Sunday 24 August 2008

Bye Bye Beijing


I watched the Olympics Closing Ceremony today. It was spectacular! The Opening Ceremony had also been out of this world, but never before did I see the closing done at such a grand scale. China proved to the world that it really is a super power and that the resources and the man-power available to them is incontestable at this stage. The sheer organisation and grandeur of the event marks the arrival of a new world leader. The torch was switched off to to show China in an entirely new light to the rest of the world. I bow today, overawed.

Sharing the same stage, was the handover to the London 2012. What a stark contrast. The presentation was shabby, the dancing amateurish, the singing hardly heard, and the guitaring strictly fair. David Beckam appeared, and that was the high-point of the whole deal. A direct comparison is inevitable, to the show that China put up. London has a budget of around half of what China had, and I'm waiting to see how they are able to stand up to this breath-taking event. I'm hoping to not be disappointed by seriously doubt that that can be avoided.

6 comments:

Rambunctious WhipperSnapper said...

The Olympics are back already? Didn't they just happen four years ago?

DewdropDream said...

lol @ RWS. Wake up!!

I watched a part of the closing ceremony on the news and the hand-over bit WAS rather shabby compared to what Beijing put up. Boris Johnson was pretty out of it... but I hear Jimmy Page was excellent... can't say anything about the others though... Why couldn't they pick someone else to sing? Oasis, Coldplay, Duffy... anyone really. They've not even begun and they've made a mess of it. bah!

Fictional Desi said...

i watched the closing ceremony today and loved it
it's been such a grand olympics. i havent enjoyed (or followed) one this much in ages.
given the Britain did so well in it this time, best record for them since 1908 or something, its been on the news headlines for days and days now.

Neha said...

Rambo: LOL...umm...they were here, but they're gone now. Yes, they keep coming back :p!

dewdropdream: Jimmy Page was good, but yo could barely hear the guitar. Yeah, I wonder why they didnt ask a band to play..

Fictional Desi: Yeah, even i've never followed the Olympics so closely. It was a grand event, and it'll be really really hard to match up to!


Thanx for the comments people!

Anonymous said...

umm... you can call me a liberal or whatever, but I cannot appreciate much of what Beijing does. Even Hitler could have accomplished the same. Only China can spend staggering 40 billion on Olympics when 20% of its people are extremely poor. You think England or even US would spend that kind of money? No, they are democracies, they are answerable to people.

As Rajdeep Sardesai said some time ago, that only China can develop this fast. When they wanted to build grand expressway in Beijing, they asked all the poor whose houses were in the way to vacate within a day - without any compensation or alternatives. Those who did not oblige were 'simply send away'.

Putting up grandeur on dead bodies should never be appreciated. My 2 cents.

Munir

Neha said...

Munir: That's an interesting perspective about China. Keeping the Olympics aside, I don't agree with how China deals with Human Rights either. I think there's a lot going on that the rest of the world is not even aware of.

That said, I do belv that the country is developing at a very very fast pace, and this will definitely benefit the people of China in the long run. We might not agree with some of their means, but we cannot deny that the country is making real progress, and that's always a step in the right direction.

As for the Olympics, the event is so grand and profitable, I dont think even the people of China minded the way it was conducted, and thats with the grandness that it truly deserved. After this event, Im sure the country will attract more foreign investment and that can only help the people. And I dont think at this point UK and US are even in a position to spend so much, and if there's any country which is in a fairly decent position, its China. There's no denying that the world has found a new leader.