Yes, I’m a hip-hop dude…but yes, I have an unhealthy obsession with pandas. Sue me.
I think the description sums it up nicely:
I’m not going to sugar coat it. This video is eight baby pandas playing in a crib for four minutes. Nothing really happens, but there are eight baby pandas. Eight. Baby. Pandas.
Nuff said. Shout to McFly on the assist.
(Yang Peiyi on the left, Lin Miaoke on the right. Both look adorable to me.)
I’m really enjoying the competition so far, but stories like this and the racist Spanish basketball advertisement are starting to take away from the Olympic spirit. Granted, there are also the tiiiiiiny issues of human rights abuse, pollution, and censorship that the Chinese government has failed to address, but is that really surprising? Not so much. This, however, is.
China’s made no secret that the 2008 games are their welcoming party to the table of world superpowers. To that end, they’ve controlled every last aspect of the presentation, crafting the exact image they want to project to the world. This happens everywhere – currently evident in Vancouver’s ongoing efforts to force their homeless outside of the city in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics – but it’s almost always troublesome. In this situation, the Chinese deemed a 7 year old singer named Yang Peiyi “not suitable” to perform at the opening ceremonies, even though they wanted to use her voice in a key part of the festivities. Apparently she wasn’t cute enough to represent the country on the world stage. So what to do? Simple, they found 9 year old Lin Miaoke to lip sync the song. Miaoke has since gone on to become an international celebrity, while the controversy over the decision just broke in the press. You can read the full story here.
At the moment, both girls and their families seem to be ok with the whole situation. That’s good, and I hope they continue to feel that way, but it doesn’t fix the larger problem here. The fact that a country would blatantly attack the self-esteem of one girl, and consequently, a whole generation, is appalling. China has all the tools to be a world leader, but there are certain areas where they’re failing miserably.
If you missed the historic men’s 4×100 freestyle relay in the Olympics yesterday, you missed one of the best races ever. It was so dope, I actually had to post about swimming on TAOD. That’s unheard of.
Our oldest swimmer on the team, Jason Lezak, anchored the race and somehow erased almost a full body length deficit in the final 50 meters. On his very last stroke, he edged out France’s Alain Bernard at the wall and kept Michael Phelps’ dream of 8 gold medals alive. At the same time, he ethered the trash talking Bernard, who earlier said the heavily favored French team would “smash” the Americans. Ouch.
Since NBC’s being a bit egomaniacal about its Olympics coverage, I can’t embed the video. You can, however, watch the race in all its glory right here.
Other observations from the first 3 days of the Olympics:
Last night’s show and interview with Wyclef coming soon, but for now…*Outro*
Saw this in the NY Times today and I thought it was equal parts heartbreaking and infuriating. I generally prefer to keep sports and politics separate, but I really hope that the world uses the upcoming Olympics to put pressure on China’s government. Between their human rights issues and the intense censorship of the press and their own people, something has to change. Sheer economic numbers won’t make China the super power it wants to be. At some point, its ethics need to catch up with the times.
When the final numbers are in, this earthquake will have killed over 100K people. We always think less of these tragedies when they happen abroad, but just imagine if we lost that many people here. To put it in perspective, Hurricane Katrina killed less than 2K. It’s insane.
Also, the audacity of the Chinese government to “have begged parents to quiet down and accept financial compensation for the loss of their children” is unbelievable. They don’t want money. They want their children back. And since you can’t provide that, you damn sure better give them some answers.
Chinese Stifle Grieving Parents’ Protest of Shoddy School Construction
DUJIANGYAN, China — Police officers here on Tuesday surrounded more than 100 parents protesting shoddy school construction and mourning the deaths of thousands of children during the recent earthquake.
The police dragged away several crying mothers and removed some journalists trying to report on the event, according to witnesses and photographs of the protest.
The attempt to snuff out the protest was the strongest sign so far of the government’s growing impatience with public airing of grievances over unsafe school construction.
A standoff between the parents, many carrying framed photos of their dead children, and the police officers, dressed in black uniforms, lasted for several hours. In the end, the parents walked away.
Read the full article describing the protest in detail and all the censorship these people are facing here.