Sure, It Was Beautiful...But.....

Oh, My Goodness. What a difference between Freedom and Not.

The opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics were spectacular, but the human cost! I'm not talking about the computer-added graphics of fireworks or lip-synching 9-year-olds. I'm talking heat stroke, many injuries including paralysis for one performer, and Depends.

Zhang Yimou, the director, said that "only North Korea could have done it better." Wow, there's company you want to keep, huh?

Here's what Zhang said, in an excerpt from this article from Associated Press:

In the most extreme case, Beijing organizers revealed last week that Liu Yan, a 26-year-old dancer, was seriously injured during a July rehearsal. Shanghai media reported that she fell from a 10-foot stage and may be permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

Zhang, the ceremony's director, visited Liu in the hospital and has told Chinese media that he deeply regrets what happened to her _ but he has also defended the training schedule his performers endured.

He told the popular Guangzhou weekly newspaper Southern Weekend that only communist North Korea could have done a better job getting thousands of performers to move in perfect unison.

"North Korea is No. 1 in the world when it comes to uniformity. They are uniform beyond belief! These kind of traditional synchronized movements result in a sense of beauty. We Chinese are able to achieve this as well. Through hard training and strict discipline," he said. Pyongyang's annual mass games feature 100,000 people moving in lockstep.

Performers in the West by contrast need frequent breaks and cannot withstand criticism, Zhang said, citing his experience working on an opera performance abroad. Though he didn't mention specific productions, Zhang directed Tan Dun's "The First Emperor," starring Placido Domingo, at New York's Metropolitan Opera in 2006.

"In one week, we could only work four and a half days, we had to have coffee breaks twice a day, couldn't go into overtime and just a little discomfort was not allowed because of human rights," he said of the unidentified opera production.

"You could not criticize them either. They all belong to some organizations ... they have all kind of institutions, unions. We do not have that. We can work very hard, can withstand lots of bitterness. We can achieve in one week what they can achieve in two months."

Yes, I think that we, as Americans are quite often too soft and wimpy when it comes to our work ethic.

But, come on, Mr. Zhang, a little insertion of human rights would be a good thing.

Shame in the Eastern culture is a terrible thing. Well, here I sit, firmly in the West, and I am ashamed of my daughter's homeland.

And that's just what they show the public--the private, unseen injustices are so many. More on the orphanage system later.