BOCOG Says Sorry
Monday, July 28, 2008 at 10:07 am
Seeing that this generated a fair bit of commentary–and argument–I think it’s worth noting that the Beijing Olympic Committee apologized for the behavior of the police during the scuffles at the Olympic ticket sales last week. Here’s the story from the South China Morning Post (which is not entirely disinterested in this matter of course but this is a straightforward news report). Some SCMP stuff is behind a firewall so I’ll reprint the first few grafs:
Olympics organisers on Saturday admitted Beijing police had acted inappropriately during a scuffle with Hong Kong reporters on Friday and said officials would learn from the experience.”We deeply regret what happened,” said Zhao Dongming, director of the Cultural Activities Department of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games.”Perhaps there was some mishandling at the site of the incident. I think after this experience everyone will find a way to do a better job.”Mr Zhao added that police would work on improving internal education and prevent the recurrence of such mayhem.Several Hong Kong journalists were pushed, dragged and forcibly removed from reporting on the chaos that developed at Olympics ticket offices in Beijing on Friday. South China Morning Post photographer Felix Wong was detained after accidentally kicking a police officer in the groin while defending himself during a scuffle.
Couple of interesting things. First the photographer ‘accidentally’ kicked the officer. Hence his apology, which I thought was a gracious move on his part. Second, the fact that Bocog apologized at all is pretty amazing.The last time I heard an apology was from premier Wen Jiabao during the earthquake and before snow storms, but apart from him (happy to be corrected here) it’s hard to remember such a direct apology from a Chinese official. Grim silence or trotting out the “hurting the feelings of the Chinese people” line are more usual.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
The Olympic Terror Threat
Monday, July 28, 2008 at 8:07 am
FYI, here’s our take on this issue.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
A Final Battle for Olympic Tickets
Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 4:07 am
From my colleague Lin Yang, here’s some footage and an account of the arduous ticket lines in Beijing today:
The final stage of Olympic ticket sales started at 9 a.m. Friday. I wanted to witness the moment of excitement when the ticket windows finally opened and people who had waited for two days got their tickets—if only I could find the head of the line.I expected to see a large crowd, but not this large. The area around the central Olympic area ticket booth was closed to car traffic, and police lined both sides of the street. When I headed towards the ticket window, the lucky ones had already started to emerge with tickets, looking exhausted and weary, but also happy. It was a very hot day, but people kept arriving, though by then it was likely they would leave empty handed.It turned out that the tail of the line was about a mile away from the head, and the newly arrived kept getting confused about where they should start. A lady in her 60s was sitting on the sidewalk fanning herself, trying to catch her breath. “I got here at 6:30 this morning, and I just can’t wait any longer,” she says. But her husband hadn’t given up. “My husband and some other relatives are still in the line.”Those better prepared came with floor mats, chairs, and even tents. A young guy from Shaanxi province had been at the line since yesterday afternoon, and he was still long way away from the ticketing area inside the stadium. “I took leave from work to buy soccer tickets,” he says. “I will wait some more, but I guess if it seems too unlikely I’ll have to give up.” Some people who had clearly given up the hope to get any ticket were complaining about the chaos and overwhelming number of people. I overheard a guy explaining to the people nearby that the ticket line stretched around the entire central Olympic area and once one finally made it into the stadium, “there are another 30,000 people to wait with you. There are just too many people in China.”The tickets do not come easily. At the end of the video, there is a guy leaning on the fence and fanning himself with the two track tickets he just bought after two days and two nights at the stadium. But to watch the competition on Aug. 22, he’ll have to make another trip to Beijing. He comes from Hubei province, about 500 miles to the south. “I have to return to work”, he told me, “but I will be back again.”
Some people had it even worse at the ticket lines. Here’s a story from Hong Kong’s NOW tv about some of their reporters who were detained by the police. By this point you’d think Beijing cops would have learned that there are more savvy approaches to dealing with television reporters than sticking your hands in front of their cameras.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
Beijing Police Meet the Media: Round One
Saturday, July 26, 2008 at 2:07 am
Furthr to Lin’s post below, some of the police didn’t take kindly to their crowd control efforts being filmed and a Hong Kong reporter and cameraman got roughed up and their equipment broken. They managed to preserve their footage (see here), which shows some pretty aggressive behavior by the police towards the reporters, something that doesn’t bode very well should there be other problems in the coming which, which seems a fairly good bet. Presumably, as Lin also remarks, they were trained to handle this sort of thing? I sure hope so, especially all those SWAT guys sitting around in bulletproof vests holding submachine guns that seem to be all over the city these days.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
Olympic Blues and Greys
Friday, July 25, 2008 at 5:07 am
Some thoughts from our colleague Lin Yang:
Many of us joined the spontaneous carnival in the streets on a summer night seven years ago when Beijing was awarded the 2008 Olympics. But as the moment of glory finally arrives, the exultation is no longer shared by all. I have noticed growing sentiment recently in Internet posts and daily conversations indicating that some Chinese are experiencing a change of heart towards the Olympics. Pride, longing, anticipation has been replaced by confusion, frustration, and even anger. In Tianjin, when i asked my taxi driver to take me to one of the city’s famous kebab stalls, he launched into a lengthy complaint instead. “Kebab stalls? They’re nearly all gone!! All for the Olympics! I used to go with other driver pals on our night shift. The stalls were always packed, with people eating and chatting happily after a long day’s work. Now it’s serve th Olympics instead of serving the people!” Some people in Beijing meanwhile are planning to flee the Games and travel agencies are even offering “biyuntao” (???) packages. The homonym of “condom” in Chinese has become a popular term referring to “tour package to get away from the Olympics” (Bi-avoid, Yun-the Olympics, tao–package). “One world, one nightmare”, as a friend summed up the situation with a sigh. On one of the leading Internet forums on current affairs, Tianya BBS, posters lamented over changes brought on by the coming games. “Now there are security checks everywhere; soldiers and police everywhere,” wrote one poster, “‘I can no longer recognize this place I call home”, wrote another, “morning markets and street stalls are gone and we are left with no choice but to shop at pricier supermarkets; cheap housing is no longer available; manufacturing and construction are halted, and even restaurant takeout is banned, with no clear explanation other than a vague reference to the Olympics.”There are also those who go even farther than complaining over daily inconveniences. “Rambobest”, who called himself a “nationalist” in his post had some reflections on national glory and the Olympic games. “I understand the government wants to use this opportunity to show the world a rising China, but would hosting an Olympics alone qualify us as a rising power? Are there no other priorities like dealing with corruption, and other crucial social issues? Instead, different voices are clamped down on for the Olympics just so the government won’t lose face.”Some were simply disheartened by the futile journey to get a glimpse of the Olympic torch. A poster from Qingdao was outraged by the government order to ban all unlicensed citizens from entering the relay area. “The Olympics should be an event participated in and enjoyed by everyone. Yes the torch relay is broadcast on TV, but that’s not enough for a Chinese who wants to voice his passion for the country and the Olympics!”And that is a good point. Seven years ago, people believed having the Olympics in Beijing one day would be a national dream fulfilled, and a moment shared by everyone. Is this still the Olympics we had in mind when migrant workers who built Olympic venues and infrastructures with their own hands are made to leave the city before the game starts, when watching the torch relay turns into a prestige event for the few, when witnessing athletes around the world competing on one’s own land becomes a luxury?
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
How Do You Say PRESSURE in Chinese…?
Friday, July 25, 2008 at 3:07 am
The character for pressure in Chinese is ?? . (That’s YA LI in pinyin). Think the Chinese hoop team is feeling any these days? This from 7 foot forward Yi Jianlian’s blog (Yi played for the Milwaukee Bucks this past year and was recently traded to the New Jersey Nets):
This morning Hu Jintao came to watch our practice. Even the top leader cares so much about our practice, so you can see how much attention the Chinese people are paying to us. He asked us about our physical condition. Hope we can do our best in the Olympics. Now we just have to prepare.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
Beijing 08’s Dirty Little (not very secret) Secret…
Friday, July 25, 2008 at 2:07 am
I was going to call it the dirty little secret of China’s Olympics, but it’s not so little and it’s not much of a secret. China is and has been a huge source of product for blood-doping, steroid-shooting athletes across the sporting spectrum. Now, ARD, the German television network, has done a terrific documentary on the subject, just in time for the Olympics. An AP story on the ARD documentary says
A German television report on the availability of gene doping in China has stunned anti-doping experts shortly before the Beijing Olympics.In a documentary by ARD television, a Chinese doctor offers stem-cell therapy to a reporter posing as an American swimming coach.The report, filmed with a concealed camera, shows the doctor with his face blurred speaking in Chinese and offering the treatment in return for $24,000, according to a translation provided by the ARD television.The documentary broadcast Monday did not offer evidence that the hospital had provided gene doping to other athletes, but anti-doping officials were appalled that the treatment was so readily available.”I could not have imagined it in such a provable form,” Mario Thevis, chief of the German center of preventive doping research in Cologne.Another Cologne expert on gene doping, Patrick Diel, said he was “stunned to see it.”
Here’s the link to the entire story: http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=3501414 Note that the AP story says anti-doping experts are “stunned” by what the ARD report reveals. I’m stunned that they’re stunned. China is and has been for a while a global source for this stuff (just as it’s a global source for pretty much everything else that’s made these days.) Its pharmaceutical-medical-industrial complex sells to all comers, to anyone who can pay. Still, keep this report in mind as China and its leaders glorify in the country’s medal parade in a couple of weeks, as athlete after athlete collects gold. Think east German swimmer Kornelia Ender (Montreal ’76) sprinter Ben Johnson (Seoul 1988), Ma’s army (Chinese track coach Ma Junren, who had six of his athletes suspended in Sydney 2000 for doping), and Marion Jones, the US track star who “dominated” her events in Sydney and is now serving a six month jail sentence for lying to federal agents about her steroid use. The anti doping cops can’t keep up with advances made in delivery systems, shielding agents and, most importantly, the stem cell based gene tweaking, which is now the cutting edge of this stuff. For all of the above, China’s a one stop shop.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
California Comes to Beijing
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 11:07 am
And speaking of living in Beijing (my story about how great it is here), it can’t hurt to repeat just how gobsmacking the changes in the city continue to be, particularly for those of us who saw the place in the 90s. The video below is taken at a new shopping center on the north west corner of Chaoyang Park, Beijing’s largest. It is truly amazingly un-Beijing (or Hong Kong or downtown Shanghai for that matter), a low rise development that sprawls out extavagantly over many acres of some of the city’s primest real estate. It really is much more like California than China, and not just because of the Mission/Adobe-style design. Except that, as you’ll see at the end of the video, some things (blatant brand rip offs in this case) don’t change. For every Nike shop (and there must be four at least) there’s an Erke next door, mutated swoosh, strangely familiar sounding slogan and all.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
Polling China
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 10:07 am
The Pew Research Center (which describes itself as “a nonpartisan ‘fact tank’ that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.) has just released a poll of attitudes in China. There’s a bunch of interesting stuff but one fact should warm the hearts of cadres in Communist Party headquarters in Zhongnanhai: no frewer than 86 per cent surveyed said they were satisfied with the direction the country was moving in. You might say that people were nervous of giving their opinion to pollsters but though days seem to have passed. And besides, the figure was only 48 per cent in 2002. Before they break out the champagne though, those same cadres probably should take note of another number: a whopping 96 per cent said they thought inflation was a very big or moderately big problem.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
Life in Beijing With Half a Car
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 4:07 am
Lin Yang from TIME’s Beijing bureau has these thoughts about the city’s Olympic traffic plan:Driving the four miles between my home and the office can take up to an hour, but with vehicle traffic drastically cut yesterday it took half that. Beijing’s drive to radically improve air quality for the Olympics means only private cars with even numbered license plates can drive on even numbered dates, and odds on odds. So I would not be driving the next day, but between the half hour and breathable air, I welcomed the change.Now, after battling two hours to catch a bus, squeeze onto an overcrowded subway and walk under the scorching sun to work, I’m having second thoughts. At the bus station, dozens of anxious commuters and the lack of any sort of line made boarding nearly impossible. I failed on my first two attempts. One needs the agility, stamina and determination of an Olympian to compete with the rush-hour crowd. Do not wear flip-flops. The subway was no better. It has been so packed since the start of the vehicle restrictions that it made the news—and a crowded public transportation station is hardly a novelty to us Beijingers.Some argue that we should suck it up, that it’s time for us to pay for all the pollution we have contributed to Beijing’s sky. But we are not the only ones paying. Those who take public transportation daily are suffering from the arrival of newcomers who know nothing about the unwritten rules of such a competitive commute. Taking cabs, which don’t fall under the new limitations on vehicle traffic, isn’t easy, either. With rising gas prices, many of the drivers have changed their business strategy from cruising the streets to camping in front of large apartment complexes and office buildings to wait for customers. To be fair, there is no sure-fire cure for Beijing’s traffic problems. The government has been trying to make it easier for everyone. The results, especially in infrastructure, are particularly tangible as the Games draw close. Another 2,000 buses have been put in use, and the network of the new subway and light rail lines rivals Hong Kong and New York. Three new subway lines are opened last Sunday, including one going to the airport. But for a city with more than 17 million people, this cannot be the ultimate solution. Legalizing and promoting carpools might help, as would improving bike lanes. The resolution the government shows in the preparation for the Olympics makes me hopeful. I can already imagine the long-term improvements, if we could only keep the extra buses and subway cars after the Olympics.
( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)
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