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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Very Proud of China - Opening Ceremonies

I don't think anybody should stop talking about human right abuses, but China is not the only country or the biggest offender, at times. There are problems world-wide, but the Olympics are supposed to be a time to unify for even a few moments. It may be superficial to try to pretend that certain things in the world don't exist for a few days, but some times progress can be made in a few moments of hitting the "pause button"....sometimes not. We'll see.

I think the show was amazing. We can't ignore the human rights and political issues that still plague China on the world scene, but my take on it is this:

China seems to care about what the world thinks and the Olympics show a bit of that. Most of it is to show off their ingenuity and present some pomp and circumstance, but that has to still be followed by a bit of self-awareness. It may take decades for the capitalistic desires of China to match with a true democracy but IN MY OPINION the show that we saw gives a glimmer of hope for the future.

China is so front and center on the world stage and so pivotal to the economies of so many countries (like it or not) that they will have no choice, but to learn (over time) to handle some serious issues that are facing the country from a civil rights perspective. As Shooter mentioned there are 1.3 billion people in this country...nothing is going to be easy with the country history and so many people.

OK, sorry about getting political. There are no easy answers, so I guess what I'm really saying is that the opening ceremonies were amazing regardless of all the other serious issues.

j.
 
I read a lot of posts, and my self, post rarely, and I start by apologizing for not responding in your other threads, Tom, cause I've been really impressed and grateful of your timelapses.

I just wanted to say that power was diverted from a province of china for that light show. People who may have just survived a pretty bad quake had their new frigidaires go warm for the night or the week and the rest of the world got to feel proud.

I really respect Zhang Yimou, the story of him selling his blood on China's black market for his first camera has always inspired me, as well as his incredible storytelling visuals in Red Lantern, To Live, and Yellow Earth. But I have to say, I liked him better when the Chinese government didn't. He couldn't even come to USA to collect Raise the Red Lantern's awards. I saw him in NY when he presented Qui Ju, and that film pretty clearly was aimed to please the party. I thought Flying Daggers, Hero, and the Olympic ceremony were all pretty ridiculously wasteful. This is a guy who could win Academy Awards with a couple pints of blood. Somebody tell China they could have spent the other $300 million on their hurting poor and still gotten a hell of a show.
 
Sorry several of you feel this way. I'm not Chinese, but I lived there for a couple of years recently, and even in those couple of years, the country was changing dramatically right before my very eyes. Literally, every month my Chinese friends would tell me of new freedoms - for travel, education, the press, land ownership, arts, etc.

I could write twenty pages about the problems China has. But there are also good things happening there.

I just thought the opening ceremonies were incredibly beautiful, and wanted to express my feelings about that. I wasn't looking for a debate about human rights.
 
insanityfw said:
I don't think anybody should stop talking about human right abuses, but China is not the only country or the biggest offender, at times. There are problems world-wide, but the Olympics are supposed to be a time to unify for even a few moments. It may be superficial to try to pretend that certain things in the world don't exist for a few days, but some times progress can be made in a few moments of hitting the "pause button"....sometimes not. We'll see.

I think the show was amazing. We can't ignore the human rights and political issues that still plague China on the world scene, but my take on it is this:

China seems to care about what the world thinks and the Olympics show a bit of that. Most of it is to show off their ingenuity and present some pomp and circumstance, but that has to still be followed by a bit of self-awareness. It may take decades for the capitalistic desires of China to match with a true democracy but IN MY OPINION the show that we saw gives a glimmer of hope for the future.

China is so front and center on the world stage and so pivotal to the economies of so many countries (like it or not) that they will have no choice, but to learn (over time) to handle some serious issues that are facing the country from a civil rights perspective. As Shooter mentioned there are 1.3 billion people in this country...nothing is going to be easy with the country history and so many people.

OK, sorry about getting political. There are no easy answers, so I guess what I'm really saying is that the opening ceremonies were amazing regardless of all the other serious issues.

j.
Click to expand...


I don`t think anyone has said China are the biggest human rights abusers, although if you use a gross proportional representation system, and take the abused population of China into account, they might well be.

The modern day olympics was started by an old fascist? Privately owned? The country who pays the biggest bribes usually wins the bid?, although bribes are often taken from many sources? And half the athletes are doped? Who dares wins, seems to be the message coming from the olympic organisation?

China has shown little/no sign of caring about the views of other nations or even its own people, and pretend to even less than Russia does (I mean Putin..), I`m not sure why you think this will change? Both China and Russia are following policies that fit in very nicely with "The Art Of War". Both are using long term economic strategies, coupled with ever present military threat, to gain power and to control people and territory, and its all quite calculated. It seems to be working so far too.. The IOC is about as useful as the IMF and World Bank are to developing countries..Europe needs Russian gas and oil, let the games commence...
 
Here's hoping that Zhang Yimou also planned out a way to shoot his show the other day, without commentators, without cuts for commercial breaks, etc. and will release an official cut of it on Blu-ray or something. That was one of the most impressive performances I've ever seen.
 
I'm with you on that, Jason.
 
I got over 4 hours of this ceremony without commercials in 720p and with natural sound. It`s like 26GB :biggrin:

I really like art aspect of it, but extremely hate political and megalomaniac ones :gun:

Athens opening was cool too
 
Piraeus said:
I just wanted to say that power was diverted from a province of china for that light show. People who may have just survived a pretty bad quake had their new frigidaires go warm for the night or the week and the rest of the world got to feel proud.

Somebody tell China they could have spent the other $300 million on their hurting poor and still gotten a hell of a show.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly.
 
I hate to say it, but I missed the opening ceremony and have been searching for a replay. If anyone hears of one, post the time and channel please. The photos and stories from family and friends are just rubbing it in.
 
Thom's got a great link right in this thread that made me cry. Every pic is unreal! The Chinese eat dogs. They skin cats alive. The culture is different, to be sure. But one look at these pics makes you realize that CONTROL IS NECESSARY. Ask the Pharoahs, ask the Founding Fathers, ask imbiciles.... All great culture has been built upon the backs of workers, but the freaky fact is that workers should NOT unite. They should accept their work and work on.
 
insanityfw said:
I don't think anybody should stop talking about human right abuses, but China is not the only country or the biggest offender, at times. ...
Click to expand...

Like what we have been doing in Irak... We only keep the counting of our troops losses, but we we have forgotten that over 250K civilians have died at Irak in order to "free them up"...

Sorry, could not resist...:angry03:

But, going back to the real subject, the openings were just spectacular. It makes me feel proud of living on this place called Earth...:innocent:
 
Piraeus said:
I just wanted to say that power was diverted from a province of china...
Click to expand...
Similar to the rolling black-outs in California few years ago to supply evenly the energy to different counties of the state?:sarcasm:
 
I don't know how Beijing got the Olympics - growing consumerism obviously, but I think, after talking to those involved in the Cultural Revolution, on Chinese soil, that many Chinese just act as they're told. That's it. Follow orders.

"Kill your teacher."

"Okay. If it's allowed."

Same thing would happen in Brooklyn, or Saskatoon, or Seattle, without a doubt. You think not? Where's the tipping point? When does anarchy seem reasonable? Well, usually sooner than you think, and often when you can get away with it....

The Chinese are great. Period. The Americans are great. Period. And so on....
 
Agree... But the openings were out-of-this world!!!:weight_lift:
 
Absolutely fantastic, and I love Zhang Yi Mou! He was a cinematographer before becoming a great director. Obviously his last couple of flicks, trying to emulate Hollywood and shooting for an Oscar in their conceptions, lost reality. But just watch RED SORGHUM or RAISE THE RED LANTERN and forget about the over processed shite, excluding the OLYMPICS, of course!

It's 5am and I've got to give my well-heeled negativity a break. Good night!
 
Do you mean enhanced due to weather conditions? Similar to what was needed when Whitney Huston sung the national anthem years ago due to poor accoustic conditions! It was the entire song, not just her final "fireworks"...:innocent:
 
The organisers claim that the footprint fireworks were real and did actually happen bu that they thought it would be unsafe to film, so the shot that was used for broadcast was a CGI effect...

I'm not sure I really believe them.
 
i dont see the big deal about this olympics shulympics thing... a bunch of gay guys and a bunch of lesbos go around and jump in the air with a stick, or a braud turns around 3 times around herself, or some dude jumps off a ledge and slides underneath it and above it. big f-kin deal.

its like u have a kid who tries to mock an actor from a silly tv show.. only these guys show their vast failed attempts of being circus clowns. its like watching a clown without a circus and his silly painted smile do clown-like stuff.

i want the god damn silly smile. i want the gray elephant with the silly hat. i want to see monkeys juggling, and i want to see the dudes flippin' in the air and holding them gymnasticy stuff in mid air... and do a reverse body split in air. i want the silly music too.. and see the clown get from 1 side to the other with a single cycling wheel.
 
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