I watched the opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing earlier tonight. Well, not all of it – even in the summer I struggle to find four spare hours in a row. I have to say that, like seemingly everyone, I spent most of the time with my mouth open. It was an incredible spectacle.
If the object had been to take China’s human rights record off people’s minds for a couple of hours they certainly succeeded with me. As I watched those fireworks, and the drummers all moving in unison creating a massive single entity, and the huge globe with the gravity defying people, and the wonderful way they lit the torch – for a moment human rights didn’t enter my conscious – I became a child looking at his first ever fireworks display again – my mouth formed the shape it makes when it stops midway through uttering a ‘wow’ and stayed like that.
Of course I’m back in righteous indignation mode again – and will say a silent prayer for those who were screwed up and crushed in the creation of a state which thinks nothing of spending billions on a global event but treats its poor so shoddily.
I firmly believe that China should not have been awarded the Olympics in the first place – but the time for protesting that decision is over, anything more can only be considered grandstanding and will do more harm than good.
So let the games commence – and credit to the people who made that crazy opening ceremony come together and said so clearly – ‘follow that, London!’
If the object had been to take China’s human rights record off people’s minds for a couple of hours they certainly succeeded with me. As I watched those fireworks, and the drummers all moving in unison creating a massive single entity, and the huge globe with the gravity defying people, and the wonderful way they lit the torch – for a moment human rights didn’t enter my conscious – I became a child looking at his first ever fireworks display again – my mouth formed the shape it makes when it stops midway through uttering a ‘wow’ and stayed like that.
Of course I’m back in righteous indignation mode again – and will say a silent prayer for those who were screwed up and crushed in the creation of a state which thinks nothing of spending billions on a global event but treats its poor so shoddily.
I firmly believe that China should not have been awarded the Olympics in the first place – but the time for protesting that decision is over, anything more can only be considered grandstanding and will do more harm than good.
So let the games commence – and credit to the people who made that crazy opening ceremony come together and said so clearly – ‘follow that, London!’
