Beijing blog
Day two- The Face of the Games
Its day two already here in Beijing and, like a Chinese high-rise construction, the pace of life is beginning to move fast. We’ve just had the exciting news that we may get access to the Bird’s Nest stadium to see CBM ambassador Henry Wanyoike run the 5,000m race. Henry’s someone who knows a little bit about pace and development, being one of the fastest long-distance men on the planet and the holder of the world record for blind marathon runners. In 1995, he was affected by a stroke which meant that he suddenly lost almost 100 per cent of his sight overnight. Determined not to surrender his dream, he is now pledged to the twin causes of running and helping others like him who have lost their sight to become self-sufficient. Henry runs with a track guide (when the guide can keep up). I can’t wait to find out how he will do.
Another blind Paralympian, the German biathlete Verena Bentele, has agreed to spend two hours at our stand signing autographs and meeting members of the public. Although Verena isn’t competing in the Beijing Games, as a cross country skier who won four Gold medals in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics alone, she makes a great ambassador for sport and for CBM. It’s worth mentioning that without funding, none of the athletes who take part in the Games would be able to scale the heights that they have. CBM, for its part, is pledged to use the funds which people donate to our charity to help more Persons with Disabilities in low and middle income countries to reach their full potential. I can’t think of two better shining examples than Verena and Henry.
Money and ‘face’, or appearance, are two closely connected, though little discussed, subjects in China. I risked losing face and brought the subject up with a Chinese colleague. Just how are the Chinese Games paid for, I ask? Through a combination of advertising, sponsorship deals, and ticket sales, he notes. An important difference with the Beijing Games is that Beijingers share the cost of the Games with their 1.3 billion fellow Chinese citizens. Apparently the Chinese stadia have cost two-thirds of the estimated cost of the London facilities, though both were built from scratch. This is due to lower labour costs, my colleague says politely, saving I suspect some face by not enquiring further. I wonder how Londoners would feel about that, though of course the taxpayer for London 2012 will be helped out by a heavy injection of Lottery funding.
Day two- The Face of the Games
Its day two already here in Beijing and, like a Chinese high-rise construction, the pace of life is beginning to move fast. We’ve just had the exciting news that we may get access to the Bird’s Nest stadium to see CBM ambassador Henry Wanyoike run the 5,000m race. Henry’s someone who knows a little bit about pace and development, being one of the fastest long-distance men on the planet and the holder of the world record for blind marathon runners. In 1995, he was affected by a stroke which meant that he suddenly lost almost 100 per cent of his sight overnight. Determined not to surrender his dream, he is now pledged to the twin causes of running and helping others like him who have lost their sight to become self-sufficient. Henry runs with a track guide (when the guide can keep up). I can’t wait to find out how he will do.
Another blind Paralympian, the German biathlete Verena Bentele, has agreed to spend two hours at our stand signing autographs and meeting members of the public. Although Verena isn’t competing in the Beijing Games, as a cross country skier who won four Gold medals in the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics alone, she makes a great ambassador for sport and for CBM. It’s worth mentioning that without funding, none of the athletes who take part in the Games would be able to scale the heights that they have. CBM, for its part, is pledged to use the funds which people donate to our charity to help more Persons with Disabilities in low and middle income countries to reach their full potential. I can’t think of two better shining examples than Verena and Henry.
Money and ‘face’, or appearance, are two closely connected, though little discussed, subjects in China. I risked losing face and brought the subject up with a Chinese colleague. Just how are the Chinese Games paid for, I ask? Through a combination of advertising, sponsorship deals, and ticket sales, he notes. An important difference with the Beijing Games is that Beijingers share the cost of the Games with their 1.3 billion fellow Chinese citizens. Apparently the Chinese stadia have cost two-thirds of the estimated cost of the London facilities, though both were built from scratch. This is due to lower labour costs, my colleague says politely, saving I suspect some face by not enquiring further. I wonder how Londoners would feel about that, though of course the taxpayer for London 2012 will be helped out by a heavy injection of Lottery funding.
I wonder also how these differences will affect people visiting the Games in China. Have members of the public, and in particular Persons with Disabilities, been in a position financially to come and see the Games? For many, I imagine this will mean not just the price of the ticket but an airfare and the cost of a hotel. Is there a special quota of seats reserved for Persons with Disabilities? These and other questions go round my head, though I don’t know if I am brave enough to put them to a Chinese official. While we are on the subject of reputation and revenue, what about advertising? I know that Cantopop and Hong Kong film star Andy Lau has been chosen as the goodwill ambassador of the Paralympics, but is this how the modern face of disability in China looks? Perhaps not, colleagues from CBM’s China office would probably concur.
Much has been made of the fact that while Beijing hosts the Paralympics, there are families in rural China struggling to afford to feed their children or equip them for an education. It is no wonder that some of the more Westernised artistic elite in China harboured the clandestine feeling that the Games were a kind of white elephant, an exercise in ‘face’ on a grand scale. That said, China’s Games are famously on budget, delivering new stadia, a new airport and even a new sewage system, all of which have given a new face to the capital. Yes, there has been extravagance: Jade inlaid into the medals of both Olympic and Paralympic Games; but there has also been the unity of purpose expressed in the motto “Two games, one spirit.” And this has meant great gestures of openness towards parity for Persons with Disabilities, such as the unprecedented opening of an accessible tourist path through the Forbidden City, that cannot but be applauded.
My colleague tells me that China’s appearance is like a face, that is has to be bright and shiny. Foreigners, he tells me, are often deceived by that appearance and fail to look beneath it, among the back alleys, at the real China. Now that the Paralympics are here, seeing disability in action will be seeing one facet of the real China, or at least of the estimated 83 million Chinese Persons with Disabilities. I wonder what face will be revealed.
Much has been made of the fact that while Beijing hosts the Paralympics, there are families in rural China struggling to afford to feed their children or equip them for an education. It is no wonder that some of the more Westernised artistic elite in China harboured the clandestine feeling that the Games were a kind of white elephant, an exercise in ‘face’ on a grand scale. That said, China’s Games are famously on budget, delivering new stadia, a new airport and even a new sewage system, all of which have given a new face to the capital. Yes, there has been extravagance: Jade inlaid into the medals of both Olympic and Paralympic Games; but there has also been the unity of purpose expressed in the motto “Two games, one spirit.” And this has meant great gestures of openness towards parity for Persons with Disabilities, such as the unprecedented opening of an accessible tourist path through the Forbidden City, that cannot but be applauded.
My colleague tells me that China’s appearance is like a face, that is has to be bright and shiny. Foreigners, he tells me, are often deceived by that appearance and fail to look beneath it, among the back alleys, at the real China. Now that the Paralympics are here, seeing disability in action will be seeing one facet of the real China, or at least of the estimated 83 million Chinese Persons with Disabilities. I wonder what face will be revealed.
