Beijing Olympics, One World, One Dream

Scary

~BT

McCommunism

Naomi Klein offers her poignant view of China in an interview with Paul Jay from the Real News:

A hybrid of some of the worst elements of authoritarian communism—mass surveillance of the population, total lack of civil liberties, lack of a free press, lack of democratic rights, authoritarian central planning, all harnessed not to advance the goals of social justice, even in name, although there may be some lip service still paid to that, but to advance the goals of global capitalism. So it is Stalinism meets global capitalism.

Klein has also authored a recent article in the Huffington Post describing China's "Police State 2.0":

The goal of all this central planning and spying is not to celebrate the glories of Communism, regardless of what China's governing party calls itself. It is to create the ultimate consumer cocoon for Visa cards, Adidas sneakers, China Mobile cell phones, McDonald's happy meals, Tsingtao beer, and UPS delivery -- to name just a few of the official Olympic sponsors. But the hottest new market of all is the surveillance itself. Unlike the police states of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, China has built a Police State 2.0, an entirely for-profit affair that is the latest frontier for the global Disaster Capitalism Complex.

I am a huge fan of Naomi Klein and reading all of this has reminded me to finally start reading Klein's latest book The Shock Doctrine, which has been sitting on my desk for the last few months.

Klein's insights are far from anything you will see in the traditional media's Olympic coverage. For example, in today's Globe and Mail - The Revolution Below:

Even in the political sphere, there is expanded leeway. China now leads the world in the number of Internet users – 250 million – and cellphone subscribers – more than 550 million people, who send tens of billions of short messages a day. Despite censorship, they use these new tools to push for more rights and openness, and to challenge the authorities with rising success.

The government still interferes, still rounds up severe critics, and has made life harder for foreign reporters since the Tibetan crisis in March. But China's progress since 2001 has been largely along the positive trajectory of the past three decades.

The Chinese enjoy more freedom than at any time in recent history. Ordinary Chinese people enthusiastically support the Beijing Olympics, contrary to many critics who label the Games as a government propaganda showcase.

It will be exciting to watch the democratizing force that expanded access to technology and information will have on Chinese society. Regardless of that potential, we need to remind ourselves of the political machine behind the scenes who are orchestrating an incredibly scripted and sanitized show for the world.

Christie Blatchford has a great column in the Globe and Mail:

It cannot be considered unmannerly to note that as good as the show was, as smashing as the facilities are and as super-successful as the Games themselves probably will be, it all happened like this not only because of Chinese ingenuity, but also because the government could bulldoze homes when it needed land, put up walls whether or not they were wanted, dislocate folks at whim, spend like a drunken sailor, issue marching orders even about street-spitting and chest-baring and lock up, detain or 're-educate' anyone who dared whisper the mildest complaint.

As even Confucius said, in one of several quotations prominently displayed on screens at the ceremony, "The most valuable use of the rifles is to achieve harmony." Maybe he meant hegemony.

~BT

Olympic Cartoons

~BT

Olympics on the Mind

I've been watching Olympic coverage on four different channels: CBC, RDI (Radio-Canada), NBC and CBC Newsworld. CBC's online streaming and on demand video is pretty good so far although it only works with Internet Explorer :(

The opening ceremonies were orchestrated flawlessly and quite amazing to watch. So far the coverage on NBC has been much better than CBC. The NBC commentators are more knowledgeable and their explanations and analysis during the opening ceremonies put MacLean, Mansbridge and the CBC to shame.

The men's cycling road race has been my favorite because of the amazing aerial shots of Beijing and the surrounding area. Michael Phelps set a new Olympic record in a preliminary heat and battle for medals has started with China having 2 gold and the US with 3 medals total.

I have also been reading a lot of coverage online. Here are some of the best:

• Jetson Green reviews the many green buildings built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

• Chris Bowers at Openleft.com: China and the March of Nations

Before the ceremonies, I was generally of the view that, because of its environmental degradation, internal human right's and worker's right's abuses, it should not have been awarded the Olympics games. However, watching the march of nations, it became clear to me why hosting the Olympics was so important to China, and why there really isn't a good argument to deny them these games.

• CalgaryGrit discusses the lesser known "Political Olympics"

• The Real News: Naomi Klein on China and the Olympics “Security, central planning, surveillance state is an ideal cocoon for global capitalism.”

Almost all the coverage I have watched or read has talked about the air pollution problem in Beijing. What I would love to see happen is for environmental issues to gain prominence and attention after seeing these glaring pollution problems.

What have you been noticing? Let me know of any good blogs covering the Olympics from Beijing?

~BT

Beijing Olympics in Context

From the Los Angelos Times:

For the last seven years, through clouds of construction dust, thousands of meetings, millions of man-hours and an unprecedented political mobilization, China has waited for today.

At $43 billion, the Beijing Olympics, which begin today, represent one of the most expensive coming-out parties in history. And the belle of the ball has a lot to be proud of. China has risen from poverty and social chaos to engineer one of the most impressive economic success stories ever.

From Wired.com:

With a single day to go before the Olympics, both government and independent readings suggest that Beijing's air is getting worse.

And if the winds don't change, this could wind up being one of the most polluted Olympics in modern history, with more particulate matter in the air than Atlanta in 1996 or possibly even notoriously smoggy Los Angeles in 1984.

~BT

How Are You Seeing the Beijing Olympics?

Will you be watching it live? On your television or online?

Here in Toronto, live coverage begins at 7am with the Opening Ceremonies beginning live at 8am.

As I brace for the deluge of Olympic coverage from the Beijing Olympics, here are some questions that are on my mind:

• Have you noticed that it is the 8th day in August, the 8th month, 2008? Got to love your lucky numbers.
• How much did the exclusive television and web rights cost in your country?
• What technology platforms are being used to broadcast online coverage of the Games? Here in Canada, CBC is using Windows Media Player.
• How big will the global audience be?
  
• The US is making a huge statement by choosing a victim of violence in Sudan as their flag bearer.
• Will China be able to control the image of these Games? Details leak out.
  
• What will the 'story' be? So far Canadian and American coverage I have seen has air pollution and smog mentioned predominantly.
  
• Will Youtube coverage be available in North America?

What are you thinking about as we the world collectively turns its attention to China ?

~BT

Hipster: The Dead End of Western Civilization?

From Adbusters:

Ever since the Allies bombed the Axis into submission, Western civilization has had a succession of counter-culture movements that have energetically challenged the status quo. Each successive decade of the post-war era has seen it smash social standards, riot and fight to revolutionize every aspect of music, art, government and civil society.

But after punk was plasticized and hip hop lost its impetus for social change, all of the formerly dominant streams of “counter-culture” have merged together. Now, one mutating, trans-Atlantic melting pot of styles, tastes and behavior has come to define the generally indefinable idea of the “Hipster.”

I have to admit my enjoyment of the hipster scene back in Philadelphia as well as here in Toronto. Although I don't consider myself a hipster, I enjoy the dive bars, the young good-looking crowds and the often electronic music. Every time I go out to some hipster event, I think to myself about the opportunity to politically organize the crowds of intelligent, well-informed 20-somethings. The problem is that I haven't yet figured out how to inject progressive political activism into this hipster world.

Adbusters, whose cover story on Hipsterdom sparked this post, takes a unsurprisingly critical and pessimistic view.

Hipsterdom is the first “counterculture” to be born under the advertising industry’s microscope, leaving it open to constant manipulation but also forcing its participants to continually shift their interests and affiliations. Less a subculture, the hipster is a consumer group – using their capital to purchase empty authenticity and rebellion. But the moment a trend, band, sound, style or feeling gains too much exposure, it is suddenly looked upon with disdain. Hipsters cannot afford to maintain any cultural loyalties or affiliations for fear they will lose relevance.

An amalgamation of its own history, the youth of the West are left with consuming cool rather that creating it. The cultural zeitgeists of the past have always been sparked by furious indignation and are reactionary movements. But the hipster’s self-involved and isolated maintenance does nothing to feed cultural evolution. Western civilization’s well has run dry. The only way to avoid hitting the colossus of societal failure that looms over the horizon is for the kids to abandon this vain existence and start over.

Adbusters laments our "defeated generation" that is too afraid to create our own authentic counterculture. First, I can't disagree more with the fact that we are defeated. Have you seen the level of activism among millennials in the US? Our generation is well-informed, caring, and using the new tools at our disposal to effect real change, instead of feeding into some new counterculture movement that will inevitably be co-opted and sold back to us. Second, the whole notion of effecting change through some authentic counterculture has not worked for the last 20+ years. Remember all those culture jammers and anti-globalization radicals that Adbusters exemplifies? What have they achieved?

Instead of worrying about how Hipsterdom is growing into "a global phenomenon that is set to consume the very core of Western counterculture" we need to reevaluate what actual value comes from these countercultures. In my view, all of this focus on creating and sustaining these subcultures opposed to the "mainstream" is just a distraction from achieving real political change.

Cross Posted at Progressive Dispatches

~BT

Bringing this blog back to life

It has been almost a year since I last blogged about Canadian politics on this blog. I have spent most of my time blogging at Progressive Dispatches and focusing on the American presidential race.

Now that I've graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and have been back in Toronto for the summer, it is definitely time to start putting my accumulated thoughts down somewhere and this blog is going to be the place I will do that.

Having lived in the US for the last 5 years, I witnessed the huge growth of a vibrant and diverse progressive movement online. This growth of the "Netroots" has leveraged a number of new online tools and seems to me to be far ahead of anything I've seen here in Canada. The closest thing I've seen here is the online activism surrounding opposition to the awful Copyright bill (C-60). As great as that was, close to 90,000 people joining the Fair Copyright Facebook group, it pales in comparison to what is going on in the US.

One thing I definitely will be discussing on this blog is some of those amazing online campaigns in the US and what lessons can we progressive Canadians learn and implement effectively.

~BT

Loonie reaches parity with US Dollar

The Canadian dollar, known to us Canadians as the Loonie, has reached parity with the American dollar for the first time in 30 years. This has been a story Canadians have been following for years now as the Loonie has risen over 60% over the last 5 years. In real terms, that means that my Penn education now costs less than half as much as it did my freshmen year and that since my assets are denominated in Canadian dollars, my net worth has risen 60% relative to my American peers. Not bad.

This story here has to do with the US dollar weakness against all major currencies and will likely continue its decline as global current account imbalances work themselves out.

With oil closing at record highs above $80 and the mortgage crisis continuing to take its toll, things are not looking good for the US economy.

Cross-posted at Progressive Dispatches

~BT

DiCaprio Takes on the Environment, Gore-style

Originally posted at Progressive Dispatches

Leonardo DiCaprio is following in Al Gore's footsteps with his new movie, The 11th Hour. According to Warner Brothers,

The film explores how we’ve arrived at this moment -- how we live, how we impact the earth’s ecosystems, and what we can do to change our course.

It comes out in New York and LA this weekend and has a wider release on August 24th (which is when I will be able to see it when it comes out in Philadelphia). After watching the trailer, it's no surprise that the film has already received so much positive buzz online,

The film expands on the themes of last year's Oscar-winning doc, "An Inconvenient Truth," and even goes further then the global warming issue, which the film argues is just one symptom of humanity's overarching influence on the planet.According to Warner Brothers.

From a review at Treehugger.com:

The film is a collection of vivid imagery accompanied by commentary and meditation from an impressive collection of political leaders, designers, and visionaries—a proverbial team of environmental rock stars. Cast members include former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, scientist Stephen Hawking, and sustainable design authority William McDonough . . . to name a few. In total, the film features 50 independent voices, bringing expertise, experience, and emotion to the crisis at hand. Their words are informative, powerful, and inspiring—perhaps some of the great quotes of our time

Gristmill also has a review and an interview with DiCaprio and the producers of this film.

Leonardo DiCaprio premieres "The 11th Hour"

~BT