Olympic Paradise in Beijing: Streets Clean & Mean

China means to clean its Beijing streets before the Olympics this summer. There will be no dissent, no narcotics, no prostitution, and no religion too. This is Beijing 2008, and the oligarchy of the CCP intends for the games to be a showcase for its own special kind of enlightened dictatorship.

A helpful “legal guide” tells foreign athletes, officials, reporters and spectators how to behave. In addition to shunning narcotics, weapons and counterfeit currency, they should abjure “subversive activities” or the “display of religious, political or racial banners”. __Economist

Comparisons to the 1936 Berlin Olympic games are inescapable. Both events meant to showcase the inevitability of an authoritarian way of life. Supremacist ideology and racial attitudes acted out via the ages old tradition of peaceful international athletics.

Beijing might be smarter to focus on providing clean food, water, and air for the summer games. Preventing dissent and disorder will be next to impossible. All the world's media will be on hand, plus armies of videobloggers and freelance video journalists--some with only their video cell phones to capture the mood.

Until recently, Chinese authorities could feel free to beat bloggers to death for reporting on roadside demonstrations against the authorities. If the CCP gets too heavy-handed in the international circus of the Olympic games, the stain on its reputation will be harder to remove.