What is different for me when watching this Olympic as to ones in the past, is the political tension between it. I can see it in the media, hear it news casting and commentators, and just feel it from all that I am surround with. I've heard things as far as comparing this Olympic with the 1936 Olympic hosted by the Nazis, to how the Chinese government is mistreating their people just to put on a good front for the world, and even death camp for cats. I also watched a documentary relating on the freedom of international free press and how there are still some shady business going on due to the fact that the Chinese government promise to allow total freedom of press in times of the games however as in the documentary shows, their actions are different then what they stated.
What I concluded from this is pretty much; nothing. To be honest, I am not surprise or shock of these reports because in the back of my mind I already know instinctively. We all know that China does not have the best of records when it comes to political and humanitarian issues but it seems like it is the popular thing to talk about these days. China at the moment has the most gold medals, every time a Chinese athlete wins gold the U.S commentator seems to follow up on a story that reminds the viewer of how the Chinese are bad and we should not trust them, and I'm getting tired of it. I am not saying that we should just forget all the suffering that is going on in this world, but to bring issues into the Olympic is not right in my opinion. To me, the Olympic is the one symbol that the world has left that is pure in it's intentions; to come together and compete. But now I feel as if the games are tainted by controversies and political propagandas.
To conclude back to my title question: What is more mighty than God, rich man need that the poor man have? The answer is : nothing. Analyzing that quote, i find that my definition of the riddle to be that nothing can be everything, and everything is nothing because there is no such thing as nothingness and same goes for everything. So how does that relate to my post? I guess the one thing I want to say is that I wish the world would focus on what matters more, not whats in, or trendy. We are trying to achieve everything and it seems like in the end we get nothing done. Maybe if we focus on the good side of the Olympic and not sneak in propaganda we might achieve something, whatever it is that we are striving for.
To conclude back to my title question: What is more mighty than God, rich man need that the poor man have? The answer is : nothing. Analyzing that quote, i find that my definition of the riddle to be that nothing can be everything, and everything is nothing because there is no such thing as nothingness and same goes for everything. So how does that relate to my post? I guess the one thing I want to say is that I wish the world would focus on what matters more, not whats in, or trendy. We are trying to achieve everything and it seems like in the end we get nothing done. Maybe if we focus on the good side of the Olympic and not sneak in propaganda we might achieve something, whatever it is that we are striving for.
5 comments:
I haven't seen one bit of the the Olympics yet. However, after our discussion in class about the Olympics, I found it quite interesting and I appreciate that you're blogging on this topic.
Your statement, "to me, the Olympic is the one symbol that the world has left that is pure in it's intentions; to come together and compete. But now I feel as if the games are tainted by controversies and political propagandas," really stood out because I do not think it is a symbol that represents purity. For some reason, I feel like the Olympics is a time for countries to say, "My country is better than yours and if we win in this competition, then you are inferior to us." I totally agree that the games are tainted by controversies and political propaganda. In class, we were discussing some issues that came up during the Olympics, such as the Spanish basketball team pulling their eyes back to make fun of Chinese eyes. There is also talk about how the Chinese gymnasts are underage:
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news;_ylt=AsW0nZ3XbrYX200dMQsOWaIazJV4?slug=ap-gym--underagechinese&prov=ap&type=lgns
There's just too much controversy going on in the Olympics. I can imagine someone saying, "Damn, I just want to watch the Olympics and not hear about all this other BS." I agree, I wish the world would definitely focus on what is more important. We should definitely let the Olympics be and not try to cause so much drama over it.
I am glad that you brought up the Olympics and the media coverage that takes place within it. In a way I agree that the games are being “tainted by controversies and political propagandas,” however, I think our own nationalism is responsible. Nationalism is a very powerful thing. I believe that it is the basis for all of the news coverage that takes place during the Olympics. Reporting controversies (specifically about other nations) is America’s way of showing our own national pride. It is the way we remind ourselves that we are “the best.” By advertising the follies of other nations, we make ourselves appear better. Our actions could even be compared to China’s desire to represent themselves in a good light. In class we discussed that during the opening ceremony, both the fireworks and the young girl singing were “fake.” For good reason this upset many people, however, I do not think that these actions should be taken too seriously or with any resentment. Is it so wrong for China, or any nation for that matter, to try and represent themselves in the best way possible? After all, the Olympics are all about competition.
This topic of politics and the Olympics has always been on the table, maybe more obvious now than in the past. Before I continue, here is the swimming link you were looking for: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/share.html?videoid=0811_HD_SWB_HL_L0194
That race certainly got my patriotic juices flowing, especially when the favored French were talking shit on the US team. When viewing this race from the American NBC station, you can notice certain things that the announcers were doing. Just before the race, he mentions how the US has little chance to beat this French powerhouse. Although it was most likely up for grabs between the two teams, saying something like that only adds to the drama of an American win. Once the Americans won, they made a great point to show the contrasting reactions between the US and French teams. Some color commentary added by the announcer in the form of, "Well... they aren't saying much now"... 10 different angles of the finish were shown to put the icing on the cake, and all of that thrown together certainly worked well on me.
Like this one example of many in these games, it is understandable for things like French rivalries or underage Chinese training to be brought up in the American broadcast. With China's world influence on the rise, these ideas are only seeds being planted in the American viewers for an interesting future to come. You can bet that the broadcast in China was significantly different than ours.
The Olympics games today is more political than a series of competition between countries. The 2008 Olympics is seen as China's coming out party as a powerful nation. Besides just competing for pride, the top countries are competing for the number of metals received. China even went as far as to produce fake passports for some of their gymnasts. You brought up a good topic in your blog and i appreciate it very much.
I am glad to read that I am entering an already lively conversation. Your post certainly caught readers' attention, Hung, and that is great. I had wanted us to discuss in more depth the Olympics media coverage in class on Thursday because I do think it is an important topic, particularly when we consider our keywords, "ideology" and "culture." I find myself struggling with my response because on certain points, I definitely agree with you and on others, I do not, and all of the comments touch on these two extremes. First, I realize Mike found an online video of the swimming competition to which you referred, but I think the media copyright issues here are fascinating. I also could not find certain clips I had expected to, and that brings up several more questions. In this moment of YouTube, we expect video to be readily available to us and we notice when it is not. Second, I think your point about when China receives another medal, the U.S. commentators follow up with a critique of China in another subject. That is very compelling and I wish you would have provided a specific example of this. I do appreciate the links you provided because they help make your point about all of the news stories emerging about China's politics. However, a specific example of the mainstream (i.e. NBC) press pulling this move would have been even more convincing. Finally, I have to challenge you on the idea of "purity"--what is that? How could we (personally, nationally, globally) achieve that? When is it ever possible to put politics aside, particularly when the very point of the Olympics is competition between national, governmental bodies? In general, try to read your post aloud or have another person edit before you publish. Your writing is fairly strong, but there are problems with singular/plural nouns, such as "Olympic" should be "Olympics." For the next posts, try to watch out for these.
Post a Comment