The Isolympics

From Huffington Post:

"Protest Zones" Will Be Set Up For Beijing Olympics

CHARLES HUTZLER | July 23, 2008

BEIJING — Beijing will set up specially designated zones for protesters during next month's Olympics, a security official said Wednesday, in a sign China's authoritarian government may allow some demonstrations during the games.

Worries about terrorist attacks, both from international groups and Muslim separatists from western China, and about protests of any kind have prompted one of China's broadest security clampdowns in years. The overall effect is that while Beijing looks cheerful, with colorful Olympic banners and new signs, the city feels tense.

Vehicle checkpoints ring Beijing. Visa rules have been tightened to keep out foreign activists. Police have swept Beijing neighborhoods to remove Chinese who have come to the capital to complain about local government misdeeds, and known political critics and underground Christians have been told to leave.

But Liu Shaowu, director for security for the Beijing Olympic organizing committee, said Wednesday that areas in at least three public parks near outlying sporting venues have been set aside for use by demonstrators.

The remarks were the first public confirmation that Beijing may tolerate a modest amount of protest at an Olympics that the government hoped would be flawless, boosting its popularity at home and China's image abroad.

"This will allow people to protest without disrupting the Olympics," said Ni Jianping, director of the Shanghai Institute of American Studies, who lobbied Chinese leaders to set up the protest zones.

It was not clear how easy access would be to enter the zones. Liu and Beijing police would not say if special permission would be needed. A human rights campaigner criticized the move as cosmetic, and Beijing has already refused visa requests for known foreign activists.

A Beijinger whose restaurant was demolished in the city's Olympic makeover and who was jailed for trying to organize a protest, Ye Guozhu, was taken from the Chaobai Prison on Tuesday to an unknown location, four days before he was due to be released, the monitoring group Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Wednesday. Police in Ye's old neighborhood said they were not aware of the case.

…

Well, while I am a big fan of “Synchronized Shaming” -- and will sit through some Cossaquestrian and “Fencing In” if they’re lively -- I’ve always thought the “Discuss” and “Stay Put” lacked any credibility as competitive sport.

Because if I understand this correctly, and “protest” is now something that

• Will take always place far from the center of the action.
• At a designated venue.
• And will only to be seen by a handful of hardcore enthusiasts.

then civil disobedience has finally and officially become an Olympic Demonstration Event; camera-friendly and ready to be commoditized, packaged and sold with banners and team colors and souvenir plastic tasers for the kids.

And that somewhere beyond "This Vale of Tears, Inc.", Paddy Chayefsky is laughing his ass off.