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China superpower!

Jordan, Guimaras- The hotel I am now has Solar Sports (which we don't have on SkyCable in Kyusi) which they get from Satellite TV.

Back from a grueling field work day, we watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. The ceremony not only was an important didactic tool for teaching the Party's version of Chinese history, but displayed the Middle Kingdom's technological savvy with that giant scroll on the Bird's Nest stadium's tarp.

One thing is sure. This Olympics not only marked China's coming out party but belatedly inaugurated the Asian century. We have heard that this 21st century is Asia's but it was hard to believe that it really is until now.

While Superpower Lame Duck Prez Dubya was on the reviewing stand, he didn't get as much airtime as backstage Russian Prez and now PM Vladimir Putin got when Russian athletes marched by.

It was probably because as the Russians paraded along the track, their tanks paraded into Georgia!

Bush and Putin, Princess Anne of England and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands got it better than our own Glorious Queen who didn't get any camera shot at all! (Did the cameras find her?)

Is this connected with that odious ZTE deal? We should have let Saint Jun Lozada carry the flag.That should have got the Chinese's attention!

The Philippine delegation marched on and flag bearer Pacman was subject to some Aussie accented sarcasm from commentators (The Inquirer estimated this lasting 6 seconds). Well we Pinoys have to forgive. The Aussies will never get boxing glory.They should stick to Cricket! The only glory they'll get in boxing is wrapping left overs on Boxing Day!

Then comes the flame lighting ceremony. How the Chinese did it was spectacular. A Brit in the hotel commented that the London Organizing Committee for 2012 will have a hard act to follow. I concurred.I asked him "What aspect of Brit culture and history will you present? jousting knights? the Queen?, Prince Charles talking to plants? burning and beheading of Catholic and Protestant heretics?, fox hunt? (this galls the animal rightists more than the burning of heretics!)


Nonetheless, China has made it. Asians should be proud. China figures so large in our history. The West can no longer treat them as a second rate power. Neither can the West ignore Asia (and us Pinoys). The Yellow Peril is history. The West will have to deal with the Yellow Blessing!
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Comments

Deany Bocobo said…
It's not of course a zero sum game. What really strikes me about the Olympics is that it symbolizes the turn she made onto the capitalist road less than a generation ago. The world leader whose absence from the opening ceremonies means the most to me is that of Mao Tse Tung. The next generation of Chinese will be far more Westernized than we can possibly imagine, since its trajectory is away from the past and toward the HUMAN future. Let us be thankful for that.
3:52 PM
Ben Vallejo said…
The Olympic opening mass performances are so Westernized compared to that done in Pyongyang and the one that greeted Imelda about 34 years ago.

Mao like Che has become a capitalistic icon. Lenin did not get the capitalist brand but certainly Fidel will when it his time comes.
6:00 PM
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