Real Talk!

Chee Ying “Jimmy” Lai founder and chairman of Hong Kong’s Next Media, Ltd has recently said "Newspapers are sentimental and emotional products. It’s not the news, it is the emotion behind the story that counts. Media is about life. Life is about drama. Drama is about pain, fear, happiness – all of that. The media has to reflect that. People need media not because they need news, but because they need shared sentiment.”

I have heard many people complain about the fact that China has spent so much money in preparation for the Olympics- money that could have been spent improving living conditions for the Chinese people.

Chinese authorities are desperate to shift attention away from human rights and on to sporting matters. They say that human rights have improved, citing fewer death sentences, an increased number of religious worshippers and lifted travel restrictions for foreign journalists.

Amnesty International estimates that China executes 22 people per day. They claim that the Chinese government will execute 374 people during the 2008 Summer Olympics. Since 1996, they have carried out by executions by lethal injection- although a bullet to the back of the head or to the heart is still the most common method. Often, the family must pay for the bullet.

China's organ transplantation program began during the 1960s. In recent years, it has become increasingly evident that executed prisoners are the principal source of supply of body organs for medical transplantation purposes in China.

The extensive use of the death penalty and the country's burgeoning organ trade and transplant program is only one of the socio-political issues in China that has attracted mounting international attention and alarm.

& who will ever forget the 1989 massacre at Tianamen Square?

Such a startling contrast....

The opening ceremony for the 2008 summer Olympics was an extraordinary display of the some of the most powerful, captivating, dynamic, rich aspects of the Chinese culture. They are capable of such beauty.