Beijing Olympics

I watched part of the Opening Ceremonies to the Beijing Olympics tonight. I find something very moving about seeing the teams from around the world come together, marching into the stadium with their matching outfits (I like the countries where the men and women wear the same thing, although I did like the Chinese dresses the Swedish women wore) after years of preparing to compete. The Olympics are such a rare opportunity for the world to have a bit of that promised Star Trek future. When else do you see get to see Fijians on the International stage? It very much goes with the theme of this Olympics: One world, one dream. The Olympics get a lot of flack, especially when they take place in a country like China, where civil rights have not reached what they used to be in this country, pre-Patriot Act.

While I cannot support much of what China has done, or continues to do in places like Tibet, I believe that the benefit to the world of this coming together is too important to be derailed by any political issues. I noticed that most countries had their leader cheering their team on from the stands, from Prince Albert II of Monaco to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of Australia to our own President Bush, with wife Laura and Henry Kissinger! I don't know if the assembled world leaders gets together at all, but that would make it even more
worthwhile: if they could spend time together as audience members, have a beer or some dumplings, and build more personal relationships.

It's been twenty years (!) since I was in China. I was there in another confluence of 8s-1988. It was the year of the dragon, too, which made it very auspicious. In many ways, China today is nothing like the China I knew. I remember being on a bus in Shanghai and being startled to see a young woman in a red dress. Back then, Mao blue and army green still dominated Chinese wardrobes. The stores, except maybe the Friendship Store, as they called the store open to those with foreign currency (as opposed to renminbi, the people's currency, which could not be exchanged with dollars), rarely had anything you really wanted to buy. There were few motor vehicles on the road (just a dense sea of bicycles and crowded busses). Entrepenuership was just starting to be accepted by the powers that be, and the Chinese roommates we had were among the first to need to find their own jobs after
graduation.

China is definitely more Western and more open than it was when I was there, but they still place a lot of value on saving face. I learned, from CBC, that the Chinese brought in coaches starting in 2004 to train their 600+ athletes for these games. That they are now powerhouses in sports they weren't a condender in four years ago. They're likely to win 42 medals, which will work out to $6 million spent per medal!

Not burning down the house

I' m not sure if the alarm woke me up, but I became aware of it as I gained consciousness. It sounded like a truck backing up, but it just kept going. I thought maybe it was an alarm clock that got left on even though the owner wasn't around to be awoken by it. Curious about its source, I got up and followed the noise. It was coming from the second floor of my apartment building, where the sound was much louder. It echoed between two doors in the hallway upstairs. It seemed like it must be the smoke detector going off. I tried knocking on the managers' door but, although I hear voices inside, I got no reply. So, I called. Got voicemail and left a message. I went back upstairs and felt the doors and walls near where the alarm was coming from. They were fine. Then, I uneasily began to get ready for my day, wondering what else it was I could do. Not long after, the alarm stopped. Then, my phone rang. It was Sonia, one of the managers, calling to let me know that it had been the smoke detector, that something had been left on, and that it was getting critical by the time she investigated. We shared our relief that all had gone well and that we'd been able to avert a real problem. Quite a way to start the day!

My take away from this is, "Shouldn't alarms be distinct enough that I don't confuse a back-up beep with an alarm clock with a smoke detector?" I'd think that would be pretty easy. I'd like to see a smoke detector that has the alarm and also has a voice going, "Smoke! Check out the smoke!" or something to that effect.