I feel I have to say something about the Olympic games. Surely, you are aware that the 2008 olympic games will be held in Beijing. Every facet of life in Beijing is currently dominated by the Olympic games. I myself am NOT a sportsfan. I feel that sports is something you need to do, not watch. I’d rather watch paint dry than sit through an entire match of soccer.Only once in my life have I actually enjoyed watching a sports match. It was a baseball game in Philadelphia. This was basically because it was a big place, I was with people I enjoyed being with and for most of the time, I had no idea what was going on. Now that’s entertainment. Discussing endlessly weather or not some player’s ankle has healed properly to me is about as fun as having my nipple bitten off by a beaver. No thank you.
But there it is: the Olympic games. And its being painted onto Beijing like a fresh coat of paint on a rusty barge. Leave the barge alone! It may be rusty, but it has character! Its beautiful. No one needs an Ipod in a classic ford T-bird okay! But the end of my dismay was a long way off. The peak of my Olympic discomfort had yet to reach its spectacular height. It came to me when I visited the Great Wall of China. As I climbed the first steps and felt that any second the stunning view of a few kilometres of great wall snaking through a luscious valley below would be revealed to me, my elation died and sank into my shoes when I laid eyes on a relentless monstrosity which was placed in plain view. I giant, hollywood-like sign sporting the logo of the Olympic games. To the side of the symbol the sign read: “One World One Dream”. Yeah that’s exactly what we need. One world having only one dream! Lets just all conform and have the same damn dream. Give me a break! I wonder what all those millions of people who built the great wall would have thought. I’ll bet you all of those people only had one dream. Right before they were plastered into the very wall we are all walking on. It’s a damn sacrilege!
So I would like to appeal to the Chinese people, all 1.3 billion of you. Yes I am now talking directly to the people of china (if only they could read this, all blogs are banned in china and blocked from the internet). Please, set sail for the Great Wall of China in Balading. Gather as many people as you can and set fire to that sign! It has no place there. There is no room for a starbucks in the louvre! We do not want a McDonalds in the Taj Mahal! Some places deserve our respect!
Jeroen Breukels
