You know, sometimes you look at something and the only response you can possibly have is: “Duh!” Like when someone says, “Wow, the New England Patriots were a pretty good team last year, weren’t they?” Or when they say, “Oh, Barack Obama is the Democrat candidate for President?” Or, “I didn’t realize that the UN was so corrupt.” Or some other such obvious statement.

Shockingly (and I use that term with as much sarcasm dripping off it as I can make), the International Olympic Committee just had a huge “Duh!” moment in a very long list of “Duh!” moments of various sizes over the last several years, since they announced that Beijing, People’s Republic of China, would host the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (2008). Apparently China has pulled the wool over the eyes of the good people at Lausanne, Switzerland (the home of the IOC). 

The shocks and surprises really didn’t occur until early this year when China actually had to start hosting events related to the Olympics. The first major shock to the folks at the IOC was that the people of Tibet do not like their masters in Beijing, and would prefer it if the rest of the world (China, especially included) would consider them to be an independent nation, which, according to China, they are not. The IOC seemed surprised by the protests by Tibetans and their supporters along most of the torch relay route.

Apparently, the IOC also does not realize that Taiwan is a separate country and would also like to be considered as such, despite China’s desire to impose communism on a prosperous, and relatively free, country. Taiwan was initially placed on the torch route in such a position as to make it part of the “domestic” (intra-China) route rather than the international route. The last straw to the Taiwanese was the banning of waving the Taiwanese flag and playing the Republic of China’s National Anthem. Taiwan was not on the final route, at their own request.

Then there was the pollution in Beijing. With all the rhetoric about American waste, and American environmental laziness, and how badly the American economy destroys the environment, it’s understandable, to a degree, that some people would not realize that there are other countries that pollute, and China is one of the several that are worse overall, not to mention per capita. But, still, it was a shock to the IOC that the pollution in Beijing is so bad that it might affect the performance of the athletes at least in outdoor sports.

Well, this week, we have the “Duh!” to end all “Duh!”s, so far, at least. Apparently the media that are arriving for the Games have discovered that the internet access in China is not unlimited. The media were “surprised” (according to an AP story on 31 July) that they could not access certain sites, particularly those that do not show China in the most positive light conceivable. 

To me, there is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. Ignorance, which is 100% curable, means simply that you do not know something because no one’s taught you. If you’ve never had access to a particular bit of information you should not be expected to know it. That’s ignorance. Stupidity is when you DO have access to information, or people have told you the information, especially repeatedly, and yet, you are still surprised to hear it.

That China censors the internet is not news. It wasn’t news last year, and it wasn’t news 7 years ago when the IOC awarded the games to Beijing. China is a totalitarian regime. It is not a democracy. They do not believe in free speech, free press, free religion, or anything like that. Any information that contradicts the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s view of events is suppressed, because The Party doesn’t want the people to know just how bad it is in China. They fight with search engine companies and several (Google and, I believe, Yahoo being noteworthy among them) have acquiesced and allowed the Party to censor searches in China. 

That China censors the internet should not be surprising to anyone. The information is out there, and not difficult to find (outside China.) That crosses the boundary from ignorant to stupid.  I’ve never held the IOC in high regard. That they chose China for the Games validates my point, and the continual “surprises” at China’s backward, totalitarian behavior don’t improve my opinion even a little bit. It’ll be interesting to see what “surprises” are in store for the IOC in the coming weeks as the Games approach. 

It must be nice to be stupid enough to be surprised by the pretty blue sky every day.

HJG