Shuck Bush

1 August 2008

We seem to be opening a can of worms having the Olympics in Beijing. Promises of good air quality has not been achieved. Having spent two weeks in Xian, China, whose air quality equals Beijing gave me a good idea of what it will be like for our athletes. With the help of a mask I tried to not breathe too much foul air and was still overwhelmed. Think about the amount of air that athletes take in. Now, the promise of free web access has been denied. China says that the press will be governed by the same regulations that Chinese citizens have for web use. I guess that we all know what that means in a repressive country like China.

Any web site controversial about China’s policies is banned. The following information was reported in the NY Times. “those that discuss Tibetan issues, Taiwanese independence, the violent crackdown on the protests in Tiananmen Square and the Web sites of Amnesty International, the BBC’s Chinese-language news, Radio Free Asia and several Hong Kong newspapers known for their freewheeling political discourse.” Talk about being muzzled. I have heard that there are ways to get around it by changing the settings on your computer.

The International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge claimed earlier that a main benefit for choosing Beijing for the Games was that it would make China more open. HA! Just two weeks ago he said “For the first time, foreign media will be able to report freely and publish their work freely in China. There will be no censorship on the Internet.” Ha again! Chinese officials at first said the problem of access was due to the site itself. Yeah, sure.

I hope that the pollution and web access are the only problems that the US experiences during the games but I wouldn’t count on it. While Bush has asked that China ease political repression and lift its restrictions on the Internet, I can’t see that happening. International hotels have been required to install government software to monitor Internet traffic during the Olympics. They run a very tight ship in China.

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