Beijing Olympics: Look who's talking!

2008-08-18

By Confidence Musariri from The Southern Times recently in Beijing

 

The world has been immersed with the way in which China is hosting the Beijing Olympics. But for Beijing, the Olympics were hard earned.

All of a sudden, everyone has forgotten about Tibet, no one speaks of the press censorship, the heavy transportation, fog and climate issues of Beijing as they all seem to have died a natural death.

How has China managed to ward off all the artillery that almost discredited the Olympic Games!

While working on my itinerary before traveling to Beijing, I had no option but to check on what I should expect in Beijing in terms of the weather. I expected it to be very gloomy and dark as was being reported. CNN, BBC, Sky News were my main sources of information as they are global and already had news crews on the ground in Beijing.

These reported that visitors in Beijing should expect a tough time and the host country risked hosting the worst Olympics ever. Others went as far as reporting that athletes would not be allowed to express themselves or speak aloud against the Chinese government. Terrorism and the Tibetan "crisis" as always was the main key that analysts claimed would destroy the "One World One Dream" theme of the Olympics.

This was worsened by those grim pictures that the whole world was shown as people, especially from the West, tried to block the Olympic torch.

Upon arrival at the Beijing International Airport, one of the largest airports in the world, I discovered lots of old structures had been demolished and replaced by new ones. It seemed like apartment buildings, hotels and office buildings had sprung overnight as no one had reported about these state-of-the-art structures. My guide, a fluent English-speaking Chinese student volunteer named Anita Lee informed me that I would stay in a five-star hotel called the Raddengast Hotel, which had been completed in July.

Public toilets are so easy to find, they are clean. They have not only water, but soap. Wasteland along roads has been transformed into parks, with trees and beautiful flowers.

The sky was not visible, but hey, this is China, its visibility did not appear an obstacle to the Games. Cars were not driving with their lights on. Someone just made a Hollywood story on the Chinese climate. Blue skies seemed to have returned all of a sudden.

I soon realised this was the first developing country, Communist for that matter, hosting the Olympic Games.

Someone from the Western media confused fog with air pollution. It was just entire propaganda bent on destroying a Communist developing country's global profile which has stood to challenge capitalism and the West's global position.

China said its greatest enemy was not the three million cars or air pollution as reported, but its number one terrorist was rain. Rain around the opening ceremony. And that was never reported. By God, it never rained around the Bird's Nest. And what a meal we got served.

Thrice I walked around Tiananmen Square around 2am in the morning, and never had a problem. Security was not tight but we all felt safe; China is friendly. One felt safe because of the Olympic Spirit, which China had made a reality in its theme.

I have no doubt Hollywood would study the DVD of the performances at the opening ceremony so as to plunder Beijing's visual tricks.

George W Bush stayed in Beijing for five days and was even joined by the older Bush, as China seem to have out done its predecessors. More than five European Heads of States and Government overstayed in Beijing because of what she was offering to the world. British PM Gordon Brown boycotted the whole event because of "China's record." Britain hosts the next Olympics and I wonder if she will face the same criticism that China faced from world media. I also wonder how the British government will feel if other presidents decide not to attend the ceremony.

The only problem I heard is that China never defended itself from the media onslaught. It used the Olympics to defend itself. But how many developing countries have resources and opportunities like the Olympics to defend themselves from the harsh Western propaganda?

Now that the world has been to China, small wonder if the world has embraced China.

(From The Southern Times)