Wednesday, August 6, 2008

China's air quality is GREAT for the Olympics...

This is the brand-new aquatics stadium in Beijing, built especially for the Olympics. It's called the Water Cube, and as you can see, it's beautiful.





There's only one minor problem: the smog inside. The Australian swim team reported a "thin blanket of pollution" inside the Cube when they practiced there Monday. The swim events begin on Monday.

Australia is especially worried because a couple of their have asthma. The swim arena was built to give swimmers a chance to compete in air that wasn't super-polluted. Apparently, that didn't work. I do have 3 suggestions: just remind athletes that Beijing's official policy is that there is no smog, only mist; have Chinese officials fire "anti-pollution" pellets into the swim stadium; or get water-proof versions of these:


I hear all the cool athletes are wearing them this season...

3 comments:

Michelle said...

I am so ticked at the Olympics this year. I wrote what I felt on my blog post today. I am totally not watching. It is as we would say in Russian, "A Circus." Of Olympic sized proportion.....errrrrrr! I will be watching Pirates 3 Tomorrow night!!!!

Anonymous said...

I am back again! Yeah, poor air condition in Beijing. I have been there occasionally and there has seldom been a day without much dust and smoke. The statistics on air quality released by government controlled agencies does not reflect the real condition in the city since samples are collected in suburban areas. Whenever a problem is pointed out by foreign media, the government just resort to nationalism and accuse foreign journalists of biased report.

Richard J said...

Michelle--I saw your post, and I thought you expressed yourself beautifully. Pirates 3 is a good choice. Mindless entertainment, but fun.

Anonymous--I'm glad you're back! I always wonder how much true information we get out of China. I know the US government can be bad about twisting news, but I'm afraid China is much worse.

Stay safe!