Indeed, the preliminaries and qualifying rounds are almost over. The Chinese blitz on the gold medals will have its Dunkirk in a couple days when athletics begins and "their" sports come to a close.
On ticket sales, one noticed a slight rush to get handball ("its impossible to move handball"), field hockey and other national rather than international sports out of the inventory to make way for the wave of popular tickets coming up this weekend and next week.
Adding fuel to the fire is the rumor that 1.5 million more tickets will be released to the "public" in the next coming days to make up for the hard core scalping, VIP reluctance to use or pass out their tickets and the fakes. The IOC has complained that people are looking for tickets but the stands are not full.
Today the Chinese Baby Gymnastics Team beat out the American team for gold. People are reluctant to talk smack about China because their culture of looking away (or at the enhanced images) has infused the Games as much as the Games have taken over Beijing.
There is a bulge in the water hose.
America Strikes Back begins on Friday. How bout Phelps the Phish...he and his homies beat the world record today by 4 seconds.
The Uighers are making a huge gamble in Xinjiang. The Chinese are probably thinking to themselves that this spate of bombings is just a slight pinprick compared to the vicious crackdown that is on its way this Fall. But this is the most underreported story of the Olympics. Xinjiang has not gone off like this since the 1950s and the tactics, discipline and daring of the Uigher ... what shall we call them ... rebels? represent a dedication to a long term bloody war financed and supported by international ... ahem ... Fanatic Islamist Muslim terrorist fighter insurgents rebelling and maiming ...
They have to strike at Beijing or at least try, or all of this is meaningless.
Whoever thinks Iran is the next front doesn't realize that there is no front. Wasn't there some prophecy about the End of Days involving the "West" fighting off the hordes of the East led by the Antichrist. Does it matter to the Final Judge who actually fought and killed whom?
Another thing I have noticed: how the media report Russian aggression in Georgia and America's efforts in Iraq.
1 comment:
On this side of the pond, the stuff in Xinjiang aint even making the top three of Olympics-related stories. I watched in disgust as our local NBC affiliate broadcast their take on what we should care about during the Games: (only one of which really speaks to the larger story of what the host nation is as a whole -- you guess which one) one, the Portland journalist hits the Beijing market and lets her viewers choose whether she should eat snake, scorpion, or some other outrageous thing (that Chinese people quite obviously eat on a regular basis -- no stereotypes being furthered there); two, how wonderful all the flower displays in Tiananmen Square are; and three, the Chinese baby Olympic team.
I guess i can learn more about my own country's appetite for news by watching that display than i can about China.
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