08-08-08

[Marky Mark]

The trouble is we all try to blank it out if doesn't affect us directly.

One of my friends at work is expecting her first baby to be born on 08-08-08, so life does go on and there is always a little bit of good news flying around.

M n M

[kieran]

and we're off to Ireland!

[Graham O]

Its difficult from my perspective.

I think its quite positive that China is opening up more to the world. I rreally hope that these olypics are fantastic because there must be a stack of talented people (athletes and others) who want to show what they can do....

I also think that given that everything we consume is made there, maybe its a bit rich when we moan about the way that they run their country.

On the other hand, you do hear some quite strange stuff.

Sean - Just how bad are they these days. Tianamen square was a long time ago...Tibet is no worse that UK / USA in Iraq..

[adrian]

And we're off to Italy. Shouldn't be too affected there by - just off the top of my head - galloping and inconsistent use of the death penalty, harrassment and punitive detention of dissenting voices, media censorship and blackouts, ill-treatment of rural and migrant workers, lack of rights for urban workers, persecution of Falun Gong practitoners, one-child policy (leading to infanticide, etc), corrupt legal system, support of Sudanese government (Darfur)...

[Daniel Gee]

If you have the time to read it all that whole Tibet business is nowhere near as cut & dried as you might think;

[url]http://www.swans.com/library/art9/mparen01.html[/url]

[MJ_1993]

This could be the most politically fuelled games ever. You can't excuse what China has done. Its a disgrace. You can say what you want, but to have the Olympic Games in China, where human rights can be thrown out the window is a real shame.

It is fantastically interesting though, that we can invade Iraq and Afghanistan and destroy people's lives, their economy, trash their land and steal their natural resources. But we can be bothered with Mugabe, the persecution in Chechnya and Kosovo. Becuase to be frank, we have nothing to gain. There is no resources there, it wont further someone's wealth?

The fact is America will chase Iran and co., but will never touch China, because China will cane America in a war. And to put things straight about Iran. Ahmedinejad never said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. It was dangerously and badly misquoted. Secondly, Israel has nuclear weapons and with their volatile "nature" and history, they are a far more dangerous de-stabilising threat in the region. Now dont take this as me hating Israel blah blah blah, because I am actually a sort of ZIonist, I believe in a Jewish homeland etc etc, just not the way it was done.

The problem is, America and the "West" f*** it up everytime (excuse the language). They think missiles and killing innocent civilians is diplomacy, when frankly it achieves nothing, such as My Lai massacre, supplying Iraq with Chemical Weapons to use against Iran, giving weapons to the taliban, Sabra and SHatilla massacres and the list goes on.

China needs to change its way drastically, but military action wont do it, and a boycott is too impractical, inorder for China to change either a person or a body comes to the fore (Mandela, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, or Gandhi esque) comes to the fore of the Chinese community and rallies the people, or it works that a revolution occurs be it a result of that body or because the people are hungry, restless blah blah, or even an amalgamation of the two.

Communisism never works, and never will work in practice.

[quote="Sean Hogan - 何祥"][quote="adrian"]one-child policy (leading to infanticide, etc)...

[Graham O]

China are one of our biggest trading partners !!

Having started to watch the olympics I am amazed by the designs of the 'olympic stadium' and aquatics centre a.k.a 'the cube'. They both surpass anything being planned for London !!

Don't forget that they are going through what is in effect their first industrial revolution..Many of the problems mentioned above also existed in this country but have been resolved over a period of a couple of hundred years....

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

cappucino or latte?

[Graham O]

China has all the money in the world. They are not worried about value for money !!

We are building a £600M tent. Ok we can downsize it afterwards, but we will have spent 600M for a stadium the size of Crystal Palace Athletics Stadium. Where is the sense in that....

Anyhow - It is all quite conflicting. These days I don't belieev what I'm told in the press so don't know what to believe...

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

Chocolate on the top

[Graham O]

yes please !!

[mrP(Boonen)VT]

They're on Sean

[Andrew G]

Drifting off topic but blame Graham , can anyone explain to a simple man like myself why so much is being spent on the Olympics in building new facilities rather than re-building on existing sites.

Crystal Palace Sports Centre used to be excellent and although time and a lack of money haven't treated it too well the basics are still there of an athletics stadium and plenty of indoor gym/squash etc facilities, not to mention a 50 metre pool and diving pool. I'll admit that these aren't at Olympic standard for showing off in front of the World but it seems somewhat wasteful to me to ignore them completely rather than renovate them.

[Graham O]

Think its all to do with the regenerating of east london....

I agree......its a bit of a waste. It will be very difficult for crystal palace to get the funding for the necessary refit whilst the olympics is going on....