wow computer generated fireworks.. hmmm... with millions of people witnessing the fireworks its like a big huge consipircy of the world where china had them all silenced.. that the real fireworks does not compare to what it really is on TV. So rather then spending 10 million dollors to make it look nice and presentable lets spend 10 billions dollors to silence everybody at the olympics and the millions of spectators at the olympics that has got to be the brightest idea in the world.
What's really odd to me, is how the PRC has gotten overseas Chinese to come to its political defense while it actively represses and abuses Chinese people. My only comment is, be wary of what you root for. Ralph
who care about what is fake or not. as long as the sporter do their job to let the watcher enjoy it is enough
Who really cares?? China like any other country who had the Olympics tried to make everything perfect.
I've seen so much news criticizing China when the Olympics are on. It's funny how they notice the smallest details and it seems to defeat the whole purpose of the Olympics. When you think about it, China probably went to the trouble of having fake lip sync/fireworks and etc so that the rest of the world can enjoy the Olympics and go "WOW." I certainly think it was the best Olympics that I've seen so far =/
What if... the PRC deleted the fake fireworks, used the real girl to sing that song, lost or came in second or third in the women's gymnastics events; would it still have been the best damned Olympics in history? Yes. And that's the shame of it. The PRC made such a public show of removing one of its best swimmers (for suspicion of doping) during the pre-games, cleaning up the city, restructuring its pollution machine to stop fouling the air, telling people to stop spitting for fear of embarrassing itself in front of the foreigners; and for what? To be made fun of for putting on a fake show? To be accused of cheating? Honestly, China stood tall even without all the "extras" that caused so much controversy. Yes, I'm damned proud of my fellow Chinese for being able to shine. And yes, I'm damned annoyed that some idiots in the government thought that by cheating or putting on fakery, they would glow even brighter. If anything, they and they alone tarnished the shine that China worked so hard to achieve. China and the Chinese have a lot to be proud of in this Olympics. -cool The few "officials" that dreamed up the fake CGI, lip synching, and using underaged players; they have a lot to be ashamed of. Ralph
lol well least they have money for fake stuff, london 2012 is going to be worst they ran out of money already
i have to agree with what ralph said, china tried really hard to clean its act up but it was what i would like to call too little too late..... beijing just didnt have the time to clean up it's act they should have held the olympics in beijing in 2012....
Personally, I think that the PRC spent way too much money (estimated conservatively at 40 BILLION USD); that said, the show they put on was, without exception, the best ever in Olympic history. With all that considered, the things that gave most people grounds for complaints were those that easily could have been avoided (as I'd stated earlier) if they didn't try so hard to impress. They were already very, very impressive. The little extras, here and there (fake fireworks, filling empty seats with paid fans, lip synching someone else, & using girls too young to legally compete) left China with more stain than shine on its reputation. Overall however, I think the Chinese did just fine, they have a lot to be proud of. Ralph
Yes, the so called US$40b, most of it is re-cycled back into the economy and large part of the expenditure was to build the infrastructure for future use anyway. Another word most of the money was earmarked to be spent anyway as part of the economic growth and expansion. They happened to be counted as Olympics budget e.g. money spent on the airports for Olympics tourists and visitors, that money would have been spent anyway to expand the airports coming into Beijing. Big fireworks display cost a lot of money, but it is still cheaper than advertising Chinese fireworks on all the prime TV stations around the world.
I'm sure that dollar per dollar, they (the PRC gov) got their money's worth for whatever it was they were paying for. And Beijing, as municipality, undoubtedly was gifted by a huge windfall of national funds directly into its capital budget, that will have economic value for years to come. However, you can probably say that Olympic dollars will have the same effect on London, where they're currently planned and revamping infrastructure but with a much more modest budget of ~ four billion USD, or only one tenth of Beijing's expenditure. So did the PRC spend an extraordinary amount in comparison to what other cities had or plan to? The answer is a resounding, yes. Additionally, a lot of cost also went into the extra man hours for the nearly hundred thousand security personnel, active and on standby, where residual benefit or financial effect of infrastructure is doubtful; the money went towards operating costs of extra fuel and overtime salaries. Ironically, the Olympics did not result in a tourism related increase for the city as yet. Because of the heightened security requirements, many foreigners were denied visa approval. Many hotels complained that rooms sat relatively unfilled during the games, when this was usually their best fully booked time of the year. And area factories had to sit idle because of game air quality concerns. Curiously, despite the inconvenience, the new mandatory traffic pattern rules were greated with approval; Beijing citizens (even drivers) are clamoring for the changes to be made permanent. And as for your response to Armedretard's "Doing all these things to make China look great; is it even worth it?" I might be wrong but it sounded like he was rhetorically questioning the fakery and or suspected age cheating scandal, and not the overall financial burden of the event. Like I stated earlier, the PRC didn't need to do all those extra silly things that invited controversy; it already looked superb and didn't need to gild the lily. Ralph
You know what ticks me off the most? The stupid world media made a bigger deal out of China's olympic "debacle" - which, by the way was the most AMAZING opening/closing ceremonies EVER imho - than Russia invading Georgia. Something in which human lives and the ever coveted word - peace - were actually in question. Why? Just because it was China, the ever-looming communist world superpower. The media should be ashamed. It was a great show, other countries lip-sync, CGI graphics, whatever; they don't get it trouble. China? Can't get away with a damn thing. Too bad.