"Your door is open" great read on what we probably already knew about the Olympics

[underpants]

Beijing Olympics were logistically successful — and sneaky too

http://www.latimes.com/sports/columnists/la-sp-olyplaschke24-2008aug24,0,6925160.column?page=1

It was a quiet weekday afternoon, I was hustling through the quiet lobby of our military-owned hotel, taking an empty elevator up to the 16th floor, walking down an empty hallway, ducking into my empty room to pack for my next assignment.

Five minutes later, the hotel phone rang.

"Your door is open," said a voice.
Click.

I looked at the phone. I looked at my door. It is dark oak. The frame is dark oak. There is no obvious crack. How could anyone tell it was open?

I touched it. By maybe one inch, it was open.

That somebody at the hotel knew my door was open meant only one thing:

Somebody had been following me.
---

I'm just not sure how much of it is real.

The constant smiles?

Oops. The government made the people take classes on everything from dental hygiene to, yes, proper grinning.

Those wonderful new blue seats that were in every taxi, making this traffic-choked city seem a bit more bearable?

Oops. Slipcovers.

Those wonderful new buildings that towered over every corner, making this dull capital city seem glitzy?

Oops. Many of them were vacant, having been built only to make a good impression for the Olympics.

Those stands filled with fans chanting for whatever nations happened to be competing?

Oops. Listen closely, and you realize most of them were Chinese nationals, many of them children, all of them used as substitutes for the thousands of ticket holders who didn't show.

China tried so hard to earn the world's applause, it even faked the cheering sections.

Whenever asked about the discrepancies, officials responded with, "National interest."

The sky was filthy with smog the first few days of the Games, yet it is officially called "haze"?

National interest.

An opening ceremony song is actually lip-synched, a 9-year-old girl pretending to have the voice of a 7-year old who was deemed not cute enough to be onstage?

National interest.

Thousands of glowing Chinese dancers at the opening ceremony turn out to be duty-fulfilling members of the military?

National interest.

[tomreedtoon]

1. Military? I wished I could have seen drill for the dance.

I can see the drill sergeant in one of those foofy red gowns...

"Pre-sennnnt STREAMER!
For-warrrd, TOUR JETEE!

Your banner is up on your left (you're right!)
Your camera is up on your right (you're left!)
Sound off, FIRST POSITION!
Sound off, SECOND POSITION!
Pull your tights up, on toe---AND SPLIT!"

[underpants]

2. LOL

I get the military part but the dance part I am not so familiar with but I think I get it

Too funny

[Serial Mom]

3. National Interest... hummm

Isn't that the term dubya and dick have used over the years about the war in Iraq "It is also an investment in the future safety and security of Americans and our vital national interests."

The BFEE and China are getting rich together and using the same line!

[Bob Dobbs]

4. Americans being outraged over China is rich.

We are right there with them in real fascism.

"But we're FREEEEE."

Keep telling yourself that right into the abattoir.

[TheMadMonk]

5. Centralised keycard locking system?

Whoops re-reading the OP I reaise it's a reporter of some sort reporting this. So I guess I'm answering them.


If so, the computer most probably simply flashed a warning that a door was open. And the room gets a call.

Bog standard hotel service I would hope. Unfortunately yes, along with them having a record of when and how doors are opened and closed. But for the most part it's a record that calls you a liar, not one that calls attention to you. It is not of any interest UNTIL you do something wrong and a finger get's pointed your way. It actually does fit the "If you've done nothing wrong..." litmus test.


I'm sure some foreign journalists are getting tailed and generally being made feel paranoid. As well as a number of visitors with cameras. But not every single one, just enough that each wonders if he might be. And enough that everyone has heard of someone.


I'm starting to get the impression that it's all part of a great charade. None of the people actually calling the shots around the world really gives a shit about what people know. Only that the people don't get their noses rubbed in it until they are outraged enough to actually do anything about it.

Each "side" (west - east, red - blue, whatever) is allowed to "find out" and report how badly the other treats certain segments of its population, as a means of directing ire/outrage outwards towards the "other". Just enough to that the populace is willing to accept a "just" (read profitable) war, but not so much that they demand it.

By exploiting (or manufacturing) certain internal predjudices, treatment of particular segments of the population is justified, and the price of going against the flow is made clear.

We are kept just enough outraged at the other that we overlook the domestic situation. We are kept just enough aware of how much worse the domestic situation could be, that we won't rock the boat enmass.

We are all played like a fine violin and kept in such a dither that we are robbed blind: financially; morally; and in so many other fashions.

[a la izquierda]

6. That happened to me in Las Vegas.

My door was open. I got a call from Hotel Security.
It weirded me out.

[many a good man]

7. Potemkin 2008 Olympics draw to a close