San Francisco Citizen

Coming Saturday, April 12, is “Beijing, Are You Ready,” a newly-released series by Oakland’s D3 Production, Inc.

Officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic games, this special series features Chinese athletes in training, the construction of the bird’s nest (Beijing national stadium) and much more behind the scenes with rare access to key people and places. Viewers also will experience the variety of ways that China’s capital city is preparing to host the 2008 Olympic games – the first ever Olympics held on Chinese soil. Film producer Duffy Wang and others will be available for discussion. Cosponsored by the Chinese Center.

Well, if it’s “officially approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee”, it must be good, right?

Let’s get some early reviews, how about from national state television, a sub-ministry of People’s Republic of China’s central government within the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and as such it does not have any editorial independence from the PRC government.

“Beijing is counting down to the 2008 Olympic Games!”

“And the people of Beijing are busy preparing for this international sports event with great enthusiasm!”

Meanwhile, back on the planet Earth, the authorities in Beijing are “absolutely wetting their pants” over the possibility of protests at torch events around the world. And those corporate sponsors of the torch relay are getting a little nervous, it seems:

“What started off as a small number of organizations threatening to create some disruption has escalated significantly,” said Dan Parr, the head of Asia-Pacific for brandRapport, a marketing consulting agency. “This must be taking some of the gloss off for some of these sponsors.”

Now let’s hear from Steven Spielberg:

“I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur.”

Mmm. It’s almost like there’s a chance that the Olympics can backfire on a host nation. 

Beijing, are you ready?