There's been a lot of press and protesters lately regarding the decision to allow China to hold the Olympics. After a lot of thought, I can't agree with those protests. China is certainly far from perfect. They need to give the Tibetans some autonomy, their own people more rights, and it would be nice if they could be more helpful with the situation in Darfur.
But before we condemn China too harshly, we might look at ourselves. The U.S. invaded and occupied a country that posed no danger to us. We also spy on our own citizens, torture prisoners of war and have more people in prison per capita our population than any other country in the world.
Most countries have their faults, and if we make consideration of those faults a pre-requisite for awarding the Olympics, we might find it hard to find anyone worthy of the honor.
Frankly, China in the last few years has been moving in the right direction toward becoming a more free country. Maybe awarding them the Olympics will encourage them to move toward more human rights and truly opening themselves up to the rest of the world. I know many will disagree, but that's what I think.
One thing there is no argument about is the quality of the opening ceremonies. I have seen many beautiful and extravagant opening ceremonies, but none have been better than the one done last Friday by the Chinese. It was simply awesome.
There is something else the Chinese have done that I approve of. They refused to let the bloody African madman, Robert Mugabe, attend the Olympics. He had made it as far as Hong Kong, when the Chinese slammed the door in his face. It's about time someone took some kind of action against Mugabe.
So far, it's turning out to be a good Olympics. I look forward to watching it a lot over the next couple of weeks.
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