Gold Medal Performance

Even with the publicized faked parts of the opening ceremonies, the eye-catching venues (e.g., the "Birds Nest", and the psychedelically-alive Water Cube), the "real" fireworks, the stadium performers and theatrics, the creative ingenuity, and the coordination were still astounding - well so far. Faking the city fireworks "footprints" through Beijing for the tv or lcd viewers around the world is acceptable because the smog level on most days continue to reduce visibility to just 100's of metres, and on some days it's as good as Toronto's worst smog days. So no big deal, no ones gets hurt. China's ever so important image, on the other hand, is hurting somewhat at the podium, the one on which a girl appeared to sing "Ode to the Motherland", but really didn't.

The pretty voice heard by over a billion people was that of another cute little girl, 7 year old Yang Peiyi (left), who was not considered to be cute enough for Olympic organizers. The images that really get projected are that China is uncaring for the feelings of a young girl, that it's presumptuous in thinking that the rest of the world would not be equally impressed with the actual singer with the actual angelic voice, and that it's a country that still hides the truth. It makes you wonder, did the men's gymnastics team win two gold last night for China, or, was it Tibet?

Update - It's just been revealed that the 7 year old girl who was rejected was actually absent for another reason. She had been called into work at the lead paint factory, as she was on night shift that week.