Showing posts with label 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2008 Summer Olympic Games. Show all posts
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Comment
Sarah Palin's speech last night was a mixture of hard hitting soundbites and the usual rhetoric. Needless to say, she has great potential for her party. It also looks like she may eclipse McCain very soon. Of course, parading her special needs baby around the floor like it were a trophy on reality television was not really required - but it is all part of the show - I guess.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Us or I
During the much hyped opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the Chinese national anthem was sung by a 'picture-perfect schoolgirl'. Unfortunately, the whole thing was faked and was lip synched to the 'voice-perfect schoolgirl' who was not shown because of her physical impediment - she was buck toothed and her buck teeth made her incompatible with the national image that China wanted projected.
From an official who coordinated parts of the show: "We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture. Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter. The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression."
In America, this would tantamount to trickery, deceit and feelings of betrayal. In Asia, this is the norm - the collective sentiment rising over individual ability. David Brooks of the NYTimes has an interesting take on the differences between the 'I am an island' nature of individualism and the all encompassing nature of collectivism in an illuminating way. The following tests are also interesting to see what might be your core tendencies. I leaned Asian in the second scenario below (not very surprised at that!)…
If you show an American an image of a fish tank, the American will usually describe the biggest fish in the tank and what it is doing. If you ask a Chinese person to describe a fish tank, the Chinese will usually describe the context in which the fish swim.
When the psychologist Richard Nisbett showed Americans individual pictures of a chicken, a cow and hay and asked the subjects to pick out the two that go together, the Americans would usually pick out the chicken and the cow. They’re both animals. Most Asian people, on the other hand, would pick out the cow and the hay, since cows depend on hay. Americans are more likely to see categories. Asians are more likely to see relationships.
The individualistic countries tend to put rights and privacy first. People in these societies tend to overvalue their own skills and overestimate their own importance to any group effort. People in collective societies tend to value harmony and duty. They tend to underestimate their own skills and are more self-effacing when describing their contributions to group efforts.
From an official who coordinated parts of the show: "We should all understand it like this: it is a question of the national interest. It is a question of the image of our national music, our national culture. Especially at the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, an extremely serious matter. The child on the screen should be flawless in image, in her internal feelings, and in her expression."
In America, this would tantamount to trickery, deceit and feelings of betrayal. In Asia, this is the norm - the collective sentiment rising over individual ability. David Brooks of the NYTimes has an interesting take on the differences between the 'I am an island' nature of individualism and the all encompassing nature of collectivism in an illuminating way. The following tests are also interesting to see what might be your core tendencies. I leaned Asian in the second scenario below (not very surprised at that!)…
If you show an American an image of a fish tank, the American will usually describe the biggest fish in the tank and what it is doing. If you ask a Chinese person to describe a fish tank, the Chinese will usually describe the context in which the fish swim.
When the psychologist Richard Nisbett showed Americans individual pictures of a chicken, a cow and hay and asked the subjects to pick out the two that go together, the Americans would usually pick out the chicken and the cow. They’re both animals. Most Asian people, on the other hand, would pick out the cow and the hay, since cows depend on hay. Americans are more likely to see categories. Asians are more likely to see relationships.
The individualistic countries tend to put rights and privacy first. People in these societies tend to overvalue their own skills and overestimate their own importance to any group effort. People in collective societies tend to value harmony and duty. They tend to underestimate their own skills and are more self-effacing when describing their contributions to group efforts.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
The Genoside Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympic Games to be held later this year in Beijing seems to lurch from one controversy to the other. Recently it was the rumors of doctored air quality tests in and around Beijing that made news. Yesterday, word that Steven Spielberg was quitting as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Olympic Games made the rounds.
While doctoring air quality is reprehensible but fairly commonplace in the face of looming timelines, the reason for Spielberg’s quitting merits more attention. He is quitting because he wants to point out China's poor track record when it comes to aiding and abetting human rights abuses in Darfur. While Darfur registers dim glimmers of recognition in our country swept up by election fever, it is worth remembering that the conflict between the Sudanese government backed Janjaweed and the poorer non-Arab tribes in the south of Sudan has been raging for about 5 years now.
About 2.5 million people have been displaced and about 400,000 people killed as a result of the quasi-ethnic-cleansing systematically put in place with the Sudanese government. With America busy in a mess of its own making in the Middle East, the government of Sudan continues funding one of the largest genocides of modern times. Add to this the recent news from the Chadian capital N’djamena about Sudanese government trying to overthrow the Chadian government ostensibly to cut off supply lines to the Darfur rebels makes the case ever more pressing.
How do the Olympics fit into all this?
Well, the following facts point to the need for people to start calling these games the Genocide Olympics:
- China is Sudan's largest foreign trading investor (China has invested more than $400 million in the Darfur region alone)
- Sudan's biggest oil export destination is China (7 percent of China's imported oil comes from Sudan and China National Petroleum Corp. has a 40 percent share in the international consortium extracting oil in Sudan)
- China is Sudan's largest arms supplier (Chinese-made AK-47's have been the main weapons used to slaughter several hundred thousand people in Darfur)
- China is Sudan's chief diplomatic sponsor (active lobbying on its behalf at the United Nations to water down any and every resolution that seeks to condemn or reign in the Sudanese government).
The Olympics is supposed to be special celebration – one that is supposed to belong to all humanity – warts and all. The games are laced with stories of struggle and triumph over adversity. The Olympics has traditionally been touted as an event that portrays global unity amidst diversity. Using these Games as a backdrop, countries have been known to elevate their status around the world and hitch their wagons to lofty sounding sentiments like unified global vision and similar claptrap. Well, nothing of this sort happens to be behind the spirit of China pandering to Sudan as the facts above illustrate.
In retrospect, the simple fact remains that China has more power than any other nation on the earth (right now) to force the genocide in Darfur to come to a close.
Please start referring to the 2008 Olympics as what it is supposed to be - the Olympic games hosted by a country that directly and indirectly sponsors genoside, in other ways, a Genoside Olympics. Small steps go long ways.
Banksy, 'Ruined Landscape', 19” x 23”, oil and spray paint on canvas, 2007
While doctoring air quality is reprehensible but fairly commonplace in the face of looming timelines, the reason for Spielberg’s quitting merits more attention. He is quitting because he wants to point out China's poor track record when it comes to aiding and abetting human rights abuses in Darfur. While Darfur registers dim glimmers of recognition in our country swept up by election fever, it is worth remembering that the conflict between the Sudanese government backed Janjaweed and the poorer non-Arab tribes in the south of Sudan has been raging for about 5 years now.
About 2.5 million people have been displaced and about 400,000 people killed as a result of the quasi-ethnic-cleansing systematically put in place with the Sudanese government. With America busy in a mess of its own making in the Middle East, the government of Sudan continues funding one of the largest genocides of modern times. Add to this the recent news from the Chadian capital N’djamena about Sudanese government trying to overthrow the Chadian government ostensibly to cut off supply lines to the Darfur rebels makes the case ever more pressing.
How do the Olympics fit into all this?
Well, the following facts point to the need for people to start calling these games the Genocide Olympics:
- China is Sudan's largest foreign trading investor (China has invested more than $400 million in the Darfur region alone)
- Sudan's biggest oil export destination is China (7 percent of China's imported oil comes from Sudan and China National Petroleum Corp. has a 40 percent share in the international consortium extracting oil in Sudan)
- China is Sudan's largest arms supplier (Chinese-made AK-47's have been the main weapons used to slaughter several hundred thousand people in Darfur)
- China is Sudan's chief diplomatic sponsor (active lobbying on its behalf at the United Nations to water down any and every resolution that seeks to condemn or reign in the Sudanese government).
The Olympics is supposed to be special celebration – one that is supposed to belong to all humanity – warts and all. The games are laced with stories of struggle and triumph over adversity. The Olympics has traditionally been touted as an event that portrays global unity amidst diversity. Using these Games as a backdrop, countries have been known to elevate their status around the world and hitch their wagons to lofty sounding sentiments like unified global vision and similar claptrap. Well, nothing of this sort happens to be behind the spirit of China pandering to Sudan as the facts above illustrate.
In retrospect, the simple fact remains that China has more power than any other nation on the earth (right now) to force the genocide in Darfur to come to a close.
Please start referring to the 2008 Olympics as what it is supposed to be - the Olympic games hosted by a country that directly and indirectly sponsors genoside, in other ways, a Genoside Olympics. Small steps go long ways.
Banksy, 'Ruined Landscape', 19” x 23”, oil and spray paint on canvas, 2007
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