OPINION: The (Beijing) Olympics and Indonesia
The Jakarta Post, 21 April 2008 In less than four months, the world will witness one of the biggest and widely discussed international events ever hosted by the People's Republic of China -- the Beijing Olympic Games 2008. Beijing is all geared up for the event. You can virtually sense the heightened atmosphere, and, no, I am not talking about the pollution. The Beijing Olympic symbol is virtually everywhere, on pens, on cups, on yogurt bottles, on the bus, on television, in magazines, etc. Poetic rhymed slogans -- such as, Yin ao yun, Jiang wen ming, Shu xin feng, loosely translated as "Welcome the Olympic, speak of civilization, establish new attitude" and You ya yan xing, You liang zhi xu, You zhi fu wu, You mei huan jing, or "Refined words and deeds, civil public order, quality service, beautiful environment" -- are plastered and scattered around the capital and other major cities in China. If there had been any debate about the inexistence of China's mo...