After a couple days of watching the Olympics for myself and viewing the amazing facilities and show the Chinese were putting on for the world, I was impressed. China has been a sort of social mystery for the past few decades due to government restrictions, so I was happy to see that the country had opened up to the world for an event as prestigious as the Olympics. While reviewing the Opening Ceremony with my roommate "Yang", he said something that changed my opinion. He said "I love my country, but I do not like my government." After talking a bit, I came to the conclusion that while he had nothing against the Olympics, he did not care for the fact that the government spent so much money on the games. He mentioned that the money (according to him was $400 billion) could have been spent more wisely helping the people of China instead of showing off by hosting the Olympic games. For example, he said that most of rural China is not very wealthy and could use financial assistance, but instead, the government built a stadium. To sum things up, China could have spent the money on a better cause.
China is a country with a rich history of over 5,000 years. Several of the world's most important inventions have come from China, including paper and gun powder. But, as Yang put it, there is a big difference between loving your country and loving your government. I believe that the Chinese government has some responsibility to its people that it should have addressed before spending so much money to host the Olympics. It is important to understand that the government did spend a considerable amount of money to clean up Beijing and make it more friendly to foreign visitors, but the improvements did not go far outside of Beijing. For example, Beijing officials set up a hotline to properly translate many street signs, they also tried to lighten up the pollution by shutting down factories and taking cars off the road for the games. Not to mention the simple fact that China would rather spend money to impress the world than to help its' own citizens. At least in the US, the people are able to participate in government to have a say in what the country does. If it were up to the people of China I believe that the 2008 Olympics would have been held elsewhere.
While I am still in awe of the Olympics and opening ceremony China performed, I do believe the government should have considered using the funds for a better cause. You would think that after all the things the people of China do for their country, the government could pay them back in one way or another. I do think that China is a great country with great people, but the government and infrastructure could use great improvement.
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