China's Reward?

It never ceases to amaze me how people are undeservedly rewarded for the damage they cause to civilization.  Why is Donald Trump still considered a leading contender for the Presidency in 2024 after having staged a near-coup back in January?  How did Rush Limbaugh get away with being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom after using his power and influence to smother voices opposed to his political views?  How come Madonna got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after destroying the form by pushing her lightweight, oversexualized brand of pop and also promoting hip-hop?  And why, despite having started a pandemic that ruined everyone's lives- possibly for good - does the People's Republic of China still get to host the Winter Olympics? 

Chinese President Xi Jinping (above) has successfully gotten his country to evade blame for giving the world COVID, even though it originated in Wuhan due to either unsanitary conditions in a wet market or a botched experiment in a virology lab, and the Chinese government punished doctors who poke out about it even as they were letting the Chinese people get infected and allowing them to spread it to other parts of the world and create a pandemic - the word coming from the Greek words meaning "all people," because that's exactly who can get COVID now.   And thanks to Omicron, that may very well be who gets it.  And yet there Xi will be in February, presiding over the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a city that should never have gotten the Winter Games in the first place owing to the fact that it hosted the Summer Games as recently as 2008 and to its humungous size despite Winter Olympic locales usually being small towns in remote, snowy areas (northeastern China is neither).  Beijing only got the Winter Olympics because the International Olympic Committee was clearly afraid to cross China and the committee members really, really, really wanted to avoid giving the Winter Games to the only other bidder for 2022, Almaty.

Well, guess what!  Numerous countries, led by the United States, are not sending diplomats or government representatives to the Winter Olympics - not to protest the failure of China to contain COVID  but to protest China's treatment of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.  (Which is near the part of Kazakhstan where Almaty is.)   Take COVID out of the picture, b the way, and that would have been more than enough reason to instigate a diplomatic boycott.  Xi has vowed to revenge, but what more can he do after running up big trade deficits with everyone else and getting 273 million people and counting sick with SARS-on-steroids?  Oh, right, invade Taiwan. Well, if Xi does start a war, it's likely to be for something other than sour grapes over the empty seats for the diplomatic corps in the stands at the Winter Olympic opening ceremonies. Maybe he should pay attention to the empty seats in the stands for people who would have bought tickets to see the Winter Games in person - had it not been for COVID.

"Steve," you say, aren't you concerned that the Chinese government will ban your blog in China after what you've just said?"  Hah!  You think I care?  Facebook already bans it, so why should I mind if Xi does?

And yes, I still think it. 😉