#125 - olympics 2008

usually i am all over the olympics. i like to watch as much as i can, even if it's something i find boring like track or it's in the middle of the night. some people enjoy watching other people run around in a circle, personally i find it boring. i don't care if someone can run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds cause if i don't have to run, i'm not gonna! i used to be very patriotic and believed USA should win it all, have the best medal count and all that jazz. did i somehow lose my olympic spirit and national pride? maybe it has to do with the fact that it's so much about marketing and money now, even if they say it's an amateur things with amateur athletes, that is not true. i don't even know if i care that some of them are professionals and get paid to do what they are great at. sure, there will be people who rise from being nobodies to become national heroes. there will be "sure things" who fail and don't live up to expectations of their country and countrymen. people will get up on the podium and cry as the national anthem is played, mouthing the wrong words because they forgot them. there will be (or probably was already) a crazy long opening ceremony with lots of interpretive dancing and music that is culturally relevant and what not. i guess i've always liked winter olympics better but i used to enjoy them all. what happened?

i didn't realize till now how much money and work goes into building and planning for olympics. there are millions of people involved and billions of dollars. they make an olympic "city" in a few years, i guess that's pretty amazing. they clean up the area that it's held in. i heard sydney was a pretty dirty city before the olympics rolled into town. the thing that has been bothering me is i read an article about people who have been displaced because of the olympics. they just get kicked out of their homes because it's now gonna be a stadium, or parking lot, or whatever. they have no choice but to leave. this is unfair, but i guess that is life. sucks.

another thing - tibet. i won't go deep into this issue but i believe that china is slowly crushing and destroying tibet's rich and beautiful culture. tibet's spiritual and political leader, hh dalai lama lives in exile in india and has not even seen his country in the 50 years that china has occupied tibet. it makes me angry and sad because of the atrocities that have taken place at the hand of chinese ruling in tibet. they have not only destroyed monasteries, homes and temples, but also tortured and killed over a million tibetan people, many over religious causes. the chinese government says they are "improving" tibet and putting money into that region to benefit the tibetans but really it encourages more chinese to move "out west".

so i am frustrated and not sure if i will watch any of the olympics. honestly i have a lot more going on right now and don't even have a tv. watching it on tv is so commercialized and over-produced that it's not as fun to watch. you have to sit through a lot of talking in order to watch any athletic action! i'm just not into it this year. i can't wait till vancouver '10 though!