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Report 1, Report 2, Report 3
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/sports/olympics/16relay.html?_r=1&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
Where were you?
The International Olympic Committee - IOC has announced that Iraq is banned from the 2008 Olympic Games, allegedly for mixing politics with sports. Last night, in China on national TV the whole nation watched the supreme Leaders of the CCP, visiting the Chinese athletes, with a speech on how the Communist Party and the nation expect results during the Games . Bewildered, the athletes looked in fear, under enormous pressure from the highest political authorities in the land. Of course, this has nothing to do with politics.
Some of the girls from the gymnastic team as young as 14, have been confined
to state run training camps for no less then 8 years, away from family, training
non stop including missing most of their academic needs. All national Chinese
Olympic teams, train under the State supervision. Only last year there were
four reported serious accidents in the Chinese team, from over training including
three young athletes that suffered irreversible serious physical injuries with
broken spines. This week a girl, seventeen years old, from the canoeing team
revealed her fear of water, as she was forced to join the national team when
she was only ten years of age, as she was seen to be a strong girl. Of course
this is a sports matter not a political one. The president of the Beijing Olympic
Committee is the mayor of Beijing, ranked the very top of the Communist Party
political hierarchy, with no connection whatsoever with sports, let alone with
the Olympic movement.
As I watched the Governmental parade on TV, one could not escape to noticed
one fact beyond the suffocating expressions of pressure on the athletes;
the overwhelming presence of the foreign brands stamped on every single Chinese
athlete, in every single Chinese national team. An advertising feast for
the likes of Nike, UPS, Coke and the other usual suspects.
In the other hand, many of my local friends are in despair. They regret the
present state of the city caused by the Games. Most of them running small business
are now going under. Lured by the Government propaganda, they moved to Beijing
a few years ago, and now are facing for the first time an economical disaster.
Never mind the one million citizens from Beijing who lost their homes, and
were forced to move out with barely their personal belongings … the ones
who stayed are now under an enormous pressure to survive. The rippling effects
can be felt in all corners of the nation. Most recently, the Central Government
ordered all the newspapers, to send their journalists to the countryside to
calm down the discontent peasants, so no one will venture into the Capital
now surrounded by police on every point of entry. Yes, all non-political activities
on behest of the Games.
This week, there was finally some good news for the local residents. All
across Beijing, the citizens were given by the local cadres a gift ; a polo
shirt with the Olympic logo and a red arm tag with a matching baseball cap,
so they can stand on every street corner, to look after the good behaviour
of the citizens. Beijing is now a city under siege. Police, dogs, cameras,
screening machines are all over, behind the rehearsed polite smile. The city
is empty, and all the promised foreigners with their fat wallets are yet
to come. The locals cannot understand why. They truly do not care about sports,
but do care very much about money and their survival. Anyone who knows anything
about Chinese culture understands that the people are as close to sports
(except martial arts and ping-pong) as eskimos are close to sun bathing.
In 2001, The Chinese Government promised as part of their bid, that the 2008
Games would be the Green Olympics. Since then in 2007, China has become the
number one producer of carbon dioxide in the world, with 16 out of 20 most
polluted cities in the planet , with Beijing ranked in the very top. Yet,
the IOC had no comments and praised the Chinese performance.
I think of the few Iraqi athletes and their present fate. Training under
real fire and daily personal danger, with so much sacrifice and yet robbed
the opportunity to raise the national flag in the world stage in a rare peaceful
moment in their shattered lives. Unfortunately, there are no Nike factories
in Iraq. There are now 223 Nike factories in China. So much for the Olympic
Spirit now commoditised and transformed in a commercial political farce.
There are 67 Olympic official sponsors for the Beijing Games, competing to
target the hearts and minds of the Chinese people, four times more then during
highly criticised LA Games, accused of excessive financial greed. All local
and national politicians are directly involved with the Games on levels unseen
by any Regime, since the Nazi Games in 1936. Every day there is news of terrorist
threats against the Games. So far, not one shred of evidence was made public
while the massive arrests of civilians, expropriations are relentless all across
the nation in the name of the 2008 Beijing Games .
Of course, this has nothing to do with politics, its all for the good of the
Sport and the Olympic Spirit.
One often relates to historical moments with the popular question …
Where were you during a certain event ?
As far as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,
I voluntarily will join the fate of the banned Iraqi athletes,
as well as to answer to my conscience ….
and stay far away from Beijing.
Silent Witness
Beijing, 26 July 2008
Click
the links below to view the livewire archives:
Archive
page 1 (several articles)
archive page 2 (art in Chinese Politics),
archive 3 (Cultural revolution and art),
archive 4 (several articles)
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