Be Excellent To Each Other

FEARS of a "no fun Olympics" are growing as security restrictions increase and become more bizarre with less than 20 days to go until the opening ceremony.

Beijing police have been visiting bar owners in the popular Sanlitun area and asking them to sign pledges agreeing to not serve black people or Mongolians and ban activities including dancing.

Bar owners said that police have been clamping down on black people and Mongolians, who are sometimes implicated in drug dealing and prostitution, as part of an Olympic clean-up campaign that they and locals fear will make for a secure but sterile Games.

Maggies, Beijing's most notorious expatriate bar, referred to as the "Mongolian embassy" because of its popularity with Mongolian prostitutes and Western men, was shut suddenly about two months ago after a reported murder.

The gay bar Destination has also been ordered to shut down its dance bar until further notice.

And in a separate move, the Ministry of Public Security announced at the start of the month that from October 1, discos, karaoke bars and other entertainment venues must install transparent partitions in previously private rooms, and ensure staff dress more modestly as part of an effort to crack down on prostitution and drugs.

The Minister of Culture announced on Thursday that all overseas entertainers who have ever attended activities that "threaten national sovereignty" will be banned. This follows an outburst by Icelandic singer Bjork at a Shanghai concert on March 2, which sparked an official investigation.

Bjork shouted out, "Tibet, Tibet," after performing her song Declare Independence.

A notice on the Ministry's website on Thursday said that entertainers who "threaten national unity", "whip up ethnic hatred", "violate religious policy or cultural norms" or "advocate obscenity or feudalism and superstition" will be banned. "Feudalism and superstition" are often code words used by the Chinese Government to refer to Tibetans loyal to the Dalai Lama. The move follows the detention of several prominent Tibetan singers.

Beijing CBD businesses are reporting increasingly bizarre restrictions on couriers. This includes a ban on transporting CD-ROMs through the city, and mobile phones or GPS devices can only be sent if their batteries are delivered separately. This is on top of postal restrictions on sending liquids and powders.

At least six big bars and restaurants inside the Beijing Workers' Stadium compound - where Olympic soccer matches will be held - have been ordered to shut ahead of the Olympics and during Games time.

Hundreds of armed checkpoints on the main roads coming into Beijing were introduced two weeks ago, and non-Beijing-registered vehicles have been banned until after the Olympics, a move that is causing massive delays and extra costs for businesses.

All this and a city so polluted that people wear face masks to walk to the shops for groceries? Why on earth did the IOC ever choose Beijing as an olympic site?

Yeah, I regularly don't let the English into my home, what with being at war hundreds of years ago with them and all.

And then never be seen again.

It's hard enough to be bitingly sarcastic as it is without people doing the things you're insinuating as ridiculous.

For the next two months, owners of 3.3 million private cars can drive only on alternate days in China's capital, based on whether the last digit of their license plates is even or odd

Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities are working hard to control the pollution levels in the city before the event:

They've done that in Athens for about the last 20 years I believe.

I was in Beijing 2 years ago and *COUGH COUGH SPLUTTER HACK PE-TOOEY*

Say what you like about the English, but the fact that our innate response to a group of people trying to get to the same place at once is to knife someone / be crushed underfoot in stampede is just typical of the modern world

"Queuing Day".

Say what you like about the English, but the fact that our innate response to a group of people trying to get to the same place at once is to form a queue makes us the wonder of the modern world.

One of the great myths that, though, isn't it? Witness bus stops, behaviour getting out of Latitude festival yesterday and so on.

And the Aussies suggest our whinging, which I like less but have to concede.

I heard/read that some athletes may make a 'T' for Tibet gesture (just like the 'time-out' signal) in protest.

One of the great myths that, though, isn't it? Witness bus stops, behaviour getting out of Latitude festival yesterday and so on.

Bill Bryson suggested our ability to stand around and make each other laugh, even where all caught by a delay, which I like. And the Aussies suggest our whinging, which I like less but have to concede.

Woe betide anyone who foolishly tries to post something at the Post Office...

The BBC's opening titles for their coverage.

Malc