Perspectives from abroad

I had no intention of being anywhere near the olympic venues during the games themselves but fate would have it that I recently lost my grandmother and it necessitated a trip to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is also serving as the co-host site city for the equestrian events. Everywhere I go there are signs of Olympic preparedness. I can only hope that Canadians are half as well prepped before the Vancouver games.

The major difference I notice about the games is the news coverage. Here in HK, so far I have seen extended coverage on badminton and table tennis, sports that are seldom covered by Canadian outlets. Whatever the country excels in is what we cover. Here there is little talk of rowing, track, or kayak, sports which CBC covers relentlessly.

The thing that stunned me the most was when I logged onto the CBC news website. I was watching coverage of the olympic torch relay earlier today on local news. I saw the torch go from person to person with such great fanfare. It wasn't I read CBC that I even knew there were protests along the relay path. CBC sported photo of a gigantic "One world, one dream, free Tibet" sign. I doubt most people in HK or China have any idea that such a protest took place (except for the people actually present of course).

Kudos to the propaganda machine.