I watched the closing ceremony tonight and I must say, I was
impressed!

China has come a long way in just a few years. To think
that no so long ago, they were starving by the millions.

Anyhow, credit where credit is due and I think that the Chinese
people can be proud of the job they did for Olympics 2008.

Ok time for the nitpickers and cynics to have their say :)

.

LOL. who me? nahhh

Well indeed it was a marvellous spectacle and very much a hard act to follow for poor England. However, they are saying London will be more the party theme and not as 'serious'.
The amount of money that has gone into Beijing (44 million dollars) could well be described as obscene.
There is a lot of squallor that was hidden behind temporary 'frontages' to block off the 'eye sores'. Anyway,the Games were a success in a lot of other ways though ticketing could've been handled better to fill up venues.
Still, it will be interesting to see how London differs with the opening and the close. They don't have to match Beijing; just be Different.

spot on Yabby.

I'd love to see the wealthier nations subsidise the games in Rio or Nairobi or Cairo or Kiev.

Dear Yabby,

Of course there's no denying the spectacle
of both the opening and closing ceremonies.
They took our breath away. But, then they
were meant to.

I was listening to a journalist from Reuters
giving his account of the games and when asked
whether he thought anything will change in
China as a result, he replied, "Sadly, not at
all." And, when asked, "Will China open up
to the West?" the answer was a firm "No."

He also said how all protests had been "dealt
with." Many people were arrested and put in jails,
or worse.

What was presented to the world was a spectacle.

I googled, "Nuremberg rallies," and came across a
site that had spectacular pictures. It was
interesting to read:

"The annual Nuremberg rallies were the highpoint of
the Nazi year. Every effort was made to produce a
spectacular show not only for those attending...but
for the world as well..."

"The Nazis planned enormous construction projects for
the Nuremberg party rally grounds..." There's a photo
of Hitler standing alongside a model of the "German
Stadium."

"Albert Speer developed the "Cathedral of Light,"
for the annual evening rally of party leaders.
A multitude of searchlights pointing straight up
created a vivid spectacle. The effect showed up
for miles around Nuremberg."

There was even a photo of eager Hitler youth drummers.

Sounds familiar does it not?

The Soviet Regime also used to have the most spectacular
military parades in Red Square. Their aim was also to
impress.

Congratulations China. Great Olympics?
While being impressed, perhaps what we should
also be asking is, at what human cost?

Ah Foxy, but you make the tragic mistake that many of us
arrogant Westeners make. You look at how we think and think
that others should immediately think the same, or they are wrong.

I OTOH don't demand perfection, but appreciate change when it
does happen. Patience is a virtue dear :)

China, the Middle East, etc, all very different cultures to ours.
I remind you that it took the West hundreds of years and tens
of millions of deaths etc, to evolve into what we are today.

So I see it this way: When I was a kid, China was little different
to what North Korea is today. Look at China now! Its a huge
difference!

Yes, the old Communist party does not want to let go of absolute
power, but economically China has gone ahead in leaps and bounds.
I gather that there are now more Chinese on the internet, then
Americans. The Chinese now dress quite differently to how they
used to, in their little Mao suits, with their little red books.

So too, politics will change in China. I actually saw the
Olympics as China changing and wanting acceptance and recognition
from the rest of the world. There were clearly many Chinese who
were extremely proud of themselves and what they had done. So
I say well great!

Dear Yabby,

You said that you saw the Olympics as China
changing...

It may be for the party elite, but what about
the billion or more remaining, who have
absolutely nothing and are being exploited
and suppressed, as they always have been
by their government?

As The New York Times stated:

"Bejing got what it wanted out of this
globally televised spectacular. It reaped
a huge prestige bonanza that it will surely
use to promote its international influence and,
we fear, further tighten its grip at home.

It pocketed these gains without offering any
concessions in return...To win the right
to host these Games, China promised to honor
the Olympic ideals of nonviolence, openness
to the world and individual expression.
These promises were systematically broken,
starting with this spring's brutal repression in
Tibet and continuing on to the ugly farce of
inviting its citizens to apply for legal
protest permits and then arresting them if they
actually tried to do so.

Along the way, government critics were pre-
emptively rounded up and jailed, domestic
news outlets tightly controlled, foreign
journalists denied full access to the Internet
and thousands of Beijing's least telegenic
residents were evicted from their homes and out of
camera range.

A year ago, the IOC predicted that these Games
would be a "force for good" and a spur to
human-rights progress. Instead, as Human Rights
Watch has reported, they became a catalyst for
intensified human-rights abuse.

...World leaders must tell Beijing that its failure
to live up to its Olympic commitments will neither be
ignored nor forgotten.

The medal count and DVD sales cannot be the last
word on the Beijing Games."

Please don't patronise me Yabby. We can agree
to disagree on this one, but don't
tell me that things will
change in China. They haven't yet - for the
majority of the Chinese population.