the olympics muses.

the olympic games have managed to do the unthinkable and impossible - make me feel proud to be a chinese-singaporean. i think such things are designed for such patriotic feelings to arise from deep inside; feelings that you never thought you had.

from the amazing, jaw-dropping opening ceremony to the slightly less exciting, but with moments of brilliance, closing ceremony. the hard work that china has brought to the table. the amount of energy and dedication of the more than a million volunteers at the games. a million!! that's 1/4 of our population.

(now how are we going to pull off the youth olympic games? am i the only one with scary doubts right now?)

it's really hard to imagine what goes on behind the scenes. the mayhem and chaos and confusion of tens of thousands of people. so many events, sports, athletes from 204 countries, their coaches, officials, VIPs, judges, umpires, volunteers, crowd control, ticketing, and you-know-the-list-goes-on-and-on.

hence, am very proud of china, beijing. a country that was closed to the world till recently. who rose from the depths of poverty and communism to its global economic and military superpower position today. a country where my grandparents were from.

and having visited china so many times, been to so many cities, china has been seriously misunderstood by the world, and these games was a great opportunity to show the world what it really is. but you really have to be there to feel it. to clear away pre-conceived notions of what it is, to broaden minds and seek to learn. the major cities of china are comparable to san francisco, london, rome, new york, los angeles, sydney and they are actually very hip! (: if you're on a budget, watch discovery travel and living.

however, no country is perfect and china is still laden with povertyand its many problems like education and sanitation in its rural areas (cynics: so is middle america, russia, eastern europe, africa, india). my mum likes to tell me stories of chinese athletes that she reads in the newspapers (fyi: she reads the newspapers cover to cover, including the NTUC/cold storage ads). and how the olympic gymnastics double rings apparatus gold medalist from china trained on 2 simple rings that his father installed on the door of their small small flat when he was young, because they were so poor. and how feng tianwei is going to use the money from the medal to pay for her mum's house in china.

these stories of resilience, dedication, discipline, filial piety, respect - some very chinese values, are really warm and hopeful. (: hope of a country on its rise towards a better future, much like america in the 80s and 90s. and they're catching up. fast.

i really appreciate the theme for the 2008 games - one world, one dream. and at least for 16 days in beijing and neighbouring cities, the people from all over the world, from as north as finland and russia to as south as argentina and south africa, to as remote as the islands of the south pacific, atlantic, indian oceans - they came and competed fairly and professionally, with the only yardstick they knew.

faster, higher, stronger. or citius, altius, fortius if you like latin. (:

i like that despite everything that's going on in the world, the georgia-russia conflict, the war in iraq and afghanistan, the human rights issues in darfur, the mayhem in pakistan, people from these countries stood side by side and showed great sportsmanship.

i wrote about the politicizing of the olympic games many months ago and i'm glad that it was all talk. geo*rge bu*sh and nic*hloas sark*ozy showed up after all, although i'm positive china couldn't care less if they attended or not. (:

onto my favorite swimmer of the moment (used to be ian thorpe many many years ago). mr. michael i-listen-to-my-ipod-and-jump-into-the-pool-and-break-7-world-records-then-go-eat-pizza phelps. i'm just really in awe of him and his neverending wingspan. but more than that, the unsung hero of the US swim team is jason lazek who brought home the bacon (ok gold) for the relay events and made phelps the hero that he is.

and feng tian wei. i almost bit off my nails and threw my pillow at the screen watching the table-tennis semis on tv. she, jiawei and wang yuegu put us on the medal tally. and only 87 countries out of the 204 that took part is on that tally. (:(: and i really don't care if they aren't born-and-bred singaporeans. i've seen chinese people play for US, croatia, netherlands, some african countries and many more. please open your eyes and look at our globalized world. (one world, one dream, remember? actually the better translation would be the same world, that same dream.)

i shall not spoil my nice blogpost by writing about the horrifying mediacorp-programme today in beijing and its incompetent, incoherent, stumbling-over-words, swearing female host. i've lost all faith in mediacorp local programming anyway.

4 years later, it's london 2012. and they have a very high standard set by the chinese to live up to. and i really wish them all the luck, 'cos i cannot imagine an olympic games held in that busy tight, crowded and gloomy city that is london.

meanwhile, there's the youth olympics to be concerned with. and hopefully it'll be just as good as beijing's.