The normal episode for Frederick Time will either come out tomorrow or not at all this week.
I watched the spectacular opening ceremony for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing this morning. It was simply amazing.
Exceptional fireworks, amazingly coordinated dancers and artists (thousands of them!), excellent majestic music, and fabulous high-tech shows. Amazing!
Since I’ve categorized this under “Graphic Matters”, I might as well show you some pictures.
There’s more after the jump.
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With just 5 days to go until the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, there’s a lot of hype on the Internet (with those on one side criticizing whatever, and those on the other preparing for a great opening ceremony). What interests me, though, aren’t the articles written by the CBC, like “Skies over Beijing clear ahead of Olympics” or “China’s web censors easing off: report“, but rather the reader comments on those articles.
Let’s start with something about the environment:
Andy the Engineer: “China’s success has been built on the back of the environment – they have ruined beautiful rivers, strip mined scenic mountains and poured every type of vile and disgusting exhaust you can imagine into the air – and the Olympic Games will broadcast this to the world.”
Let’s word this more accurately and less xenophobically, shall we? It is the success of the WESTERN WORLD (including Canada — we have our fair share of this blame) that has been built on the back of China’s environment. And India’s. And Taiwan’s. And Japan’s. And … well, basically every early-industrial nation with cheap labour.
I’m fed up with people whose entire wealth is based on the use and abuse of people and resources in other countries who then turn around and act as if they are morally superior to those same exploited people. Grow up.
- MichaelWH
See what they have to say after the jump.
Nancy Pelosi and others are questioning the conduct of China’s government in dealing with the unrest in Tibet. Here’s my take on things.
It’s not my belief that the situation in Tibet demonstrates any violations of human rights. The right to peaceful assembly was not denied, for those who were protesting were violent, as even Tibet’s government-in-exile would admit. Smashing in windows and attacking innocent bystanders who happen to be non-Tibetan Chinese citizens does not constitute peaceful assembly.
And, if no such right were denied, then China’s military & police being sent in is the same as what any other nation would have done to suppress a dangerous riot.
As the BBC’s article notes, protesters were filmed burning the Chinese flag near Hezuo. Consider the following: flag-burning may be a protected right in some countries, like the United States, but cracking down on those who burn the national flag in China does not violate any rights, because flag-burning is NOT a given or human right.
Some believe that the right to free speech has been violated. Consider the following: the right to free speech may be a human right, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but the debate about free speech continues today, even in North America. How far does free speech go? Is such a right protected even when it injures or harms others? Furthermore, does freedom of speech include the violence that went along with the protests in Tibet?
