Today, the real Olympics begin

Today, the true Olympic spirit is stronger than ever. The Paralympics Opening Ceremony is taking place in Beijing.

The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games is under way in Beijing, with more than 4,000 athletes taking part.

Tonight’s opening ceremony, according to its director Zhang Yimou, is a surreal journey in space and time which celebrates the courage and spirit of athletes with disabilities.

He says the themes being played out at the Bird’s Nest stadium are dedicated to the Paralympians who inspire the whole world.

Organisers of the Paralympics have promised that these Games will be equal to the main Olympics and the opening ceremony has kicked off with a massive display of light and colour in front of some 90,000 spectators at the Bird’s Nest Stadium.

I support the Paralympics 100 percent. And I’m pleased to see them in China. Because those with disabilities in China truly need some positive news and actions from their government.

From the Washington Post:

BEIJING — In recent weeks, Beijing’s brand-new airport has been able to give a special welcome to thousands of Paralympic athletes from around the world because the government spent $1.7 million to lower washbasins and handrails, add Braille signs and transform 214 toilets into the accessible variety.

But in south Beijing, a former coal miner needs a nurse to help push him up a too-steep ramp leading to his apartment building. He has trouble boarding taxis and buses and finding restaurants without steps. He can’t use a public toilet.

China is trumpeting the Paralympics as a way to improve awareness and better integrate its more than 83 million disabled citizens, almost a million of whom live in Beijing. But the reality is that China’s disabled are largely invisible, dissuaded from going out in public by a lack of physical access, a deficit of jobs and routine discrimination.

“I need someone to lift me into a taxi and fold the wheelchair, or carry me on his back onto a bus,” said Zhi Fumao, 48, whose legs were paralyzed in a mining accident a few years ago. “Public toilets have no arm rests; I can’t squat.”

Every city in the world could improve its facilities for the disabled, but in China, a traditional respect for the elderly and the weak has been eroded by Communist political campaigns and an overall lack of awareness of civil rights, according to advocates for the disabled.

It was kind of hard to escape my opinion on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. It was terribly unsettling to see how the corporate world could care less about anything a nation does so long as they have open markets. And while I didn’t believe the athletes should have boycotted, I was yet again struck with how the vast majority of modern-day athletes completely refuse to get involved in any type political activism. The days of Tommie Smith and Juan Carlos are gone, and we were left with China being able to ban Joey Cheeks from the games for having strong convictions, with few making much a fuss of it. If there were 100 athletes that protested China’s enabling of the Sudanese government or its human rights violations, China wouldn’t have been able to ban them all.

And while the Olympic athletes put on a great show, viewers were stuck with coverage that was frighteningly sexist and that cared mostly about the world-altering controversy over small Chinese gymnasts.

But that’s for another day. The Paralympics and the positive changes they can bring to China are to be celebrated. I plan on marveling at the athletic prowess the 4,000 athletes bring to the field of play. And, ok, I admit it – I’m really hoping they televise some Murderball.

–WKW

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