Opening Ceremonies Blues

I watched the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies last night, and while admiring the spectacular artistry and synchronization of 2008 humans on the field doing all sorts of unbelievable things, slowly this sort of mental connectivity to the Berlin Olympics from decades ago began to emerge.

When the Chinese soldiers goose-stepped to raise the Chinese flag, and the Chinese children representing the 50-odd ethnic groups in China began singing the Chinese national anthem while doing a curious arm salute to the anthem, at least for me the Olympic connection between Nazi Germany and Communist China was cemented in an odd way.

By the time that the ceremonies got to the part where China, perhaps one of the world's worst human rights offenders, and a nation who is destroying its own environment at a brisk pace, does the bit on the future of the planet, global warming, peace, etc. I was a way beyond skeptical about the heavy handed, sometimes hypocrythical messaging of the opening ceremonies.

Let's just get the competitions going, shall we?