Beijing: the naked olympics

The image above shows Guangdong TV news presenter Ou Zhihang performing pushups naked in front of several China’s landmarks. One wonders how many people in China can view these images. China's intternet is quite likely to be like Ned Flanders' cable TV; 99 channels and all blocked except for the weather.

Under international pressure, China has now allowed unrestricted internet access for foreign journalists covering the games. The internet remains restricted for the rest of the country. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has admitted it was aware of China's plan not to unblock the internet, although journalists were lead to believe otherwise. Some Olympics commentators have made comments like "Can't we just forget this and concentrate on the positive aspects of the games?" China's record on human rights is perhaps another aspect we should just forget so we can sit back and enjoy the fun.

The IOC was of course well aware of the extent of China's human rights abuses when choosing the games host country. The booming Chinese economy and potential for making large amounts of money was probably a much more important consideration.

Perhaps some positives will come out of the games. International pressure may encourage China to curb its excessive pollution and destruction of the environment and may even improve its approach to human rights, but don't hold your breath. China's repressive regime may one day find that repression works against it in the long term. Over censorship of the internet only increases curiosity about that which is blocked. The most positive outcome would be the undermining of China's government.

I'm sure this site is blocked in China...