The 29th Olympiad Closed

The games have ended. The closing ceremony is done. I have just done watching the closing ceremony thanks to the monopoly of NBC on the TV broadcasting rights in this country. I believe it when the NBC host said the Beijing Olympics was the most memorable among the many Olympics he had been involved -- at least it should be as memorable as any one of them.

All in all, it has been a very successful Olympiad. I didn't realize that Ann Arbor, this small mid-western college town, had so much to do with the Olympics. There are many memorable moments even for me who don't care much about sports. Particularly, Michael Phelps will be remembered for his 8 gold medals in swimming. Usain Bolt will be remembered as the fastest running man. The US has won the most number of medals, while China has won the most number of gold medals. As some NBC commentator said on the screen, everybody won.

Then of course, not everybody has won. I hope that people would also remember Liu Xiang. He is a hero who went down on his battleground. Beijing and its people have endured a lot to make the whole event a success. Then there are those who got swept aside by the enormous force pushing the Beijing Olympiad. It's one big world, but people definitely still have different dreams.

I believe people with the kind of patriotic opinions like Nie Weiping are in the minorities. In that respect, I admire what Lang Ping has been able to do after her career as a player.

China has impressed the world. But on the other hand, the effort to impress has been obvious -- that may or may not be the intension. Also impressive is that China has tried too hard. Especially their effort to project an image of torleration is silly: They tell the world that they allow protest but then make sure no one is capable to follow through with the registration.