Article Commentary - Six Months Later, after the Beijing Olympics

This article was written six months before the Beijing Olympics. The article critized the Olympics, and pointed out some things Beijing needed to work on before the Games could really be successful. Now, after the Olympics, many of these things said in the article have not come to pass. Let us look at this article in the light of post-Beijing Olympics 2008

Although I missed the opening ceremony on the 8th of August, I definitely did not miss the closing ceremony held at the 'Bird's Nest' stadium on the 24th of August. It truly was an awesome spectacle, the precision of the the performances, the dazzling fireworks, and all the other tiny details that were generally in place. This Beijing Games has not disappointed us, as it has been able to bring out the best - and maybe the worst about China. Certainly, the Games continued without any major disruptions, barring maybe a few protests. Generally, it was a well conceived and well-executed plan.

Beijing had promised much before the Games. I quote the article - "high quality, cultural, high-tech and green." In terms of technology, the Beijing Olympics was superior to the 2004 Games in Athens, as can be seen by advances in modern technology - in cameras, in lights, in venues. Beijing has attempted to make it 'green', in the sense of making Bejing less polluted, and more appealing. However, the world expects this to be only temporary, that Beijing will go back to being the Air Pollution capital of the world. This remains to be seen. However, since Beijing has succeeded in its primary goal of clearing the smog for the Olympics, there is no reason for Beijing to continue keeping its skies clear.

You can see in the article of several important incidents that Beijing has covered up to make their Summer Olympics perfect. Now, after the Games, we can see that Beijing has indeed tried their best to make the Games perfect, but in attempting to make the games perfect, they have made me really disappointed in them. For one, the lip-synching. Just because the girl with a great voice did not have as pretty a face to go with the voice, they chose a girl with a more attractive face to lip-synch to the original girl singing the song. In fact, this farce was so perfect that no one actually was able to tell until the news was leaked out. Another piece of shameful news that was leaked to the media was that some of the fireworks during the opening ceremony had been recorded. While this shows how much China wants to make their Games perfect, it also shows forth China's paranoia and insecurity.

This article has also said that one of the things that would help China to carry out a successful Olympic Games is to relax. Although China has not 'relaxed', both literally and metaphorically, it is still a common consensus that the 2008 Olympics has been well executed. However, China has had to resort to extreme measures to ensure that the Games remain successful, for example, pulling off 50% of the cars of the road to cut carbon emissions. China will nearly stop at nothing to ensure that the Games that it is so proud to host is perfect. This results in several ethical problems, a few of which are highlighted in the article.

This article has a relatively negative overtone to it. However, this article fails to take into account the major natural disaster that struck China before the Olympics as this article was written before it. I think that China has done quite well in handling this immense disaster, while at the same time preparing for one of the proudest moments in modern Chinese history - hosting the Olympics. This also shows the resilience of the Chinese people, that they are able to pick themselves up off the floor after one of the most devastating earthquakes ever in Sichuan, to host the Games and make this Olympics a successful one. Maybe one of their major motivations is nationalism, which is rampant in China. This would definitely cause the Chinese to be fired up and willing to sacrifice their all for their country

This article is indeed not very accurate in its assessment of China. Although the world can rightfully criticize China; for all her faults, she has her strengths, too.

All in all, while China has many areas to work on, they have still done well. However, as these issues are often ethical in nature, China has to work on its ethics, otherwise, in the long run, a lack of ethics may lead to China's inability to truly become a superpower. Not just an economic and military one, but one that is a center of culture and peace.