Then naivetivity in some of the assumptions in this article aretunning. Reality dictates that:
1. That the “Olympic Games” (OG) has or can have any impact other than temporary feel good. Show me any peace treaty, lifting of trade embargo as a result of any Olympic Games.
2. That the OG is politically anything more that a national ego trip.
3. Internally it is a means of encouraging nationalism.
4. That it’s even fair (on a level playing field). Rich countries spend millions to scientifically equip, train athletes but the poorer ones can’t.
5. That the tank is anything more than an admission that the games is permeated with ‘drug’ cheats and is designed to ‘maybe’ catch them in the next 8 years.
6. That the OG is therefore anything more than a sporting spectacular from which photogenic stars, Sponsors, media make lots of money.
7. That the even this is based popular saleability.

Point 3 is of particular note here in that China is and always has seen the regime as being synonymous with nationalism. Like all long-term power structures their primary intention is to cement their longevity and power.
Therefore all “promises” of “openness” must be viewed for this perspective.

I have no doubt that it was always the CCP’s intention to use this event as cover for authoritarian actions.

The IOC is no more than an international corporation who reason d’etre is to put on a spectacular for the financial benefits of their members. Hence the changing host rationale. Like all corporations decisions are made on the basis of financial expedience.

For those reasons I can’t wait until they're over and relative sanity (proper diplomacy) return. Then all the issues raised can be really addressed.

Meanwhile the countries involved are distracted by the 21st century equivelent of 'Bread and Circuses'

I am assuming the title of this article somehow borrows from 'The Rape of Nanking.' Not even going into the utter vitriol splashed throughout the article itself, I feel that to invoke the rape of nanking in your title on the eve of the olympics in the country where such an atrocity was committed demonstrates COMPLETE poor taste and a callous lack of judgement.

The Games of Shame indeed.
This piece is a timely reminder for anyone attending, participating in or even just watching this spectacle of grotesque dishonesty and callousness.
The Olympic spirit has suffered a blow of a magnitude, which by all accounts would be lethal to any other organisation, but for the magnanimity of the just people at large, who will forgive and forget, the Olympic Movement will live on, just.

http://one-just-world.blogspot.com/2008/08/will-olympic-spirit-survive.html

http://one-just-world.blogspot.com/2008/08/fervent-chinese-nationalism-or-just.html

http://one-just-world.blogspot.com/2008/07/in-spirit-of-olympics-indeed.html

Isn’t it interesting that the Rape of Nanjing is such a source of indignation for Han Chinese citizens.
After all the CCP, since its inception, has made this abhorrent atrocity look like amateurish child’s play.
The same kind of hideous barbarity has been perpetrated by this cabal at a scale of a magnitude thousands of times larger, and we are still counting today!
Perhaps some 50 to 100 million have perished under the rule of this cabal of Han Chinese tyrants, the same regime now honoured to stage the Racist Games of Deception and Dishonesty.
Get a taste of this regime in the year of the 2008 Games here:

http://one-just-world.blogspot.com/2008/08/will-olympic-spirit-survive.html

"Hopefully, London will hold the promise of a return to the true Olympic Spirit."

Yes more stabbings, gay-rights, right-to-rob, right-to-rape, right-to-expliot the non-whites, right to invade countries without just cause. The white hypocrite countries have yet to summon the three white-Anglo war criminal criminals Bush, Blair and Howard for crimes against humanity.

Its time for the non-white countries, including Russia, Serbia and like minded ones to set up a criminal justice system to bring to justice many of the crimes committed by large corporations, persons and organisations in the West.

The amount of intellectual piracy, biopiracy committed by Western organisations is enough to feed the starving in Africa.

In the China Olympic games, the Communist regine from Chine with the large multinational corporations from west celebrate their victory on chinese and western people. You will find there the political leaders from west countries too, as they try to promote the 'Bread and Circuses' philosophy.
When China was closed to multinational corporations, it was a communist country, a non democratic country which violated human rights, democracy, workers rights, etc. from the moment China opened its doors to western corporations all forget the democracy, human rights and stoped to interested for chinese people's rights!.
Few days before I signed a petition from Amnesty International, USA branch, to President Bush to press Chinese leaders to respect the human Rights.
Is not it strange that the Chinese Communist government opened the Websites from corporations to chinese people BUT BLOCKED THE WEB SITE FROM AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL? They found they way to cooperate with western Capitalists, BUT their big problem are the Chinese people and the western human rights activisties.
Chinese Communist regime and Western big corporations are both against the democracy and human rights as they block them to miximize their benefits.
Chinese prisons are full of human rights activisties while in non comunistic countries big corporations are extremely wild and dangerous when the labor and union movement is not enough strong to control them.
Let's sent a clear message to chinese people and human rights activisties that we stand by them and we do not forget their sufering from the Communist regime and west corporations!
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

THE OLYMPICS is a red herring destraction

the media is reporting on mere sport

here is some REAL NEWS
[but the media is talking about GOLD ]
not 'BLACK gold'
the ROOTcause of this beginning to armogeddon

US and israel assist georgia invasion for oil pipeline

Georgian forces, trained and equipped by the Pentagon and the U.S. and ISRAEL government, killed 10 Russian peacekeepers early this morning in a provocation attack that has escalated into military conflict,

but the subsequent corporate media coverage would have us believe that the U.S. and NATO-backed client state Georgia is a helpless victim,

when in actual fact a far more nuanced geopolitical strategy is being played out.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/us-attacks-russia-through-client-state-georgia.html
http://www.gcnlive.com/Listen_Live.html
http://www.infowars.com/
http://www.infowars.com/stream.pls

South Ossettia leader says 1,400 killed in conflict: Georgia launched a major military offensive today to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Rebel leaders said about 1,400 had been killed.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/south-ossettia-leader-says-1400-killed-in-conflict-888487.html

Georgian troops withdraw from South Ossetia: "Using grenade launchers (South) Ossetian local defense forces are destroying Georgian tanks. According to eyewitnesses they (the tanks) are on fire throughout the city," the committee said in a statement.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/09/content_9062887.htm

Video: Georgian troops retreat from S. Osettian capital: Georgian troops have reportedly left Tskhinvali, ending a day of violence in the South Ossetian capital. The breakaway republic’s authorities say hundreds of civilians have been killed.

http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/28668/video

Timeline of Russia-Georgia tensions over separatists: Following is a timeline of Russian-Georgian tensions, which have spiralled with Georgia attacking the capital of breakaway South Ossetia and Russia reportedly bombing Georgian territory

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080808-153525/Timeline-of-Russia-Georgia-tensions-over-separatists

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
enjoy your COVERAGE of the destractions
gold medal performances IN DEED

just like the romans did
when their way of life ended

cheer the winners by their sporting destraction

olym-pics BAH

Good article. The IOC has a lot to answer for in playing "Clayton politics".

They either grant the rights to stage the Games on clearly defined criteria and honour the principles of Olympism, or rescind their obligations and the right to be representatives the of Olympic spirit. How spectacular or extravagant the games may be, is not the point.

I notice they omitted any mention of the major role Steven Spielberg played in the opening production.

I understand there is renewed interest in the trail of individual releases and formal statements by the IOC, BOCOG and Beijing.

Jack Rogge's recent word game on the Great China Firewall, proclaims it is out of his hands and that China is responsible for operating the internet in China, not the IOC. The way he keeps digging holes for himself, he will be out of sight soon. (In fact that may not be a bad thing.) Verbruggen is running support, further questioning the ability of the IOC to negotiate and enforce and uphold the principles of the Olympic Spirit.

To protect the health and well being of the athletes, I would have expected the IOC to adopt the global standard of WHO and not allow countries to set their own. Same for monitoring.

You obviously submitted this article before the Kashgar "terror police bombing".

Opinion is that Beijing is using it as an excuse to cover up the real reason.

I suppose if China continues to blame and persecute them, the Uighurs have nothing to lose by launching attacks anyway. On the other hand, the video could be using China's own propaganda as a cheap and effective means to raise fear in the general population and undermine investment.

What do you think?

There are a number of "secret" atmospheric monitoring stations in several locations throughout Beijing producing results that contradict China's claims of air quality and the current "fog" (not smog). It appears there is a lot of nasty particles in thet thar "fog" that ain't water.

The comparisons should be interesting, as will be China's response.

When Steven Spielberg saw that the task as "artistic director" was too difficult for him to handle, he pretended to identify with the looney-left of the West and blamed China for what the Islamists are doing in Dafur, Sudan. He walked away in "protest". Truth is the project was too big for him to handle.

China's very own Zhang Yimou was able to handle the opening and closing ceremonies for summer Olympics. Anglo-Western directors and actors/actresses are more hype than substance witnessed from the many films and play produced.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080808/wl_uk_afp/oly2008ceremonybritain

'expat China Journo' would do well to know that the Uighurs problem in China's Xinjiang is symptomatic of radical Islam faced by many countries. They are funded by Saudi Arabia leaders who came to power because of the West and grew very rich because of the US and European insatiable demand for oil.

From what I recall the purpose of the Olympics was to bring together warring factions and to foster understanding.

The spirit referred to in the article certainly did not exist until recently, and even so only exists as standard some would like to see applied.

In holding the Olympics China has had its feet held to the fire, and been forced to clean up its act far more than it would have done without the Olympics. To expect much more would be naive.

To restrict the Olympics to only those that met our exacting standards of civilisation, would actually be even more against the spirit of the Olympics and would restrict the games only to the OECD.

Could you imagine the uproar in the western socialist dominated media if any western country had:
restricted the media in the ways China has:
limited involverment in the open ceromany to members of it's subservient military,
limited attendance at the opening ceremony to members of it's political elite, dominant party members, and subserviant police and military,
ringed the opening ceremony stadium with storm troopers,
saturated the olympic city with a military presence
prevented spectators from watching the olympic bike road race
detained tourists and competitors relatives
been unable to prevent atttacks on and murders of US citizens (Replace US with any socialist country)
sat by while the US anthem at a medal ceremony attend by the US president was botched (Replace US with any socialist dictatorship),
pretended the smog wasn't an issue... despite committments,
had transfered events from the Olympic city without authority or agreement(Equestrian),
watched as the olympic venues were built with unpaid labour,
saw peoples homes destroyed and evicted ... without compensation,
saw the ejection of citizens because they might reflect badly on the vision the regime wanted portrayed.

watch the list grow over the next two weeks

and imagine the uproar in the media if these disgraces were perpretrated by a western liberal democracy.

Instead we have media commentators and china sympathetic western leaders excusing, ignoring and kowtowing to the chinese totalitarian regime which is perpretrating these disgraces.

It never ceases to amaze me how idealism trumps reality, time after time.

>imagine the uproar in the media if these disgraces were perpretrated by a western liberal democracy.<<

It's like that old story about the two blokes in the pub, watching the news on TV, which is showing a man on a building ledge high above the city.

"He won't jump" says the first bloke.

"Sure he will" says the second bloke, "want to bet on it?"

"You've got it. Fifty says he'll climb down"

At that moment, the guy jumped. The first bloke reaches for his wallet.

"Hey," says the second, "don't bother. This was on the news earlier, I saw it an hour ago"

"So did I," says the second bloke "but I didn't think he'd go through with it again."

News flash.

China is not a democracy.

Why anyone would believe that a sporting event would succeed in suddenly bringing massive political change to a country, beats the hell out of me.

The Olympics have been for sale to the highest bidder for decades. China bought the right to stage the Games this year, as a massive publicity stunt to its own people, as a means to show the populace how great their government is.

Much the same as every other Games since Atlanta.

So the expression of indignation at their ability to continue to thumb their nose at world opinion shows a pleasant, if ineffectual, idealism.

He who pays the piper, I seem to recall, also calls the tune.

Atlanta, Pericles? Don't you mean Berlin?

Hi Journo

The Kashgar "terror attack" near the Yiquan Hotel bears all the earmarks of the Central Propaganda Department and state media to distort the truth.

China's police brutality is well known. What is less known is the number of revenge attacks on police by their victims and attacks are not restricted to repressed ethnic minority groups. On July 1, six police were killed in a Molotov cocktail and knife revenge attack by a man on a Shanghai police station. Right across China, many more police have been killed and injured in civil uprisings responding to official corruption and police brutality.

In Kashgar eyewitness accounts were blocked by an immediate media and internet lockdown, coinciding with a crackdown by police warning locals against speaking to foreigners. Journalists are under 24/7 surveillance. Two Japanese journalists interviewing locals were detained, beaten and their recording equipment destroyed by police. An AFP journalist "detained" in his hotel room by police was forced to delete all images plus written and recorded notes of the attack.

Officials claim two men drove a truck into a group of 70 police jogging 3 abreast along the road. The men jumped out, threw two bombs and attacked the police with machetes. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement is blamed for the attack and this is where the claim lacks credibility. Like many reports on terror attacks, details are sketchy and often contradictory when it comes to the explosives used.

Uighur groups lack network, infrastructure and funding to plan and execute attacks compared to foreign Islamic extremists.

Organised terror group do not waste resources by running into a group of police on foot when they had explosives on board. Because of the three long lines, the explosive effect would be minimal and the police would react quickly. When jogging, police do not venture forth on the streets of Xinjiang unprotected. They are accompanied by armed vehicles.

Closer scrutiny of the official assault reports tends to support a revenge attack by individuals, rather than terrorism.

The video, genuine or not, succeeding in achieving maximum effect with minimal effort and zero risk.

The NINETIES -More than 20 years later the Tibetan leader decided to bring the domestic tension with the Gelugpas to the Tibetan public, issuing a ban on Dorje Shugden. Why?

Simple, he needed a red herring to cover the fact that just before his Nobel Prize, in 1988, he had given up the independence of Tibet –offering China “autonomy” instead of independence– without consulting the Tibetan people, all alone on his own.

His move towards China practically remained unnoticed by the Tibetan public, and the few who became aware of it didn’t have time to oppose him because soon after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Tibetans thought the independence of Tibet was finally within reach. The “autonomy” thesis of the leader remained largely ignored.

The first important political opposition against his "autonomy" theory –a nice word for accepting that Tibet is part of China– erupted at the end of 1995, when the hopes kindled by the Nobel Prize had vanished. The opposition was lead by his brother Norbu. He created the Walks for Independence, openly defying his brother the Dalai Lama.

To avoid the spread of the pro-independence opposition among Tibetans, who are fiercely in love with their Motherland, the Dalai Lama declared that the Protector Deity Dorje Shugden harmed his own health and the cause of Tibet and proclaimed the famous ban.

So at the end of the year 1995 began the pro-independence opposition against the Dalai Lama’s “autonomy” idea, and he declared the ban against the deity Dorje Shugden in March 1996. This dates are not to be forgotten.

This red herring was a success. The persecution took inquisitorial tones, not only with the burning of sacred books and statues and even of houses of practitioners but with the prohibition for these to hold civil jobs, to attend ceremonies, and many other attacks on their human rights. The Draft Constitution of the Tibetans was changed to bar the practitioners of the deity from holding public office.

The world protected automatically the Dalai Lama's fame, never believing that the Lord of compassion was persecuting his own people.

YEAR 2008 -The Dalai Lama chose 2008, the year of the Olympic Games, to try to force China into accepting him back, on his own terms. Instigated by him or not, the riots in Tibet gave him the opportunity to loudly announce this time his desire to reintegrate Tibet to Mother China.

He needed again peace at home while proclaiming his solution of handing Tibet to China –but the exile Tibetans hate this idea.

To distract them he restarted and intensified the persecution against the Dorje Shugden practitioners. The opposition to independence still exists, but the people are too involved in implementing this new witch hunt –and they don’t dare oppose their leader. They’ve seen a clear mirror of the danger of opposing him: the Dorje Shugden devotees, treated as traitors sold to the Chinese.

The last great chapter of this religious persecution started last January, on the eve of the riots, and the main victims were the great Buddhist universities, the Southern India monasteries of Ganden, Drepung and Sera. There were imposed the oaths in front of deities against the practitioners, the ostracism, the segregation, the creation of an outcast group of Tibetans that Tibetans cannot even talk to, let alone share any other human relation with.

At least a thousand monks have been expelled from their monasteries. Such forced schism is huge. But the lay people suffer too, defenseless in the midst of fanaticized communities.

Accustomed to his leadership, disoriented by exile, Tibetans have chosen to stick to their Dalai Lama, ignore his failures and accuse others for the loss of their country. So under the Dalai Lama’s instigation, the Dorje Shugden practitioners have become the scapegoat at whom anybody can throw a stone.

So this is the truth behind the issue. A deity has been prohibited and its practitioners are being persecuted to further the autocratic rule of the Tibetan leader, distracting people's attention and avoiding opposition.

The suffering in the fractured Tibetan community and the destroyed Buddhist Sangha is difficult to describe.
May the world open its eyes and stop the Dalai Lama.