One each for women's foil and men's sabre. The men beat Hungary (a long term powerhouse) 45 - 44. The Smart siblings Keeth and Erinn both get a medal!

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey cool, our pirate roots are paying off.
Does anyone know who's picking up the tab for all those US team parents over there? Do they get any help... discount air fares?... a break on the hotel tab?

[Griff]

Lil' Pete goes to the Olympics, I will pay whatever it costs.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Of course, if you can. Don't any Olympic athletes come from poor folk, or does the expense for the years of training rule them out?

[Griff]

You've got to figure that parents who were able to pay for and drive to the pool, gym etc... will be there. Some parents will take on debt. I assume corporate sponsors will bring parents of high profile athletes. Some track and field folks get paid enough to bring their parents... I guess there are a lot of different circumstances, but I'd guess lower middle-class folks would take the financial hit for something this big.

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Of course, if you can. Don't any Olympic athletes come from poor folk, or does the expense for the years of training rule them out?

I think that's a good question. It seems to me that a lot of the elite australian athletes come from well to do if not downright wealthy families in the main part. I think there are probably a lot of hidden talents throughout the world who just never find out how great they are because they never have the opportunity to really hone their skills because the families either can't afford it (and to some families, club fees are too much) or just aren't motivated enough to get out of bed at the crack of dawn with their kids every day and cart them off to whatever venue they train at. Again, this is also a financial burden when you consider transport costs and other sundries associated with just day to day training.

[Sundae]

A bit more from The Silent Witness:

Letter from Beijing

Project 119

The crowds are cheering, the lights are flashing all across Beijing; the Chinese people are following the Games as the rebirth of the Nation, in line with what the Regime hoped and meticulously planned for the past 10 years. Even the applause and the cheering are controlled, directed by a “crowd leader” not quite like the festive American version, cheerleader , but a well-rehearsed patriotic mass wave being transmitted in the airwaves, through radio, TV and the net to every region, and individual in China. Winners are immediately paraded on national TV with the political Leaders.The general population have little idea which nations the athletes are from, and for that matter not much interest or understanding of sports, except for ping pong and badminton. Yet they all cheer ; China is number one, number one - Fight for the Motherland.

From a distance, watching this heavily handed State sponsored spectacle, it feels very little just like
a sport event but a far greater national endeavour. Officially, this is known as Project 119, a State controlled and financed project to win medals in Beijing 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/16/sp...hp&oref=slogin ( NYT ) . A monumental socio-political, economical, and cultural national effort, which easily could be construed as a social mass engineering scheme on levels unseen by human kind. One far reaching, long term process of alienation, exploitation, and manipulation of the people that I suspect will make Hayek, Marx and Orwell shiver in their graves. No doubt, this will be the subject matter of research in mass control and social engineering for many years to come; a colossal paradigm as means to perpetuate a political farce to the masses. As Hayek wrote, “Social engineering is the road to serfdom and tyranny”. Sadly, these two dire concepts are already very well established in the New China.


This late designed transfiguration of China, by the followers of Deng, supported by the transnationals and the West has created an Orwellian society of extremes. Yesterday, papers published that winners of gold medals, will receive each more then 3 000 000 rimimbi per medal,or
£ 220 000 pounds sterling, from the Regime. The equivalent to what a worker would earn during 355 years. One athlete who won three gold medals will make in one day what a worker would in 1000 years. Not a bad day’s work, in a so-called communist nation.

The worrying question is; how many more mass social engineering projects are underway? For what purpose and more importantly who is in control ? in a nation with one fifth of the world’s population. The answer to this question we may never know, but one thing is certain, Beijing 2008 is not about the Olympic Spirit or sportsmanship, translated in the words of Pierre de Coubertin, who founded the modern Olympic movement in 1894, explaining that the joy of effort to compete is more important than the thrill of victory.

The cheering, cameras and flashes will continue for another week. Yet we must remember that; the same bright light that shines and flashes across the steel and glass structures also serves to blind our vision and understanding of a far greater reality. Once the Games are over, what will be left for the common people excluded from the gold and celebrations? In many ways, they are indeed the ultimate losers in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the so called, Project 119.

Silent Witness
August 17, 2008

Oh and can I just say - Britannia Rules the Waves!