Me Smog You Long Time!

Despite my demanding semi-weekly blogging schedule, I still take time self-reflection every day and ponder my reasons for living. (Translation: I have an hour commute every morning and evening, am utterly bored with my music collection and local radio, and end up talking to myself like a crazy, semi-coherent homeless person.)

And it was during one of these moments of quiet reflection that I realized that I was perhaps being a little too harsh last week when I noted last week that Beijing is not what I would call the cleanest of cities. In hindsight, I worried that the nicknames I associated with Beijing (such as "Pigpen" and "Filthier Houston") were potentially hurtful and inaccurate. Maybe the pollution issue had been resolved by temporarily removing cars and halting manufacturing. Perhaps, I thought, I may have truly exaggerated the pollution problem.

That was until today, when I read the following article which suggested that there still might be a few issues with Beijing's air quality.

"Australian head coach Alan Thompson is searching for answers regarding the apparent pollution that has settled over the Olympic pool. The national team graced the Water Cube for the first time yesterday evening only to find the smog that has blanketed Beijing infiltrating the space-age aquatic centre."

That's right boys and girls, the smog has actually invaded the aquatic center -- which is an entirely enclosed facility. Seriously, the pollution has actually seeped into the indoor facility.

Evidently, there are no indoor fans which push the smog/soot ("smoot"?) outside the indoor swimming facility. But I'm sure that the amount of pollution is having only a negligible effect on the athletes, right?

"About half of the Australian swim team have respiratory problems and the thin blanket of pollution is a concern with the swimming program starting on Saturday."

I guess it goes without saying that I should never second guess my first instinct. This is going to be an awesome party. They should have changed the Beijing Olympic slogan to "Come for media censorship and human rights abuses, stay for the smoot!"

Big Trouble, Dirty China

In addition to being a political junkie (despite the absence of postings during the heat of the election), I am also a big Olympics addict, specifically, track and field which has been one of my favorite sports since high school. No one in the states seems to enjoy the sport (similar to rugby) until it's time for the Olympics. I've watched the Olympics for as long as I can remember, certainly going back to the days when McDonald's ran its Olympic price contests ("What's that, we won another gold medal in swimming? Hello free medium sized french fries.").

And this year, I plan on watching every minute of the Olympics yet again. Or at least I was planning on watching every minute of it until I saw this photo and noticed that there was a slight visual problem in Beijing:



Jesus Christ, look at the thick blanket of soot overlaying the city. It looks like it was taken in a chimney. Are they mining coal right next to the stadium or what?

Despite all evidence to the contrary, Beijing City officials have confidently predicted that air quality will be good for the Games. Drastic efforts to curb pollution include pulling half of Beijing's 3.3 million vehicles off the roads, closing factories in the city and in a half dozen surrounding provinces, and halting most construction in the capital.

That didn't quite improve things and so, starting July 1, Beijing banned approximately 300,000 heavily polluting vehicles, such as aging industrial trucks.

Fantastic idea. However, today's picture make it appear that someone dumped a million tons of charcoal ash on the city.

So today Chinese state media reported that drastic measures - such as pulling more cars from the roads and shutting down additional factories - could be taken if the air quality does not improve. Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC, has warned that outdoor endurance events will be postponed if the air quality is poor.

This is fucking brilliant. The Olympics are 11 days away and officials are basically casting all their hopes on a shutdown of all machinery in the city. I'm surprised that they aren't doing something high tech, like employing the efforts of a wind Shaman or buying a ton of electric fans.

Seriously, it's not like this is a huge surprise. Everyone has known that Beijing has huge pollution issues. It's like letting Britney Spears babysit your kid off and being surprised when he comes home smelling like Marlboro's and Cheetos. Enough with the mock surprise here folks.

Oh wait, this just in ... Olympic officials are alarmed at the number of people in Beijing. "Seriously, there are a shitload of people living here. We had no idea when we awarded them the games,' said one official on the condition of anonymity.