Trevor Stow

Jason Lezak is My New Hero

Trevor Stow — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 12:23:00 -0400

More from the Beijing Olympics.

If you saw the finals of the Men’s 4×100 freestyle relay (swimming) this morning, then you witnessed something historic. Jason Lezak anchored the United States team; catching French swimmer Alain Bernard, world recorder holder in the 100 meters, erasing a half-a-body-length lead to touch in eight-hundredths of a second before the Frenchman, winning gold for the United States. In my friend’s living room, here in Beijing, I was leaping about the place, shouting at the walls and frightening the neighbors. It’s the most pumped up I’ve felt in years.

Jason swam his 100 meters in 46.06 seconds, which according some sources is over a half-second faster than any other human has ever done, and this is for 100 meters, a sprint. It’s the sort of achievement I believe is borne from a moment. With his country on his mind, he did something completely unreasonable, swimming considerably faster than anyone before. Jason is 32 years old.

“Country” is the largest group most of us will ever feel part of. “I’m a citizen of the world,” you might say, but you still grew up in a place that profoundly shaped how you live and think. Country is culture; if you don’t think you have a culture, then you’ve probably never spent much time outside your own country.

When I watched the U.S. vs. China basketball game last night, I wondered what was going through the minds of our NBA players. Playing in a stadium mostly filled with non-Americans, were they realizing something different from their normal game state of mind? Did they feel what I felt? That they were representing me and 280 million other Americans?

Our world is in a state of transition. There are lots of vibrant, optimistic countries in the world. China is certainly one of them The single-super-power era has been a short one, and I think that’s good. Consider the benefits of competition between athletes, political parties, companies, and how much we’ve all gained from other cultures; things like burritos, democracy, and yoga. But the lines between countries are much less thick than before. In my profession – technology – our geographic location is often irrelevant as large swaths of the world come online and grow prosperous. I hope for a day where country is a choice, where we all would choose our country were we given such a choice.

Go U.S.A.

From the Beijing Olympics, Day 1

Trevor Stow — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 05:58:00 -0400

I watched three hours of Badminton this afternoon, bringing my lifetime badminton-watching-time-total up to 4 hours. It was great, adrenaline inciting sport. The crowd was enthusiastic, especially for the match between an Kaveh Mehrabi, from Iran, and Yu-shieng Hsieh, from Taiwan. I lived in Taiwan for three years, but here it’s called “Chinese Taipei” for political reasons. And for those reasons I wondered how the Chinese crowd would react; they were waaaaay behind Yu-shieng; the whole stadium was chanting “ja yo!”, which means “add oil” and is how the Chinese encourage you to try do your best.

And while some may call Iran evil, in the Olympics Kaveh Mehrabi is just a guy who’s very, very good at badminton. I’m personally a believer in keeping politics out of the Olympics. Completely. This, once-every-four-years moment is our planet’s chance to relax, encourage each other, and celebrate human achievement. It’s the only moment I know where the whole world comes together in peace.

Here’s Kaveh’s Wikipedia”>Wikipedia Article. Yes, I can access wikipedia in China.

Air Quality in Beijing

Conditions are fine. I’ve just come from the North Shore of Lake Superior where the air is as clean as air gets. I’m breathing just as easily now as I was two days ago. Sure, I’m not running a marathon, but then, marathoners compete in New York City every year – right past my apartment – and they don’t complains about that. So are media reports of Beijing’s smog proof of an anti-Chinese bias in the media? I’ll say it’s just the news media trying to stoke outrage. Outrage, if you haven’t noticed, makes you tune in. Did your Governor use a call-girl service? Outraged at the hypocrisy? Feel like buying a newspaper? That bias towards making me angry is why I find myself less interested in news. In fact, a long time ago, I considered a career in journalism, but after watching a working journalist develop a story, I changed my mind.

But getting back to air quality. In the summer months a haze descends on Beijing; on camera it would be easy to paint this as pollution, but I think it’s just a byproduct of geography.

Ticket Scalping

At badminton, the seats were, at best, 75% occupied. And on TV right now, I’m watching the preliminary heats of swimming; the stadium looks 70% empty. Meanwhile, scalpers are selling those tickets for hundreds of dollars (US). Something is not right. VERY not right. Everyone you talk to here wants to get in, can’t get in, can’t afford the prices people are asking (are they getting them?). This is the first Olympics to completely “sell out”. I’m not fond of using quotes to convey skepticism, but they are called for. Hopefully someone with some authority will do something to alleviate this. The no-ticket situation is a big frustration for many people.

But otherwise, the city’s in a celebratory mood; I was here last spring (when I first got the notion of coming to the Olympics) and the difference is palpable. It’s put me in a good mood.

Finally, My Olympics Complaints Boileth Over

Trevor Stow — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:06:00 -0400

I just heard from my friend in Beijing that the Equestrian events at the Olympics are going to take place in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong?

If you’re not familiar with Chinese geography, Beijing and Hong Kong are like New York and New Orleans, Berlin and Marseille, Bombay and Trivandrum, cities separated from each other by a two or three hour plane flight. This was mentioned nowhere in the cosport.com site when I entered the ticket lottery, and as I chose Equestrian over some other event taking place at the same time (and happening in Beijing) I’m now left a worthless ticket.

Ah, the adventure of it.

This latest “development” comes on top of the elevated visa fee I was charged ($130), extra documents requirements to get the visa (my friend had to fax a formal invitation to me saying that I would be staying at his place, where he lived, how long I would be staying, and what our relationship is). Tomorrow, I’m arriving at the airport three hours before my flight as I’ve been advised that security will be extra-thorough.

And lastly, the government didn’t want any airplanes landing during the opening ceremony, so my flight from Tokyo is delayed for 4 hours so that I’ll get in at 1:30 am rather than 9:30 pm.

Thus far, I’ve tried to avoid complaining; I’m still happy to be going, but I hope (publicly) that this is the last disappointment. The games haven’t even begun and I got the feeling that my presence there is viewed as an inconvenience or even a threat.

Update Just arrived in Tokyo, hunkering down for a a five-hour layover, and it occurrs to me that U.S. President Bush is, at this very instant, doing something interesting in Beijing. I’m imagining what it could be – eating some noodles? shaking hands? I’m guessing he doesn’t try to use any Chinese – “Ni Hau” or something similarly beginner. He strikes me as a guy who’d have no interest in that sort of theater (I say something in your language and you compliment me on my effort and I reply with self-deprecation). And what’s more, he’d probably get the Chinese horribly wrong; would his hosts even recognize it as their language? A President has to maintain the dignity of his nation.

But that’s not what occurred to me that I wanted to write here (can you tell I’m sorta outta sorts after twelve hours in an airplane? Kung Fu Panda was one of the our movies – it was nice and gentle, a little funny, touching, good for the kids) ... Of COURSE THEY’RE NOT LETTING PLANES LAND, there’s gonna be several heads of state at the opening ceremony. I imagine the airports usually shut down when the President’s – THE President – is in town.

I remember being taught as a boy in school that you never capitalize president except for when it’s the “of America” sort (and by America no, I don’t mean you too Canada). So it’s President Bush but not president Sarkozy or president … trying to think of another world leader who’s definitely a president and not a prime minister or premier or monarch … Google’s in Japanese already.

President Bamir Topi of Albania! Can’t forget ole Bamir.

I used to want to go to Albania, back in the late 80’s, just as the Eastern Block countries were dropping communism, Albania had been communist in the extreme, completely shutting themselves off from the outside world, eschewed all international trade in a quest for 100% self-sufficiency, kept their people leaving in Middle Ages poverty for a half-dozen glorious decades. I heard stories of oxe-driven carts and canons pointed at the water (to keep Albanians from swimming to Yugoslavia. My morbid curiousity made me want to watch.

By the way, I’m skeptical of that “only capitalize our President” rule. The wikipedia article I’m reading has capitalized every one of ‘em. Could this be, like the Four Food Groups, yet another somewhat nefarious relic of grade school, an unattractive artifact of our Americanism?