Becoming Human

Thoughts on the Olympics August 25, 2008

All in all the games went well.  Smog was not an issue and there were no terrorist attacks.  The suppression of free speech certainly should not have been unexpected.  I’m proud of the Americans.  They performed well with the track team being the exception, but more importantly they behaved well.  There were no incidents that I know of involving Americans, like the Cuban tae kwan do guy who kicked the ref in the face because he lost.  The USA men’s basketball team even raised over a half million dollars for the children who were  victims of the earthquakes in China.

It makes me wonder why we in the US are always being told white men can’t play basketball.  All of the other top national teams in the world are either all or predominately white.  That being the case, their games against the US superstars, all of whom are black, should have been blow-outs like the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Generals, but for the most part they were not.  There are a lot of good white players in the world, but not in the US.  Almost all of the top white players in the NBA are foreigners.  Don’t forget, even though Steve Nash’s native language is English, he is Canadian.  Why is it that the US can’t produce better white players?  Just asking.

What is unfair about basketball?  It only counts as one medal.  Why is it that in swimming you can get a gold medal (and Phelps did) everytime you swim across the pool, and track is similar in that you can be in multiple events.  In gymnastics you could potentially get a medal for team competition, all-around, and each individual event.  But in team sports a number of players have to play multiple games just to get one medal.  Sure each person on the team gets a medal, but in the country’s medal count, it is only considered as one.  Maybe there should be just one medal for swimming.  After all, the point is to get from one end of the pool to the other.  Who cares whether you use a dog paddle or a butterfly?  Or maybe there should be multiple medals for basketball – one for best dribbling, one for best dunking, passing, free throws, jump shots, 3 pointers, falling on your butt to make it look like you’re taking a charge, etc.

What about those tiny Chinese gymnasts?  The point is not only that they look young, but that Chinese documents from previous competitions have been listing them as young enough that they would not now be eligible for the Olympics.  Apparently, we’re expected to believe all of those listings were mistakes and what the Chinese government says now is correct.  One mistake maybe, but the coincidence of so many mistakes is unbelievable.  And don’t forget that a Chinese gymnast from a previous Olympics said she was younger than the age listed.

I’ve always thought that opening ceremonies were a silly waste of time and money, but this one was downright creepy with the militaristic overtones reminiscent of the Nazis in the 1936 Olympics.  Director of the ceremony Zhang Yimou was quoted in various publications, including the London Telegraph, as saying: “Number one is North Korea.  Their performances are totally uniform, and uniformity in this way brings beauty.  We Chinese can do it too.  After hard training and strict discipline. . . . Like the moveable type cubes (in the opening ceremony) the performers follow orders.  The actors listen to the orders, and carry them out like computers.  Foreigners admire this.  This is the Chinese spirit.”  Here is one foreigner who does not admire people being turned into robots.  Yimou is the most famous Chinese movie director having directed many famous movies including Hero, The Curse of the Golden Flower and House of Flying Daggers.  The opening ceremony reminded me of The Curse of the Golden Flower where the garden in front of the palace was covered with millions of chrysanthemums, each an exact replica of the other.  After an epic battle the flowers are all destroyed and the garden is covered by millions of dead soldiers.  Then thousands of workers come out to drag off the bodies and replace the millions of flowers, each an exact replica of the other.  Only a few characters, the royal, dysfunctional family, have any personalities.  The multitudes are automatons just as are the performers in the opening ceremony.  I had thought that The Curse of the Golden Flowers was meant as criticism of the Chinese government, but from Yimou’s comments, apparently not.  Certainly his early film Raise the Red Lantern was, but he has changed from somewhat of a rebel to become part of the the communist establishment.

OK, enough of this negative stuff.  What was my favorite moment of the entire Olympics?  Shelly-Ann Fraser’s reaction when she won the women’s 100 meter dash.  I have no connection to Jamaica and never heard of her before, but her reaction to winning was priceless.  She was the youngest and shortest and no one expected her to win, yet she won easily.  She was just so happy – as you should be when you win – bouncing up and down on the track afterwards.  Her braceface smile is infectious and she should be in a promotional video for the next Olympics.  If you missed it, check it out on YouTube.