Thoughts On Beijing's Opening Ceremonies

I have to say that the Opening Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics were an impressive, spectacular display of art, circumstance, and pomp. The skill and precision of the performers were of the highest quality, and they performed there acts almost flawlessly. But the component that really stands out goes way beyond the human contribution and come from a knowledge of the innovative minds the Chinese minds seem to cultivate, especially in the world of technology.

Without sounding too cynical, when I think about the high caliber performances with an analytical mind, there is something that stands out that makes me a little uneasy. As I so subtlety implied, the talent pool (and execution of that talent) is a testament within itself. And yet despite this, I cannot help but think about the situation from a couple of different angles.

Why is this?

Much of the synchronization and uniformity gave me some negative feelings. In some ways, it reminded me much of the 1936 Olympics whereby Nazi Germany tried to paint an international image of might, power, and overwhelming discipline. The goal was intimidation, Hitler wanted to paint the German nation in a light that was not accurate. He wanted to be noticed.

And from what I saw, there wasn't a lot difference in tonight's display.

Minus the overt military component, Beijing did precisely what I expected them to do. They showed overwhelming presence and control. But they also showed an overly embellished portrayal of Chinese culture. I say this because, just twenty miles from the Chinese capital city and in other countless cities and towns scattered throughout, there is as much poverty and suffering as there is in any third world nation.

But even more importantly, I have to ask myself something else in my ponderings: If the Chinese can develop, coordinate, and so efficiently perform this kind of a feat, are they capable of developing and manning high tech weaponry that can outperform any like it in the world?

It is true, much of the defense research has been conducted in the Sichuan Province, where the recent devastating earthquake was centered. And no one knows how far back this has set the Chinese Military R&D department But to keep it relative to us, we'd have to know how far they were and frankly, this is not a luxury most of us have right now.

One thing is for sure, maybe two things: It won't take them long to relocate and re-institute it with the revenues raked in from the money brought in by the Olympics. Another thing we can be sure of, as far as the Opening Ceremonies are concerned, London has a high bar to reach in 2012.