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[And Your Bird Can Sing]

I don't understand things like this: "bars will be forced to close early; and all outdoor parties planned for the three-week-long Olympic celebration have been banned, putting the hex on some of the entertaining events that had been planned for the Games." What are they so petrified of exactly? People getting together and having fun?

[killian]

it is all about control and maintence thereof. china spent big bucks to bribe their way to the olympics (the only way to get it). and they don't want to let things spin out of control. of course, such strict control conflicts with their need to "overdo" things (new year's television gala, anyone?). the same borg that came up with the never ending, world's longest olympic torch relay also came up with not one but five mascots.

what to do when one half of the split personality is "over the top" but for the other to crack down even harder? lenovo, coca cola, mcd's and all the other corporate-fascist sponsors weight heavily in this equation. business trumps ideology. and global business likes fascism

and yes, if no one came to the olympics to watch it would be just fine with them. everyone can just watch at home. financially spectators are not worth the hassle for the orgainzers. for "side businesses" they are great, but for the olympics itself, the real money is in advertising sponsorship.

no matter how much coca cola they selling beijing during that 3 week period will never even come close to evening out what they spent on adverts. what they want is to see their "dynamic ribbon" device undulating across billions of TV sets world wide. the transmission of such must not be impeded or even threatened. to that end any perceived boogyman must be put down.

coke profits, corporate china profits but humanity's once every four years global celebration of unity gets further hollowed out. what they don't see is that the "olympic" trademark gets a bit debased each cycle. already, no one i know back home gives a rats @ss about the olympics anymore. but, the corporations have a golden goose and soon enough they'll suceed in getting its head.

[Pelican_Wrath]

[Moon Over Parma]