Some people grow up in homes where they have to be perfect because their parents expect them to and nothing less is acceptable. Imagine growing up in a country like that? It seems that is the attitude that China is showcasing at these Olympic games. They seem so caught up in showcasing how far they've come and how "perfect" they can be that they might have forgotten the point of the Olympics. There are many small things that have happened over the past weeks leading up to the Olympics and I'm sure there will be more things that come out about China but here are just a few to start off and I'll probably add more as time goes on.

The girl who sang the song during the opening ceremonies who everyone thought was so cute wasn't really singing at all. She was lip syncing and another girl was singing because the other girl was deemed as not cute enough by the Politburo of China. That's a great message they're sending to their young people that they couldn't have an "imperfect" Chinese girl displayed for everyone, she had to look "perfect".

The fireworks display that took place during the opening ceremony that was supposedly live...some of it was...and some of it was prerecorded. I guess this sort of things comes with modern technology but I guess I just don't get the point.

I watched the men's team gymastic competition last night. The Chinese team ended up winning and they seemed overjoyed about it and all the people did also. During the competition the announcer mentioned they have a saying in China that 1,000 silvers don't equal one gold. So basically you go and try your hardest for your country, win a medal but don't get congradulated because it's not the colour that they want. Why do we turn our backs on the people who do what we ask them to just because the outcome isn't what we wanted? The Vietnam war comes to mind of an example of this in America and I wouldn't be surprised if its happening now to the soldiers who are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. We expect so much of people and yet have such disdain for them afterwards it seems. That was sort of a rant but just something I've been thinking of.

Edit: The Chinese woman won the group gymastics competition but there is some question about the age of the contestants. The legal age to compete is 16 and there is definitely a question as to why the birthdates of He, Yang and Jiang didn't jibe with other registration materials that showed they might be as young as 14. Check out the picture and judge for yourself.