China Droll

Nobody in our modern, hectic world can be expected to remember what happened last week, let alone several months or even a year ago.

Or perhaps it was even longer than a year ago that Beijing promised that this year’s Olympics would be the most open ever, with the most press freedom, the cleanest air and several times the amount of mascots?

One out of three ain’t bad, and the other promises - well, who can remember them and who cares, seems to be Beijing’s rationale. And with the Sichuan earthquake it would be churlish to point out anything negative about the country and its leaders. They hope.

Amidst a new and much celebrated openness on the part of the Chinese authorities - they reported the bad news immediately and even sent rescue teams without subjecting them to strict control and rigorous political training - Beijing still told domestic media in no uncertain terms that only positive stories would be allowed to see the light of day. Hence a barrage of stories of self-sacrificing common people saving victims, only taking a break to be told bu Hu Jintao to save victims.

Our own South China Morning Post seems to have caught the same (self-imposed?) positive reporting bug. There’s been few if any of the stories we can read in international media about looting, rampant theft of aid money and local cadres confiscating things like food and tents, for their own use.

And of course there hasn’t been a single word about the fact that scientists had been predicting the eartquake from as early as 2006, with one, in March this year, pinning it down to May 8th. Because the Holy Sacred Invincible Harmonious We Rule The World Olympic Flame was to pass through Sichuan around that time, authorities didn’t want a minor upset like an eartquake disturbing the One Dream. Two of the scientists shouting most loudly about the looming earthquake have since disappeared, according to The Sunday Times.

Well; shit happens and the Olympic show must go, and is going, on. But in today’s SCMP there was a little piece about the Olympics that could be construed as almost negative. How did it slip through? https://olympics.scmp.com/Article.aspx?id=455without

The Chinese government reminds us nasty foreigners that many parts of the country, for example in the middle of Beijing, are still off-limits to foreigners without written permission, and just because you have some million yuan tickets to the Games it is by no means certain that you’ll get a ticket.

Foreigners are “told to behave,” and as August 8th draws nearer I think it’s safe to wager this will eventually mean that foreigners lucky enough to be deigned the privilege of a visa and entrance to the hallowed Olympic city, will be held hostage in their 2000 yuan a night hotel rooms, bussed into the stadiums under guard and with a guide they have to pay for, and bussed back at 8pm, with the only nightlife a trip to the hotel bar under guard.

Thank God these f***ers didn’t get the Olympics in 2000.