Irony much?

http://jeanchoi.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/irony-much/
Posted by: Jean Choi | September 11, 2008

The 2008 Beijing Olympics finally came to a close two weeks ago, with a spendid closing ceremony that even surprisingly featured the Korean singer Rain. Aside from the Korean national team’s outstanding achievements in numerous sports categories such as baseball and archery, the Beijing Olympics proved to be a source of controversy due to the lip-syncing incident and the computer-generated fireworks during its opening ceremony, as well as the feasibility of China hosting this internationally and historically-renowned event. However, excluding these problems, I would have to admit that the 2008 Olympics was a fairly big success and that it did live up to the expecations that were associated with the symbolic significance of its opening date: August 8th, 2008. However, not long after I had written something on my blog about what meaning the date August 8th holds in Chinese culture, I found something even more interesting on the Internet. It turns out to be that August 8th also marks the 20th anniversary of Burma’s largest democratic uprising. What’s more, China is one of the main supporters of Burma’s regime, as it frequently supplies weapons of mass destruction to the military regime in Burma.
The site (click here) provides a lot of information on the current political conditions in Burma, as well as the history behind the entire situation. There is also a petition going on against viewing the Beijing Olympics (remember, the Paralympics is still going on at this point!), because the date of the democratic uprising in Burma coincides with the official opening date of the entire Beijing Olympics. It’s a shame that I didn’t know anything about the unstable political situation in Burma until now, because if I had known any earlier, then I probably wouldn’t have written a post about how the Beijing Olympics is supposed to be full of good fortune because of its auspicious opening date. I guess this just adds one more controversy to the several that are already associated with China’s hostage of the Olympics! At any rate, below is a clip found on the US Campagin for Burma website that effectively summarizes the history behind Burma’s fight for freedom. Try visiting the website and let’s all take some action!