The 'stalag' Olympic Village

The always-amusing newsletter of Access Asia, a market research firm with offices in Shanghai, brings a tidbit this week that may not amuse Olympic athletes coming to Beijing.

Apparently, it’s not going to be easy for Olympic athletes to leave the grounds of the Olympic Village to get a taste of the real Beijing.

If you're an athlete coming to compete in Beijing, don't bother to bring a guidebook unless you're tenacious. The chances of you actually getting out of the Olympic Village to see any of the city (apart from the venue you're competing in) are minimal. Hence, the dubbing of the Olympic Village as Stalag Beijing.

How serious will the Chinese authorities be in trying to keep athletes within the Village at all times? Well, consider that a major European sports brand and sponsor of the Games thought it a good idea to take over a major international school in Beijing for the duration of the Games. Using the school's facilities, the brand's management and marketing people, advertising firm and PR hypers had all planned to mingle with their star athletes' endorsers and get the most out of the event. But now the authorities, worried about athletes leaving the Village unnecessarily, have overruled the deal, and won't let it happen (which means the brand loses the alleged US$1.5 million they coughed up to rent the school for a month). We are told that security at the Village will be high - not just to get in, but also to get out.

So why turn the village into Stalag Beijing? Well, it seems there are a number of reasons. Worries that athletes may leave the Village to do impromptu reporting on human rights or other issues is one; keeping them all close to the people who are sponsoring the Village is another; but the major reason is that if they leave the Village they may be tempted to eat like the rest of us - i.e. not the specially prepared, reared and grown foods that are being made available in the Village (and in the Village only) - and that could mean plenty of athletes failing dope tests due to high levels of residual antibiotics and steroids commonly found in meat on sale in China.

Comments

[A B]

I beg to differ -

Athletes doing "impromptu reporting of human rights" is not that big a concern.

The safety and security of the athletes are.

Nobody wants a repeat of the 1972 Munich incident. Keep in mind that American and European athletes are prime targets for al-qaeda.

There is some concern about the food, but most athletes are wise and well briefed enough to know this issue and what to do.

I am somewhat disappointed that the organizers did not find a way to secure the International School for the duration of the "mingle" events, which is a manageable problem in the overall scheme of things.

Beijing must understand that keeping sponsors and endorsers happy (which means keeping the Olympics a financial success) is an absolute must for those who remember how the Olympics nearly died after it continually run deficits in the 70s.

If they are prepared to shut down factories to clean the air, this would be a very small concession, and it would make a lot of smiles for the people that make this event a financial success.

Hint, hint, hint.

[Pffefer]

After a brief hiatus, the usual negative stuff that you hear about China is back.

[Juan Valdez]

I think China could care less if the Olympics area a financial success or, if the endorsers are happy with their access or the placement of their sponsorships. This is about China's national pride and the maintenance there of. Not about money. China has plenty of money. It allows them to subsidize the price of food and gas at a reasonable level for the general public. Financial success is not an issue.

[Crian]

Well comparing this olympics to ones previously gone passed, like Athens in 2004, the athletes were allowed out in a post 9/11 world so where is the justification for their protection? With China's police force numbering in the millions, how big a deal is it to protect a few hundred people who do go out? The logical conclusion is that they want to prevent any human rights reporting.

[Stan]

Hey AB...Buy some tide soap so you wash your brain. Hang out at some other site that will tell you what you want to hear. www.ILOVENORTKOREA.COM for starters.

[PaZhuLian]

@Stan
Well guess who was quick pushing the insult button? Was that because of something AB said that you did not like to hear?

I think TimJ was just trying to be funny. Who can blame him for that after spending some heart-wrenching time in the quake zone? And AB was just as happy to play along.

Now tell us: does www.ilovenorthkorea.com tell YOU what YOU like to hear?

BTW, I didn't know Tide makes soap bars. I never saw them in the US nor China. Maybe in North Korea?

[CS]

TJ This isn't really news is it? How many times have you been somewhere in China where they try and keep you in for your own safety? I had a couple of employers in the early days try that trick and it doesn't surprise me if the Olympics will be the same.

The Chinese could never allow the embarrassment of having an athlete attacked whilst in Beijing so i suspect security will be really tight. I am not sure you can blame them in this day and age though, attacked athletes would not be good for anyone.

The food aspect may be of some help though, i remember doing a 10 second 100 metre across the third ringroad once into the nearest macdonalds for a time honoured Beijing Quickstep so thi could work in their favour for records to be beaten.

[nanheyangrouchuan]

@ pfeffer

China sucks, get used to it.

The fact that foreign athletes might 1. report on "unharmonious activity" that they see 2. eat foods are aren't pre-approved or pre-loaded with drugs and intestinal bugs (like the entire Greek powerlifting team being DQ'd because of the Chinese made training supplements they used) 3. be attacked by mobs of crappy youth (especially Japanese, Korean and US) who have been taught to hate their entire lives.

[PaZhuLian]

@Nanhe...
Well, Listen chuanchuanchou! China, as a reemerging global power with all of her marvels and blemishes, is here to stay. So YOU better get used to it. Or better yet, get a life and find a date so you can hopefully produce an offspring to carry on that mission of yours, instead of wasting time blog hopping like a neglected delinquent child stirring up trouble just to get some attention. Because, let’s face it, whatever spectacular collapse that is your favorite wet dream for China, it ain’t gonna happen in this insignificant lifetime of yours. So get busy with your favorite back-alley barbershop/brothel next time you’re in China, as it is your only hope for the continuance of your “legacy”

[Wilbur Varela]

The olympics have become a big joke. Not just because they are incompatible with a nationalist totalitarian dictatorship like china, but because they are just a tool for corporate sponsors to whore their products. This is about money. Look at all the neighborhoods bulldozed to build the arenas. Sure they are big, massive top of the line venues. But who cares? Its not about sports, its about propaganda and image. Yes China is powerful, no doubt. But the olympics are for them, nobody else. So who cares? Let 'em party. Afterwards, they can clean up the mess and we can get on with freeing tibet.

[PaZhuLian]

@Wilbur Varela

You were correct amigo! This is about money. So I think the last part of your post should read instead: Let 'em party. Afterwards, they can count their money and we can get on with DREAMING of a “free” tibet.

Please dream on. Because as long as people continue to bash China as “a nationalist totalitarian dictatorship”, they’d better not wake up or they would be totally disappointed.

[Wilbur Varela]

Senor PaZhuLian, your comments play right into the biggest fear of the west. That one billion chinese all think the same way. We fear that. When there is no dissent, there is nationalism verging on fascism. China is like a mountain, it was always there, and always will be. Who can bash that? The chinese are brave and strong, no doubt. But who are you kidding about this government? They do what ever they want, in secret. Those poor kids in teh schools, while the party menbers houses were left standing, come on man, ask some questions!

[nanheyangrouchuan]

China was picked up off its butt and out of its grave by the West. When it tries to do something on its own, nothing but garbage.
My offspring are all of the people who have got on board with my realist approach towards China.
You have to get used to the idea that as more and more people get to know the real China, more and more people will dislike China. Crap exports, slave labor, raunchy pollution, exporting of nuclear weapons technology, promotion of totalitarian governments and other generally bad, bad behavior.

[PaZhuLian]

@nanheyangrouchuan: “…My offspring are all of the people who have got on board with my realist approach towards China…”

By that did you mean the few bitter-twisted China-rejects, disgruntled expat-failures and grumpy sinophobes that have been swapping blog links and comments with you? Ummm, I wander if they would feel fine and dandy being referred to as your “offspring”. But hey who am I to complain?

However, I do detect certain symptoms that could indicate serious genealogical problem. Judging from the rapid depletion of intriguing arguments and refreshing ideas put forth by you and your “extended family” over the years, there seems to be an increasing risk of “genetic deterioration” resulted from years of “pseudo-intellectual inbreeding”. It’s obvious that you too have been painfully aware of this, which helps explain the shameful tactics you’ve used on other people’s blogs hoping to get some “action” for your own –trolling comments, hyperlinked handles and “shock jockey” style blog title to name a few. Unfortunately, these are all tired and old “pick-up lines” which might produce a few funky one-night-stands but never intellectually stimulating enough to expand your “gene pool”. Sooner or later, you are gonna have to ask yourself: is it time to stop trolling and start self-replenishing by reading some serious shit and maybe even working on that PhD I kept talking about?"

Oh BTW, technologies do exist to allow skyscrapers to survive an attack like 9-11. It might not be economically feasible or practical, but technically such fortification can certainly be done.

[abales]

Reading PaZhuLian posts leaves me fearful of the future. You need to get out more.

What is Chinese for NeoCon?