Is anyone else watching this?

Its AMAZING!!!!!

The lights when they were hitting drums was fantastic and totally mesmorizing! :-D
I love their martial art like dancing as well, what great poise and control.
Really think they have done so well getting it all ready!!

Brilliant stuff!

Its still going on!
How long does this last lol

Really nice to see some heritage going in there too, theyve had a few years to prepare and they havent wasted any time I dont reckon!

It's fascinating. The work that must have gone into organising that sort of display must be phenomenal. I hope we can do something as impressive when it's our turn. :-)

I've taken the decision(as I did for the South Korean games)not to watch any of them on principle & I love athletics & the Games  :-(

Im just appreaciating the opening ceromony, Im not watching the actual olympics either!
You gotta watch this tho maiden, its fantastic.

Are you not watching cause of Tibet etc?

No I can watch nothing It is a combination of Human Rights(that covers Tibet)& also their dog meat & fur trade-the cruelty the dogs(& cats)suffer is horrific, being cooked alive & being hung with wire nooses to make the fur stand on end-Sorry I cannot forgive their Government for any of these

also their dog meat & fur trade-the cruelty the dogs(& cats)suffer is horrific, being cooked alive & being hung with wire nooses to make the fur stand on end-Sorry I cannot forgive their Government for any of these

They seriously do these things?
That disgusting and horrific, seems I may be turning this off now too :(

Oh yes the furry toys from China(not the fake fur)like the mechanical sleeping puppies & kittens on cushions are made from real dog & cat fur. Dog & cat skins were being imported from China into the EU to make coats etc until it was banned. They import en masse St Bernards, GSDs etc & breed them to death & using the offspring(& the original dogs)for fur.

The Chinese Government have insisted that dog/cat meat is taken off restaurant menus for the games & that it will not be served at the games for the public or athletes(who mostly have taken their own food in any case)

I am actully retching and starting to feel sick :(
A St Bernard is what I want for my next dog as its my favourite nbext to Staffords.......dont know what to say as Im so shocked.......its disgusting that their allowed to do this to the poor animals!!!

I am NEVER buying anything fluffy from China EVER AGAIN, and they can stuff their olympics where the sun dont shine.
I hated them for what they did to people during the war some things were pure evil and satanic, seems they havent stopped since then :(

Thank you Moonmaiden for making me aware of this.

The dog & cat fur trade-warning there are graphic photos on the site

BTW during WWII the Chinese were our allies & suffered holocaust treatment at the hands of the Japanese

I am in agreement with you for being against the Chinese government for their appalling Human Rights and animal cruelty. 

Initially I was disgusted that they were chosen to host the games but the amazing amount of negative publicity they have had has really put them in an embarrasing position internationaly.  I only hope that the major governments around the world will listen to all the protests and insist on higher standards before they will trade with them.

Sorry Moonmaiden , it was the Japanese I was referring too I got confused, none the less it doesnt make this any better, what horrific things to do to animals, I cant believe St Bernards are covering most of Woolworths children isles.............Evil, pure EVIL.

I agree that the China should never have been in the running to hold the Olympics due to their human rights record.
Whilst I don't support the Chinese governement I do want to support our British athletes who have trained so hard to get where they are. I also hope that with the world watching them, the Chinese government will be forced to act on some of the appalling issues currently affecting the Chinese people.

> Oh yes the furry toys from China(not the fake fur)like the mechanical sleeping puppies & kittens on cushions are made from real dog & cat fur. Dog & cat skins were being imported from China into the EU to make coats etc until it was banned. They import en masse St Bernards, GSDs etc & breed them to death & using the offspring(& the original dogs)for fur.

That is disgusting. I remember seeing those things in the shops last Christmas :-(

I too support our Olympic team, however China will see all the countries that are competes as supporting them & their way of life & government.

I find it hypocritical of the governments who allow their nationals to attend yet offically boycotted the Moscow Games !!

DONT MENTION THE WAR FAWLTY :) :) :)
Sorry but i am chuckling away here at all you lot. So do none of you own anything made in china???

Not that I know of I'm very careful about anything I buy.

I'm with Moonmaiden on this - Rach I wasn't at home to watch the opening ceremony anyway, so not having a dig hun, I too probably would have watched the ceremony itself, but not the games.

The fact that China also use the excuse 'scientific purposes' to overturn the ban on whale hunting also turns my stomach!
Not so long ago in the press this was widely reported, and now ... schtum...
The list could go on.. NOT just China I hasten to add..
oooh best not to get started on this! lol
Did you see the guys up the towers with their banners?  Superb!!

>> Sorry but i am chuckling away here at all you lot. So do none of you own anything made in china???

Exactly!

If our house,car and office were stripped of things made in China....it would be a rather empty place.
Even if the product doesn't state 'made in China' the raw materials gone into making it are very likely to originate from there.
Dog bowls,leads and many raw ingredients of dog food/treats....Most of our clothes cheap or expensive and a great deal of car/bus/train/plane parts are made there.Almost every electrical item ( including your computer) has most of its parts made there too. Difficult to escape it.

Isn't it a good idea though!
If (as a lot us) are unaware of the atrocities both human and animal, then by hosting the games we are seeing the protestors and becoming more aware and able to make our judgements, and hopefully vote in the way of Moonmaiden. Buying power etc.....

Karen

I thought the ceremony was stunning, loved every minute of it :)

> I thought the ceremony was stunning, loved every minute of it

Ditto

I'm just amazed at the fore-thought that has gone into the design of the 'Birds nest'... a 30m rigid globe coming out of the floor...amazing and as for a 360' plasma wall.... just unbelievable. All very 'Close Encounters'- like I thought.

I havnt seen anything of it yet. James was at home and watched some. and said it was good.
What ever human rights etc  problems there are, this is about the worlds best atheletes showing what they can do :) And I for one will be watching wth interest both as a level 2 athletics coach and a level 2 officiator, that if I go up in grade in the future I may be at 2012 olympics officiating!!!! And to show support to our british atheletes who have worked up to this for 4 years, putting blood sweat and tears intyo it :) :) :)
Think of it this way, countries loose money hosting the olympics, so china will be out of pocket LOL
Lea :)

I agree, the ceremony was amazing and the time to argue the politics was before it was given to China - did the IOC REALLY expect the Chinese government to change their entire policy? I think not, but it gave them a nice excuse for awarding it to China. When they saw nothing had been done to improve the human rights situation they should have withdrawn it from China! They didn't, so the athletes have a perfect right to go there and people here have a perfect right to support our athletes by watching, just as they did for Moscow in 1980 and Berlin in 1936. Its either about sport or its about politics - maybe we will face the same in London 2012 - if we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan then will the Islamic countries have demonstrations here I wonder?

Lets face it none of us are going to be taken in by the propaganda spewed out by the Chinese political machine, the BBC will be broadcasting it ad nauseam whether we watch or not, and the influx of foreigners for the games may just make a difference to the people of China.

ETA and as Lea says they will lose money anyway!!

I didn't watch it nor will I be watching any of it.

didnt the northerners  do a ruleing that dog was not allowed on the olympic menu??????
Lea :)

taken off restaurant menus for the games & that it will not be served at the games for the public or athletes(who mostly have taken their own food in any case)

I wondered if that will be some nice battery farmed chix, or a nice peice of veal, or maybe some lovely juicey 3 month old lamb especially bred for its tenderness ?????

>I wondered if that will be some nice battery farmed chix, or a nice peice of veal, or maybe some lovely juicey 3 month old lamb especially bred for its tenderness ?????

What Bilbobagginso :o :o Are you serious ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)), you mean the things that people eat in restaurants in this countery al the time, mainly without knowing (although Lamb they should know about and chickens are 16 weeks old when slaughtered wethere battery of free range!!!! !!! : LOL)
Lea :)

>> I wondered if that will be some nice battery farmed chix, or a nice peice of veal, or maybe some lovely juicey 3 month old lamb especially bred for its tenderness ?????
> What Bilbobagginso :o :o Are you serious ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)), you mean the things that people eat in restaurants in this countery al the time, mainly without knowing (although Lamb they should know about and chickens are 16 weeks old when slaughtered wethere battery of free range!!!! !!! : LOL)
> Lea :-)

Thankfully I'm a vegetarian so cannot be a hypocrite.    I don't think everything is so black & white re: Tibet but the animals involved in the cat & dog trade in China are innocent animals who are not being humanely killed for their coats unlike animals bred for the meat trade in this country.  We have strict guidelines governing slaughter (Although whether they are adhered too is a different matter), China does not.

What about all the tigers they are killing for their herbal medicines?  This is a protected species.

Ok, but wth me, rightly or wrongly they are completely seperate to the olympics.
If the western world worried about things like that they shouldnt have given China the olympics,FULL STOP  they have so LETS GET TALKING ABOUT SPORT not politics!!! (and yes I did mean to shout!!!) Fopr those objecting now, how many objected when they were deciding to send it to china!!! .
I wish the olympics were about what it should be, the best of the best of the WORLD  showing off to the WORLD their Sport :) :) :)
Olyimpics is about SPORT first and foremost,
Please forget Politics/ human rights etc etc ]think abiout the SPORT as what ever you do it isnt goibg to change the fact that China is hosting the olympics!!!!
the thiong you can do is watch out for the next time they are choosing a country to host the olympics, then put in an objection then if you dont like the ethos of the country!!!!
Now we should be thinking about the atheletes that are used to training in 20 degree heat going over and competeing in 38 degree heat and high humidity, but trying to bring gold home for themselves but Also All of US!!!!!!!!!
GOOD LUCK TEAM GB :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
Lea :) :)

The topic of this thread is "Olympic Opening Ceremony" and I, for one, thought it was fantastic.  I can't wait for the Sport to start now, the politics of the country is surely another issue. 

london 2012 tickets go on sale 2011 i will be booking tickets to see the opening ceromony once in a life time thing to do.

>> I wondered if that will be some nice battery farmed chix, or a nice peice of veal, or maybe some lovely juicey 3 month old lamb especially bred for its tenderness ?????
> What Bilbobagginso :o :o Are you serious ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)), you mean the things that people eat in restaurants in this countery al the time, mainly without knowing (although Lamb they should know about and chickens are 16 weeks old when slaughtered wethere battery of free range!!!! !!! : LOL)
> Lea :-)

The Team  GB has taken their own food(along with Chefs to prepare it)

As a vegan I have no problem with other people eating meat from whatever source, but the animals deserve to be treated properly before they are killed & killed in a humane way.

Sadly humane rights, politics & sport are not separate entities today(have you forgotten that banning sports & trade ended apartheid peacefully in South Africa ?) If it had been your home destroyed to make way for the Bird's Nest Stadium, would you be buying tickets to watch the ceremonies whilst having nowhere to live ?

>The Team  GB has taken their own food(along with Chefs to prepare it)

I beleieve this would be standard practce with the atheletes, as they will all have a balanced diet that has been tuned cmpletely for their needs, the right balance of Carbs, fat, sugars etc etc that they have been following and continue to follow throughout the games to be at peek performance for 'race day'  The diet changes depending on when they are racing, and after 4 years of preperation, they would not want to introduce an un known medium into the equation, ie food from another country, that could cause either stomach problems or not enough of a certain combination to get them to peek performance :) :) So they would always take their own food and chefs  whatever the country :D

This world is made up with all different people with different views.
We cringe at the idea of what happens in China, and I  am sure there are some people or cultures that cringe at the things we do. But thats what makes the world the world.
But again I say, this is about SPORT and we should be supporting the atheletes that are showing of our best of the best atheletes to try and bring home as many medals as possible :)
Lea :) (who still hasnt seen anything of the opening ceremony!!!!)

unlike animals bred for the meat trade in this country

We all know this is not true.......  But I am lucky as I have plentiful food I can eat instead. I have a choice.

And yes the opening ceremony was amazing !!

me too moonmaiden for the same reasons as you i bet!

have just seen the site and oh my god it makes you what to weep!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yes our reasons are the same Moonmaiden dog fur and very bad human rights track record.
I WILL NOT WATCH THESE GAMES.
i dont think team GB should even be there.

> maybe we will face the same in London 2012 - if we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan then will the Islamic countries have demonstrations here I wonder?
>

i would not be surprised, in fact i may join in. how can we be so critical of another countries (granted abomonable) human rights record when our own is not all that much better?

free trade, the sharing of events like this and the forces of globalisation will share the values of all the worlds countries. this should breed respect for them and will more than likely see the beliefs of the dominant forces (namely the west) begin to take a dominant role world wide. as such we should eventually see a change in countries like china as they try to alligne themselves with the western world.

look at the changes there have been in the last couple of decades, major changes in government and structure within china, the discussions with tai pei (though iffy) are still on going, china are pretty much the major player in trying  to deal with north korea and various other things... you all must admit they've come a fair way since Tienamen Square.

i am not in any way defending the horrendous practises and human rights abuses seen in china, its appalling, but i think we should consider the benifits that this games might have for the future of the chinese people and for the rest of us. additionally, Amenesty International and various other human rights organisations have declared i think 3 countries to be free of human rights abuses on a large scale- do we critise every other country for this? and we are definately not one fo the 3

> dont think team GB should even be there.

These guys have worked 4 years for the olympics.
Ie Paula Radcliffe, yes she ddid the Bupa Great North Run and London marathon(I know not this year) etc etc but she was working up to the big one, the olympics, hence WHY she didnt Run in London.
So should they not go to the olympics, which will bring them in the money needed to keep training for 2012. through sponsorship etc.
If they dont perform they dont get sponsorship.
You can bet your bottom dollar, if they boycotted Beijing, the athletes wouldnt have the revenue through sponsorship etc  to keep training for 2012,
Soooooooooo we would have hardly any athletes in 2012. which I am sure would rile everyone even more than this games that a British event didnt have high class british athletes.
Atheletes are not gverment funded and can only carry on competeing at high level through grants and sponsorship!!!!
Mmmmmmmm me thinks cutting nose off to spite face springs to mind.
Lea :D :D :D

> i am not in any way defending the horrendous practises and human rights abuses seen in china, its appalling, but i think we should consider the benifits that this games might have for the future of the chinese people and for the rest of us. additionally, Amenesty International and various other human rights organisations have declared i think 3 countries to be free of human rights abuses on a large scale- do we critise every other country for this? and we are definately not one fo the 3

I do critise all countries who have human rights violations & animal cruelty IMHO the two go hand in hand & these Games will not change anything in China, just as the 1936 Games changed nothing in Germany in fact as now they gave a seal of approval to an evil regime

>You can bet your bottom dollar, if they boycotted Beijing, the athletes wouldnt have the revenue through sponsorship etc  to keep training for 2012

Would they really firms losing all that good publicity I think not ? & don't forget it's not just athletics at the Olympics & how many Paralympians get sponsorship ? Not all Team GB get private sponsorship after all sponsoring someone with a learning disability isn't quite as high profile as sponsoring Paula Radcliffe is it ?

I am with you on this one Lea!  There are loads of traditions that go on in other countries e.g. bull fighting etc. which no-one could possibly approve of but how many of you can say that you would never holiday in Spain because of it?  And before anyone points out that you can't compare bullfighting with some of the atrocities which go on in some countries, I was using that as just an example. :)

germany in 1936 was a very different place than china in 2007, it's an entirely different world situation so the two cannot be compared. the german people elected a leader who promised to overthrow the oppressive powers held over them by the treaty of Versaille (which youve got to admit initially he did)- their olympics was about showing teh world they could be strong again, the chinese olympics this year is themed on the concept of unity and focuses on the work of confucious, who was till recently banned in china by the party. the choice of confucious alone as such a focal point, and he really was as those who watched will back me up, shows a willingness for change.

i couldn't be more keen to see an improvement to the human rights situation in china, in fact i am thinking of trying to do something about it as a career. but there are ways beyond boycotts and sanctions, they tend to hurt the people who are down trodden anyway- a ruler who doesn't try to run his country for the benefit of all doesn't care is the poor can't eat.

the admonitions of countries that china is trying to ally with however do far more work. you'll not from the news that many world leaders have critisised the regime in recent weeks so certainly no seal of approval, though post modernist thinking that we pretend to adhere to dictatates we should respect all values we really don;t and people have said so. and its certainly not gone unnoticed

change take time though.

moonmaiden,

once again you have took the words right out of my mouth.I was just thinking about how to respond to this when your message was posted.

> There are loads of traditions that go on in other countries e.g. bull fighting etc. which no-one could possibly approve of but how many of you can say that you would never holiday in Spain because of it? 

exactly, i find the idea of eating dog disgusting for me, but i used to work in a chinese restraunt where my boss would jokingly offer to buy my dog as there was "very good eating" on him lol. i never took offence, he was kidding as he knew i wouldn't. he had eaten dog many times, his kids who grew up here though didn't. they just don;t see dogs the same way over there.

not that i approve of their slaughter practises, there cultural respect and theres being inhumane.

>Would they really firms losing all that good publicity I think not ?

No, but also would they want to Sponsor them for the full 4 years before the 2012 when they have pulled out for no atheletic reason in 2008. They would find some other way of getting their names in lights, Ie sponsor the stadium instead of the athletes.

>& don't forget it's not just athletics at the Olympics & how many Paralympians get sponsorship ? Not all Team GB get private sponsorship after all sponsoring someone with a learning disability isn't quite as high profile as sponsoring Paula Radcliffe is it ?

No I agree, but if you see the training the Top atheletes put in (of all denominations, from Javalin right through to sprinting through tolong jump, dressage etc etc ), They get sponsorship so they dont have to work, if they didnt get money from sponsors to sustain them selves, and pay thier coaches they would have to work, and so would the coach.
As it is, as an example, Paula, even when breast feeding her baby, would run twice a day, and I am not talking a few miles, and inbetween was doing cross training, Ie weights, swimming, resistance training. This was 6 days a week, 8 hours a day.
If she didnt get sponsorship, she would not be able to do the ampount of training she has, so not be as fast as she is :) :)
That is just one full time athelete that I know the training she does, think of all the others.
If they have to have a job outside training, which I know there are olypic athletes that have, they will not have been able to get in the amount of training in, hence why they are in the lower end of the medals, if not there just as a name, not a chance of a medal.
This is why Sponsorship for the Olympians is the most important thing needed along with a good coach :) :)
BTW  Tammi grey Thompson is a  paraolympian and does get sponsorship(I have been in a small 5 mile raod race where her and her husband competed :) :)!!!)
Lea :)

> I am with you on this one Lea!  There are loads of traditions that go on in other countries e.g. bull fighting etc. which no-one could possibly approve of but how many of you can say that you would never holiday in Spain because of it?  And before anyone points out that you can't compare bullfighting with some of the atrocities which go on in some countries, I was using that as just an example. :-)

Me for one, been an Amnesty International Supporter from my early teens & I have never holidayed in any country that I have issues with either over the treatement of animals or humans, I have worked in such countries as a volunteer to help the very people who are being oppressed & slaughtered, just as they are being "disappeared" in China now.

China is also causing more pollution than most other countries(on a par with the USA)

>Tammi grey Thompson ????

Do you mean Tanni Grey-Thompson ?

Good coaches are essential that is why the father of modern GB athletes(Harold Abrahams) engaged a professional coach, Sam Mussabini, & won the 100  in the 1924 games following the rigorous training schedule. He was frowned upon by the powers that be at the time, of course. He will be smiling now as his course of action is being replicated by all athletes & sportsmen

Yes, TaNNi, a slip of the fingers only.
A lovely women and great athlete.
Lea :)

"Do you mean Tanni Grey-Thompson ? "

Why do some posters on this forum feel it necessary to do this sort of thing?  Does it make you feel good Moonmaiden?  We all know who Lea meant!

out of interest then where do you holiday? just if its based on human rights records your pretty limited