I mentioned to a friend of mine lately that we'd be watching the opening ceremonies to the Olympic Games tonight as a family; I am a sucker for the ceremonies, and for the Games in general (yes, I do get teary-eyed when I watch, why do you ask?), for reasons which I'm sure will appear in the blog over the next several weeks. She asked me how I felt about watching Games that are taking place in China, which I thought was a good question. I was just at the Yarnerinas blog, and saw this link, which I think captures some of my questions and hopes, so I'm posting it here. I'll be sitting with this one over the next several weeks, I think, as I watch the Games in hope.
None of us are free until all of us are free.
Edited to add:
I loved the opening ceremonies, which were, in my humble opinion, far better than those in Greece (YMMV). Among many other things, they reinforced for me my sense that nothing is simple, and that generalizations drawn about a nation of 1.3 billion people comprised of 53 ethnic groups, with a history reaching back thousands of years, are bound to be fraught, and flawed at best. The fact that, in this case, those opinions come from a citizen of a nation whose human-rights record is often characterized by heights and depths, rather than a steady progress, adds to the potential flaw-factor. We and our girls spent the commercials with our globe and the internet, looking up China and its history. I think I'm going to learn a lot.
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4 comments:
I thought the ceremony was pretty awesome, but it was a bit scary to think that China would soon be the single most powerful economy in the world.
I only watched some of the opening ceremonies because the length and frequency of the commercials was making me crazy. I have travelled to China, have Chinese friends and love much about the culture. I'll appreciate watching for sure.
Thanks for joining our campaign for awareness!
i like your deep-thought posts and wish i'd had more time recently to respond to them. nothing is simple really, if you're going to understand how events and people and attitudes came together and how they affect us for much longer than you'd think.
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