Olympics: February 2008 Archives

Last year when it opened its 2nd location here in Beijing, there was a good deal of excitement (at least in our circle of friends) about Kro's Nest. And I'm quite sure the proprietor of said pizza joint (which, by the way, makes some of the biggest "wheels" I have ever seen) were quite excited about the prospect of cashing in on their location outside Workers Stadium's north gate this summer during the forthcoming Olympics. But alas, it appears it is not to be. As reported on China Radio International this morning:

Restaurants, bars and nightclubs in one of Beijing's main nightlife centers and celebrity hangouts are to be closed to help ensure security at an Olympic football venue. A local official says about six restaurants and bars inside the Beijing Workers' Stadium compound will be ordered to suspend operation for more than 20 days before and during the Olympic Games. He says the venues, popular among Beijing residents, would suffer lost business, but the order was issued to guarantee security for the Games.

Security? The only imminent threat Kro's poses is bloating and a logy feeling after leaving. As for clubs like Vic's and Mix, procreation would be the main bullet to avoid. The notion that this is a security issue is a complete farce! In my mind, this is a blatant money grab by BOCOG, which wants people eat the crappy food inside Workers while watching an Olympic soccer match, rather than waiting until after to scarf down a pizza. So if this is going to happen to Workers during the Olympics, what about other nearby areas, such as Sanlitun? I suspect that municipal officials are going to be clamping down on this entire city like a python on a bunny come Games time.

UPDATE: Had a chance to have a brief chat with the owner of Kro's over the weekend as I was leaving (feeling a bit logy after a medium with a couple of friends), and asked him about the situation. His response was two fold: 1) It's nothing that a bottle of baijiu can't fix, and 2) Once he knows what exactly is happening, he'll let everyone else know.

The basic point that he was trying to make to me is that things are still up in the air. And if he does get shut down, Gongti shouldn't be expecting any rent out of him!

Organizers of Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympic Games will be doing all they can to snag some of Beijing's limelight during this Olympic year.

In May, the British Columbia - Canada Pavilion will open near Tiananmen Square to showcase the games, the province, and the country. And, according to Vancouver radio station CKNW, it will host more than 60 paid BC civil servants:

(This transcript was obtained through the government's media monitoring system)

Announcer: More than 60 public servants are getting an all-expense paid
trip to Beijing for this year's Olympics. But they won't be volunteers, they'll be working to promote the 2010 Games.

Reporter: The 63 employees have been seconded to work at BC-Canada
House, which was a big hit at the Torino Games in 2006. Premier Gordon Campbell says their priority will be to promote economic opportunities in B.C.

Premier Gordon Campbell: I guess we have two choices; we can either have people that know British Columbia and understand what we're doing, or we can contract the people in China to do it. We think it's better to have people that know British Columbia and we'll be paying them. It's clear we'll be paying them. We're obviously going to pay them to get there.

Reporter: The $15 million program has been expanded from two years ago when nine workers went to Italy two weeks before the Games started. The Beijing Pavilion opens in May - a full three months before this year's Olympics.

With the province posting a $50 million dollar surplus this week, I suppose it feels flush enough to forego the cheaper labor costs in China. (The budget, incidentally, introduced a carbon tax, the first of its kind in North America).

This correspondent, being a former public relations officer in the BC government, has many friends and family who have applied for the posting. As of yet, nobody has been notified whether their applications have been approved.

My fingers are crossed.

It truly aggravates me when I see guys like Steven Spielberg waxing on about how he finds it his moral duty to help the people of Darfur by pulling out of the Olympics. It is pure, sanctimonious crap! I have no doubt that Mr. Spielberg is a very intelligent man. Having seen many of his films, I can tell that there is something special about this man's ability to make a movie. And that's the point. If he really wants to help the people of Darfur, he should making a movie about the genocide that's taking place there, and giving people insight about the wrongs that are taking place in that region of Sudan. I'm tired of guys like Spielberg, Mia Farrow and Bono sitting on their high horses and quarterbacking some kind of political grass-roots action against the flavor-of-the-month cause. If you really want to make a political difference, do like Reagan and Schwartzenegger did, which is actually put yourself up for election so you can actually enact political change, rather pulling half-baked PR stunts like pulling out of the Olympics, which isn't going to effect the overall look of the Games here in Beijing this summer, and quite frankly, isn't going to make one lick of difference when it comes to getting China onboard the Darfur situation more than it is already.

Don't get me wrong. I do sometimes enjoy when this government is given a poke in the eye, like, for example, when the WTO rules that it was completely off base in its auto parts dispute with the United States, Canada and the European Union. But I could give a tinker's damn about Spielberg's involvement in the Olympics, and I don't think anyone else outside of a few self-righteous activists and the media care much either. And don't think for a minute that Mr. Spielberg made this move out of any true moral decision. He is basically hedging his bets. He realizes that if he goes ahead with his efforts in Beijing this summer, the same people who have rushed to applaud his decision to pull out would likely have turned on him and put pressure on people in the United States and elsewhere to boycott his films. And, unfortunately, these same zealots have much more influence over the mass of undereducated Americans then the people they elect to lead them.

So good luck trying to get one of your films screened in China anytime soon Mr. Spielberg! Oh, and for the record, I do believe that China should be doing more to stop the genocide in Darfur, and it will take politicians to make that happen!

We knew this could potentially be a tough year for China politically. With the Olympics due in August, everybody with any pet complaint about China feels emboldened to let the world know about it.

Darfur is hardly a "pet complaint", as it involves genocide which many critics feel China is at least partially responsible for. And those critics have been pressuring Steven Spielberg to withdraw his support from the opening ceremonies. It's been rumored that he was considering bowing to this request, and now he's made it official:

"I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual," Spielberg said. "At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies but doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur."

"Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes, but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more to end the continuing suffering there," Spielberg said in his statement. "China's economic, military and diplomatic ties to the government of Sudan continue to provide it with the opportunity and obligation to press for change."

China's Olympics are sitting on the head of a pin. What the government must fear most is that these acts of defiance will gain momentum, leading to more widespread withdrawals and perhaps even a boycott (although a boycott is extreme, and unlikely). Keeping a low profile and avoiding early discord will be key to keeping critics at bay.

The more people like Spielberg make a big show of their opposition, the more others will feel more confident in making their own stand.

The UK Daily Mail is out with a provocative story that claims all athletes attending the upcoming Bejing Olympics will be forced to sign a contact banning them from making any negative comments about the government. The move has already rekindled memories of the English team doing the Nazi salute at the 1936 games in Berlin.

Should a competitor agree to the clause but then speak their mind about China, they will be put on the next plane home.

The clause, in section 4 of the contract, simply states: "[Athletes] are not to comment on any politically sensitive issues."

It then refers competitors to Section 51 of the International Olympic Committee charter, which "provides for no kind of demonstration, or political, religious or racial propaganda in the Olympic sites, venues or other areas".

The move by the Chinese authorities is shortsighted at best, and will bring increased negative coverage at worst. Already, by making athletes sign the contact, negative stories will be written in newspapers and blogs, drawing attention to China's lack of freedom of speech and authoritarian government; surely the Chinese authorities would rather foreign press focus on the venues and athletes. And really, at the end of the day, will the contracts actually work? We'll have no way of knowing for sure, but my guess is this does far more harm than good. Now, people will be watching extra carefully to see who breaks the contract, and what the fallout will be.

China claims to want an open Olympics, and this is a far cry from that goal. It must understand that forcing these contracts on athletes plays into the hands of their critics, and confirms their already negative stereotypes.

When is it too soon to start talking about upcoming bids to host the Olympic games in China? Well, now is as good a time as any.

Zhongnanhai has learned that the Chinese government is already working behind the scenes on plans to secure the Olympics for the city of Shanghai. This correspondent has often pondered that hosting the winter games, perhaps in Dalian, Jilin, or Haerbin, would make sense. But apparently China wants the summer games again, and believes Shanghai would make an ideal host.

One could hardly disagree with the assessment. Shanghai has a long history of hosting world-class events, from the Formula One race to the Master's Tennis tournament. It already boasts two large football stadiums and the largest underground transportation network in China. It is already an international metropolis with world class hotels, shopping, and sightseeing. Compared to Beijing, Shanghai wouldn't have as far to go, in terms of development, to host the games.

The plan is to have the games in Shanghai within 20 years, so we'll have a bit of a wait yet. This correspondent sees no reason why it won't happen.