Games Of Farce

So the Olympics are on at the moment in Beijing and I'm definitely not a fan. We started off the Olympic week great, not being drawn in by the hype but then in a moment of TV deprivation/desperation we switched on the Olympic channel and have been watching ever since. I'm not even enjoying it but the other channels have just given up and are playing repeats of really old shows or new episodes of shit series'. We can never agree on DVDs to watch so they are out of the question. It's a real problem. I feel guilty watching the Olympics because I don't approve of China's treatment of their people, animals, environment and so on. More and more stories on corruption in regards to these Olympics keep pouring out. Some of their gymnasts are underage and the IOC refuse to do anything about it. The footprint fireworks in the opening ceremony were digital. The little girl that 'sang' in the opening ceremony was lip syncing because the real singer (an 8 year old) was not pretty enough to represent China. The group of children in the ceremony which were heralded as representing all 55 ethnic minority groups in China were actually all from the dominant Han population. In the opening ceremony rehearsal one of China's best classical dancers had an accident and is now a paraplegic. China tried to cover this up, releasing statements saying that she had just broken her leg, nothing serious. Though I don't think paraplegia counts as having 'a broken leg'. The so called 'protest parks' China set up are ridiculous. Out of the way of tourists and the media; they are a mockery of the right to protest. The media is censored to a great degree. Banned from asking questions of atheletes about their thoughts on the situation in Tibet, Georgia etc. 'Detained' if they do publish anything about Tibet that reflects negatively on China. The Great Firewall Of China prevents journalists and atheletes from having unfetted access to the WWW. All hotels in Beijing were forced to install internet surveillance software so that the Chinese government could monitor what websites guests were viewing. Invasion of privacy much? China even blocked the itunes store because it was selling a compilation CD titles Songs For Tibet and offering it for free to Olympic athletes. How is a CD with douchbags like Sting, Moby, John Mayer and Dave Matthews on it going to detrimentally affect the Olympics?! Really, is 'We Are All Made Of Stars' by Moby going to incite a riot? I don't think so. Why can't they just let things be? China is making itself look worse by going on this rampage of renouncing, blocking, banning and lying. Once the games are over though they're just going to go back to opressing their people and polluting the world, just like they were doing prior to the Olympics. Nothing has changed, no matter how much China tries to con[vince] us.