All Posts Tagged With: "Chinas"
China’s Golden Moment
With only a few days to go, as the last Olympic gymnastics judge wings her way back to the Braille Institute or the Lighthouse for the Blind or wherever she lives (and whoever came up with the idea of using Special Olympics judges in these games deserves the Affirmative Action Nobel) and the last gold medal is draped around the last weeping head, one thing is irrefutably clear.
They pulled it off. China knocked this Olympics clear out of the park.
All that Darfur stuff, the tempest in the Tibet teapot, the Internet censorship, late and refused visas, the lost souls of the People’s protest parks, were as nothing. Barely a pimple on the glowing face of these games. Even the smog went away.
Come on, people, give it up for them. Now that’s how a dictatorship should rule! The party of Mao made the games run on time.
It was no easy task, turning an overcrowded, polluted, gridlocked city into an Olympic nirvana in seven years; no democracy could have done it. Only a one-party state can muster the efficiency needed to bulldoze entire neighborhoods and displace thousands without getting hauled into court.
Seven years in a democracy is chump change. It’s been seven years since 9/11 and Ground Zero is still a hole in the ground. They’re still doing environmental reviews.
How long did it take to do the environmental review when they built the Bird’s Nest and the Watercube? As long as it takes to say “Yes, sir!” in Mandarin.
China is the smartest, best, most efficient and adaptable dictatorship in the world right now. When communism failed, the communist dictators of China threw it into the dustbin of history and embraced capitalism with the zeal of a convert. The Chinese Communist Party is about as communistic as a hedge fund. Chinese society is arguably less socialistic than ours.
And, most of all, China works. They have their problems, but don’t we all? But those problems don’t include famines killing 20 million Chinese every ten years, they don’t include being unable to transform China from a third world county into the next global economic powerhouse in less than a generation.
The dictators of China are seen by the vast bulk of the Chinese people as the good and great government of a good and great China. China is proud, reborn and strong. The Chinese government is beloved by most of its people.
Just like the Germans in 1933, just like the Russians in 1945.
A few words on China’s fallen hero
The track where Liu Xiang will not compete.
My Monday ESPN Beijing Bureau post dealt with Liu Xiang. At this point not much more needs to be said, but if I can add just one thing…
Concluding paragraph from the ESPN post:
Later that night, at the conclusion of the day’s track and field events, the Bird’s Nest’s giant screens showed a highlight package that included Liu Xiang’s face. First it was from the morning, his expression contorted with pain and the initial stirrings of unspeakable disappointment. A little later he appeared again, this time as part of a montage set to the Olympic song “Forever Friends.” It was an image everyone here is familiar with: the moment the hurdler crossed the finish line in Athens, his eyes lighting up as it dawned on him that he’d just pulled the biggest shocker in his country’s sporting history, exertion giving way to pure jubilation. It was a poignant moment, and one people here will want to remember. Who knows when we’ll see it again?
Liu Xiang’s problematic heel has been bothering him for years, and it may not get better. Anyone who runs knows how painful a bum heel can be. Now imagine trying to run at world-class speed while hoping over a set of ten hurdles, landing on your heels each time. When people say Liu Xiang was in “excruciating” pain, I believe it.
The question no one here is asking but everyone should be is, Will Liu Xiang ever be the same? Will he ever contend again at world championships? Will he be a medal contender in London? I’m not so sure. At 25, his career may be over. He gave China one incredible, unforgettable moment — that instant he crossed the finish line in Athens — and now he may have to take his leave. It’s too early. I understand why people here want more: Liu Xiang is a once-in-a-lifetime athlete, the sort who has a combination of charm, intelligence, dedication, patriotism, good looks and natural ability. When will China get another Liu Xiang? For that matter, when will China get another male athlete able to compete with the big boys in the glamorous track and field events?
It’s a question no one’s asking, and for good reason: we may not want to know the answer.