Believe in the Flowers.

Carol of the Zombie Jesus!

To those who are angry because the Chinese are being "brought down" by the controversy surrounding their medals:
First, there is controversy for good reason. A lot of information has been found and then mysteriously destroyed or edited by the Chinese government. This information has consistently shown that SEVERAL of the female Chinese gymnasts - not just He - were under the current age limit (16 years of age by the Olympics in question) while competing in Beijing. Despite having proof of all of this information that has existed and yet disappeared after discovery, the IOC has thus far chosen to ignore protests from EVERY OTHER COUNTRY, not just America, and not investigate the ages of the gymnasts. Only within the last couple of days has the IOC agreed that an investigation is necessary, and who knows how long it will be before someone comes to an actual conclusion as to whether or not everything is in order (please note that while the IOC accepts government-issued passports as identification and proof of age, these documents are easily forged if it's done by the government that issued them). It might well be time for the next Olympics, and if a decision isn't reached by then, these same gymnasts - who are far more likely to be of age by then - will probably be competing again and will not be excluded from the games in 2012. China has, throughout these games, done their part to swindle the rest of the world, including giving TV networks pre-filmed fireworks footage to use during the opening, dubbing the voice of a seven-year-old girl over that of a nine-year-old girl because the original singer was not as cute as her older counterpart, and forcing migrant workers out of the city and quelling family protests over the recent devastating earthquakes to ensure that the rest of the world sees only the "new, positive" face of China and Beijing.
Second, America is well behind in the medal count for golds. China is beating us, and this holds true for gymnastics as well as in general. When Nastia Luikin tied for the gold only a couple of days ago, the tiebreaker software decided that she was the silver medalist, and one of the Chinese gymnasts was the gold medalist. America could have tried to protest this decision, but instead, we held our heads high and were proud that we were on the medal stand. There were many times when the commentators agreed that there were gymnasts from not just America but other countries that had better routines than the Chinese gymnasts that won - but nobody protested these decisions formally. The USA actually won very few gold medals in comparison to the Chinese, so those of you who are upset about whether or not the judging was unfair must be referencing another competitor who won numerous gold medals, which makes me think you're talking about Michael Phelps. Michael is probably going to be undergoing a lot of scrutiny brought forth by not only doubting, pessimistic Americans but jealous other countries who don't believe that one man could have possibly broken the old gold medal count record. He will probably have to take numerous drug tests and undergo the same sort of unwrapping that the Chinese gymnasts are about to go through. I sincerely believe he understands that this scrutiny is part of the process and is as ready for it as anyone can be - as I hope the Chinese gymnasts are.
Third and finally, America is not the only nation disputing the ages of the Chinese gymnasts. We look like the "bad guys" because the only media that we as Americans see is our own (and occasionally that of another country from a world-wide media page like MSN or Yahoo!). The USA is not the only country who wants an investigation into the ages of several of the Chinese female gymnasts. Just keep in mind that when you live in a country, you are more likely to see only what that country reports.
Keep these things in mind next time you believe that China is somehow being wronged.

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