Watching the Olympics on TV, which my fair-minded husband insists on doing, is like eating Chinese food. It tastes great but is loaded with bad things. Cornstarch seems to be the leading ingredient in most of the sauces, and in my favorite hot and sour soup. The next day the refrigerated leftovers are like prehistoric fossils preserved in amber. There's also enough salt and MSG to trigger a heart attack or at least a high-blood pressure event.
But it all tastes so good! It's fun to get Chinese take-out! (Unless it's like that restaurant on Long Island when I was growing up that turned out to be using cats in a few of their most popular dishes.) The current winter Olympics in Beijing are like that. Such fun! But if you dig a little deeper than what's shown on TV, you'll learn about the dark underbelly of the government-controlled games.
Most heinous is the treatment of those athletes who get a positive result on one of their twice-daily Covid tests. They are immediately whisked away to an "isolation center" akin to a Motel 6. The athletes are literally locked inside tiny rooms not even big enough for them to do any exercising, which is key to staying strong. They are served the same three crummy meals a day, every day, sometimes for weeks. They become physically ill and emotionally depleted at a time when they need to be in peak condition if they are freed in time to participate in their event.
This is how the heartless leaders of China, and by their silence the members of the International Olympic Committee, are treating the world's best athletes. You'd think at the very least they could send in some moo shu pork with a few pancakes and some wonton soup.
No comments:
Post a Comment