China’s having won the bid to host the 2008 Olympics was hard won for the communist country who was trying real hard to re-make it’s figure on the global scale. They won the bid and started to invest heavily on developing Olympic venues in the true grandeur of China yet after the billion of dollars spent on the several groundbreaking venues environmental issues abound that may spell disaster for the high expectations they have from the economic benefits of hosting the Olympics. Rivers and shore lines choked with algae due to an influx of pollution from the millions of Chinese who want to watch and take part in the Olympic events is threatening to choke off venues for water sports.
Air quality in Beijing is also deplorable and may cause problem for the many events that may require running outdoors and with many countries having reservations about participating due to possible health risks their problems just keeps on growing and growing. With the Olympic games just a few weeks out, many environmental issues are still being brought up. Even drinking water is an issue for many bottled Chinese products fail standards of some participating countries having them bring their own supplies for their athletes.
True that the Olympics is meant to bridge the differences of man yet China may have simply bitten off more that it could chew. The influx of problems so close to the opening ceremonies is giving people headaches all over and political issues are also being brought out with some countries even threatening to boycott the games altogether to stress their point. China may just have to learn from the lessons of the past that image is not the whole picture but part of the picture and that change must begin from within. The country and its resources are stretched to the limit due to the disasters that swept through the Sichuan Province that killed thousands due to shoddy construction of government schools and buildings.

Originally posted on June 1, 2008 @ 10:27 am