Upon doing research for my trip to China, I encountered arguments that were against the Olympics occurring in Beijing. I am planning on going to Beijing while I'm in China, and hopefully we'll get to see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. But I don't think we'll get to go inside them.
Perhaps one of the strongest points to argue against the Olympics in Beijing is the air pollution. Some believe that the athletes should’ve been concerned, but many others just proclaim that it was fog. Some athletes, in fact, had visited neighboring countries, such as South Korea and Japan, prior to the games to avoid Beijing’s poor air conditions for as long as they could. Although these are extreme cases, they are cautious cases.
In any case, two weeks prior to the opening ceremony in Beijing there was a shroud of smog covering the city, which made athletes and coaches very worried. Some environmentalists from Beijing based this off of the lack of air to blow away the pollution from the city, but the more logical reason, brought up by scientists from Greenpeace, is that the pollution is a combination of poor living methods. There are 3.3 million cars in Beijing, and all of these cars partake in the air pollution. So to fix the air pollution, the government took drastic measures, which included pulling half of the cars off the roads, closing down factories around the city that emitted toxic gases and smog, and stopping most construction.
The air pollution is a great problem to this day. It’s polluting the skies in a gray haze. The types of air pollution include sulfur dioxide, nitrogen monoxide, and carbon dioxide. However, although these toxins were in Beijing’s skies, the Olympic board did not say that the Beijing Olympics contributed to the toxins at all as a result of the Olympics using a great deal of solar energy. In the end, the air pollution problem did not stop a great Olympic event that will go down in history books, but on the other hand, anti-pollution encouragements need to be established.
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Chinese History- The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
Since I'm going to China this summer, I've been doing a lot of research about China and it's history. One thing that I encountered was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Not many people know about it, but it's one of the most important events in Chinese history. Still, there is an uncertainty of why it happened.
The Cultural Revolution occurred from 1966 to 1976, and occurred mainly because Mao Zedong wanted to show everyone that he was the all-powerful leader. To do this, Mao repressed people who he thought rejected him and his ideas, and he killed innumerable amounts of innocent people who he thought to be a threat. One of Mao’s theories is that a privileged class had risen in China, and these consisted of educated people. Mao thought that the working class, the proletariat, should have some power and should control society. Thus, Mao told his followers to start brutally murdering and injuring teachers, scientists, economists, and other educated people. Mao wanted to create a classless society, a society in which no class had more benefits than another.
After Mao declared his desire, two main groups were organized. The first was the Red Guard, which consisted of a bunch of students and youths who fought against educated people, often killing their own teachers. By doing this, it often sparked a cascade of wrath in which people started killing others for no good reason. Although the main function of the Red Guards was to teach people about Mao’s ideas, they became especially brutal to those who opposed Mao. Those students who opposed Mao in the end were not educated and China lost much of educated people through the Cultural Revolution.
One story during the Cultural Revolution deals with a little boy, and he describes China as turning from “black to white.” He said everything became chaotic. His father was sent away to the countryside to work, and the boy had to fend for himself. He explained that he grew up quite quickly because he had to understand what was going on to survive. However, stories of Chinese people during this time aren’t very numerous because the Chinese government does not encourage talk about this time period. Many Chinese do not want to remember.
The Cultural Revolution occurred from 1966 to 1976, and occurred mainly because Mao Zedong wanted to show everyone that he was the all-powerful leader. To do this, Mao repressed people who he thought rejected him and his ideas, and he killed innumerable amounts of innocent people who he thought to be a threat. One of Mao’s theories is that a privileged class had risen in China, and these consisted of educated people. Mao thought that the working class, the proletariat, should have some power and should control society. Thus, Mao told his followers to start brutally murdering and injuring teachers, scientists, economists, and other educated people. Mao wanted to create a classless society, a society in which no class had more benefits than another.
After Mao declared his desire, two main groups were organized. The first was the Red Guard, which consisted of a bunch of students and youths who fought against educated people, often killing their own teachers. By doing this, it often sparked a cascade of wrath in which people started killing others for no good reason. Although the main function of the Red Guards was to teach people about Mao’s ideas, they became especially brutal to those who opposed Mao. Those students who opposed Mao in the end were not educated and China lost much of educated people through the Cultural Revolution.
One story during the Cultural Revolution deals with a little boy, and he describes China as turning from “black to white.” He said everything became chaotic. His father was sent away to the countryside to work, and the boy had to fend for himself. He explained that he grew up quite quickly because he had to understand what was going on to survive. However, stories of Chinese people during this time aren’t very numerous because the Chinese government does not encourage talk about this time period. Many Chinese do not want to remember.
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