China does anti-terrorism (In pictures)

If you haven't already seen this, it's worth the look. China carried out an exercise called "Great Wall 5" in early June to put their emergency services and para-military police through a series of drills prior to the 2008 Olympic Games.

Here are a couple of the more interesting samples.


That would be your typical, run-of-the-mill, surface to air missile system.

Hang on. It gets better.


I can hardly wait for Vancouver 2010.

The five rings of Beijing

Reporters Without Borders for press freedom has created their own 2008 Beijing Olympics logo.


Yeah. What Cathie says.

(And please tell Frank we'll let him know when it's safe to come out from under his bed.)

IOC goes for the gold in the Darfur and Tibet events

"European Union sports ministers and Olympic committees said yesterday that they would not support calls for a boycott [of the Beijing Olympics] because they're not effective and that sports and politics should not be linked, a position echoed by the Canadian Olympic Committee's top official.

"I think particularly to use the athletes who have made so many sacrifices, to use them as pawns in a game that is politically, idealistically and socially very complicated would be unfortunate," said Chris Rudge, CEO of the COC. "I don't think we can ask one constituency, which are a force for good, to stand up and act on everyone's behalf." Link

Yes, it would be a terrible thing if athletes were used as pawns, wouldn't it, Chris?
Because as we all know, the Olympics is all about running and skipping and jumping, and not at all about Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Adidas, and General Electric putting up millions to increase their market share in China.

Well, you know what they say : You can catch more flies with money than with vinegar.

Cross-posted at Creekside

The Olympic death toll

It's called the Bird's Nest. Officially it is the Beijing National Stadium, owned by the government of China, built (but not yet completed) for a cost of $423 million US, occupied by Chinese Olympic Committee. It is to be the centerpiece of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

When the world's athletes gather in this state-of-the-art stadium on August 8th, 2008 they will probably marvel at the construction, the artistic form and the advanced Solar Photo-Voltaic power system.

And, since they'll all be gathered together for the grand opening, they should observe a minute of silence in remembrance of those who were killed during the construction of this colossus.

CHINA has systematically covered up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers, and perhaps many more, in a rush to construct the futuristic ”bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing for this summer’s Olympic Games.

The estimates are drawn from dozens of interviews conducted over six months, under a guarantee of anonymity, with employees from the huge building site in a northern district of the capital.

Witnesses have told The Sunday Times of seeing workers plummet to their deaths from the perilous heights of the stadium, which was designed by a consortium including Arup, the British engineering firm, and Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects.

The bodies were swiftly removed by police, who sealed off accident scenes with orange tape and cleared other workers from the area while the dead were loaded into police vehicles, witnesses said.

China, of course, has denied the deaths. They usually do.

I wonder how many Olympians who mount the podiums for their moment of gold, silver and bronze glory will be aware of the unsafe working conditions and the sacrifices made by Chinese workers to provide them with such a magnificent backdrop for their fame?

I wonder if they care?