The truth about Beijing Olympics (1 Viewer)
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Beijing fury at Aussies' smog boycott
BEIJING Olympic authorities are shocked and dismayed at Athletics Australia's decision to ban track and field competitors from marching at the opening ceremony, partly because of fears that the city's pollution will harm their health and performance.
It is the first pollution-related boycott, and the decision has upset some of the Australian athletes who will miss the ceremony on August 8, instead remaining in training camps in Japan and Hong Kong until ready to compete.
"Wow, you're kidding," said the spokesman for the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, Jeff Ruffolo, on hearing the news yesterday from the Herald. "That's the first time we've heard anything about athletes themselves pulling out of the opening ceremony."
Beijing is one of the world's most polluted cities, but it is introducing drastic anti-pollution measures, and it believes it is being unfairly singled out compared with previous host cities.
"For example, in Los Angeles in 1984, when conditions were considerably worse," Mr Ruffolo said. "The smog was impenetrable, but the Games turned out sparklingly - because people left the city."
Athletics Australia's national performance manager, Max Binnington, said yesterday that pollution was a problem, and while he understood some athletes were upset, he had to ensure they performed at their peak.
"We have had athletes come back from a recent test event and one athlete has got 10 days off training because of a respiratory problem," he told ABC radio. "We don't want our athletes to be undertaking that sort of risk."
But last night Mr Binnington - clearly fearing a diplomatic fallout - backtracked and told the Herald it was not about pollution but ensuring the team had a stable training environment.
"Never was it intended to be a criticism of China, the Chinese Government or the Beijing Olympic Committee," he said. "We think they will put on a wonderful show and they will do anything to minimise the inconenience for athletes. We wouldn't be going to Hong Kong if we thought there was something wrong with China, and this isn't the first time we've gone in late."
Sensitivity on the subject is so acute in China that news photographers have recently refused to work on polluted days for fear of official retribution. Hosting a successful Olympics is a top national priority, and China's leaders will be anxious to avoid an environmental boycott of the ceremony on top of the Tibet-related political boycotts that some world leaders have already threatened.
That's because they have your technology. All thanks to those great friends of the American people and God's chosen ones:
http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=776
http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=776
Exactly. Not to mention the fact besides all the human rights issues, China is a very unsanitary place. 99% of their rivers are badly polluted and the air quality is simply pitiful. What they should have done was built the outdoor stadiums in the middle of the countryside to at least protect the athletes from that horrible smog, but then in that case they would have to deal with contaminated water.
I mean, doctors are going to start encouraging people to smoke in China just to inhale something better than their own air in the coming years..
I mean, doctors are going to start encouraging people to smoke in China just to inhale something better than their own air in the coming years..
It could have been, but Jesse Owens made it pretty sweet.
China's not just a bad choice, it's a fucking disaster. There's not a nation I hate more in the world than China. I won't try to hide it, I simply hate just about everything from China. I also hate 90% of all the Chinese I have ever met (that is, Chinese from China) as they are not only poorly educated, but quite barbaric and arrogant towards others. The whole nation is retarded and the biggest (as in good) achievements of China were more than 1000 years ago.
As for the human rights issue, you can't expect to see respect for human rights in a country where a human being, an individual, has no importance whatsoever. As is the case with some parts of Islam, some structural changes should occur in Chinese culture.
China's not just a bad choice, it's a fucking disaster. There's not a nation I hate more in the world than China. I won't try to hide it, I simply hate just about everything from China. I also hate 90% of all the Chinese I have ever met (that is, Chinese from China) as they are not only poorly educated, but quite barbaric and arrogant towards others. The whole nation is retarded and the biggest (as in good) achievements of China were more than 1000 years ago.
As for the human rights issue, you can't expect to see respect for human rights in a country where a human being, an individual, has no importance whatsoever. As is the case with some parts of Islam, some structural changes should occur in Chinese culture.
if u hate China so much and everything from China, so would u please stop using paper forever or anything contain gunpowders?
There is no such a country or people suffered so much in the past than the Chinese, and the wills of the Chinese to survive and live well are much more stronger than any others on this planet, and as a non-chinese you cannt understand and never will
There is no such a country or people suffered so much in the past than the Chinese, and the wills of the Chinese to survive and live well are much more stronger than any others on this planet, and as a non-chinese you cannt understand and never will
