The Irony Of Spectacle

I'm sitting here with my kids while the repeat of the opening ceremony from the Beijing Olympics is on. I'm reading the paper and trying not to watch as I think the Chinese government is reprehensible in some of its actions worldwide. To have given that government an event like the Olympics is proof that the IOC is the single most corrupt body in the world. Ahem...pause...breathe...but not the air in Beijing...OK, breathe again, the crisp air of Melbourne...

Then it came on. In this wonderfully staged event, the performers on the ground formed an object. White, pure, magnetic. I lifted my eyes from the paper and then was gobsmacked. It was a white dove. The dove of peace, a "typcial Olympic symbol" the sycophnatic commentators told me.

Amazing. This is a country that does not use its power for peace. Take Zimbabwe for example. A few months ago it was the Chinese trading with Zimbabwe, shipping arms to the king of B grade dictators, Robert Mugabe. A friend of peace? I'm sure that Mugabe would see the shipload of arms as a way of gaining peace, simply becuase it would have helped his forces kill more of the troublesome MDC supporters who wanted democracy and inflation under 100000%.

Then there is Darfur, in western Sudan. The US has called what is going on there genocide (twice). Not that they've done much aside from that, mind you. However, when the UN Security Council has called for sanctions and the like to be implemented against Sudan (oh, only 400,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced, by the way), guess who has resisted? Guess who is still trading is small arms (despite this being prohibited)? Guess who is still trading with the Sudanese government, buying their oil and supplying them with funds that have been used in perpetrating atrocities against Darfuris? That's right, the Chinese government.

And do I need to say anything about Tibet? What of its struggles, its culture, its right to protest oppression? And the Uighars in Xinxang? Their rights? Where is their contribution to the opening ceremony? And the countless bloggers in China who, if they wrote what I have just written, would be arrested and imprisoned for simply voicing the plight of the voiceless?

So, the irony of a peace dove flying in Beijing (when in reality a dove would probably choke in that environment) is staggering.