Berlin 1936 and Beijing 2008: A Happy Face on the Master Race
Posted 12 weeks 5 days ago byWith the 2008 Olympic Games just a few months away, I can’t help but find some startling similarities between the events surrounding the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the upcoming Beijing Olympic games.
The 1936 Olympics was meant to be a coming-out party for Germany.
Germany had rebuilt since the disastrous First World War and Adolph Hitler had declared that the games would not only be a showcase for the new Germany, but for the superiority of the Aryans.
In preparations for the Olympics, Adolph Hilter oversaw a massive public relations campaign:
* Anti-Jewish signs were torn down
* Newspapers were ordered to tone down their attacks on all minorities, including Jews, Blacks and Gypsies.
* Berlin’s Gypsy population was rounded up and interred in a detention camp on the outskirts of the city.
* Berlin’s citizens were commanded to tone down their personal attacks on minorities or anyone who looked like a minority.
There was serious discussion, across the world, about boycotting the Olympics. With the atrocities of the first World War, both France and England were hesitant to go to Berlin.
In the United States where there was strong opposition to the games, Avery Brundage of the Olympic Committee was sent to check things out. Brundage came back with a report that news of Nazi oppression was overstated and that America’s athletes, including Jews and Blacks, would be warmly welcomed.
So, the games went on. No country boycotted. The Germans won more medals than any other nation.
Mission accomplished.
Three years later, they were marching on Poland.
Fast forward to 2008.
Preparations are well under way for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the Chinese propaganda machine is going full tilt.
Like 1936 Germany, China is using the Olympic stage as a coming out party. These games are designed to showcase China as a major and modern superpower.
Like 1936 Germany, China has had some issues with their minority groups. Like the Nazis, China’s leaders are trying awfully hard to whitewash those issues in preparations for the Games.
* China has already displaced 1.5 million people as they have built facilities for the Olympic Games. Most were given little advanced notice and were sent away from family and friends to housing that was not on a par with what they had previously enjoyed.
* China has spent $40 billion on construction, while a large percentage of the population remains in abject poverty.
* Citizens are being re-educated to put a better face on the country. Public spitting and shoving, all common in China, have now been criminalized.
* To show that even the weather is perfect in China, the country has developed a massive “weather modification” program for the Olympic fortnight. Utilizing both aircraft and twenty artillery and rocket-launch sites around Beijing, the Chinese will shoot and spray silver iodide and dry ice into incoming clouds, thus keeping the skies rain free.
* Protesters in China have been silenced and incarcerated.
- Falun Gong members, whose faith has been banned in China, have been subject to torture and imprisonment.
- Pro-Tibet activists have been similarly jailed, beaten and tortured.
- Any mention of China’s role in the tragedy of Darfur is banned.
China seems to believe its own propaganda. They seem truly shocked that the procession of the Olympic Torch around the world has been met with protests and violence. Virtually every country where the Olympic Torch has traveled to has seen major protests over China’s civil rights violations.
Here’s the Chinese Foreign Ministry reaction:
“We express our strong condemnation to the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by ‘Tibetan independence’ separatist forces regardless of the Olympic spirit and the law of Britain and France. Their despicable activities tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit and challenge all the people loving the Olympic Games around the world.”
It’s not like the protests will change how they do business in China.
The games will go on. No country will boycott. China will win the most medals.
Mission accomplished.
Thoughts
no doubt about it
Submitted on April 25th, 2008 by John 2000Great post.
The Chinese will prove to be more patient and subtle in their expansion than the Germans were. These are historical characteristics. The Nazis due to personal identification with Hitler were pressed by the mortal nature of der Fuhror whereas China is totally based on a system. So, I expect no blitzkrieg three years down the road.
But certainly, China is an emerging empire.
As China ramps up its military prowess in space and on the seas, there will be alarm bells sounding, but no one will really be positioned to do anything about it but complain.
Their immediate goal is practically securing Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. Myanmar will provide porting for shipping and state-of-the-art Naval forces, giving them tactical domination of Bay of Bengal/Indian Ocean. This is all but a done deal. Who is in a real position to actually challenge China?
It is an interesting side-note that India is building a new port in Myanmar where the terms for the agreement were recently changed from ‘build, operate, transfer’ to ‘build, transfer, use’.
'Coincidently', Nepal recently became a Maoist dominated country, Bhutan became a 'democracy', and Tibet ... well you surely already know.
But what are we going to do? China services our debt and we build their military etc. It is comforting to acknowledge that the UN and Jimmy Carter are involved to varying degrees.
Sleep well, my friend!