red, white and politics.

An interesting conversation happened at work. We were told there was some "training" going on, but that it would be in Chinese. (A lot of times, we are just forced to sit and listen to sessions in Chinese, it is not ideal at all.) However, two of the workers are assigned to be our "translators" during this meeting... a situation that would not work so well since these "translators" only know basic English and are still learning. As the conversation began, we soon figured out that this was a training about Olympic 51, or the article in Olympic regulation stating that no political activism of any kind can be brought about at the games. This means no shirts, banners, chants or cheers that might cause a political rift at the Games. Ideally, the Olympics should be able to be held in any participating country, and Olympic 51 keeps the politics out, sort of like playground rules for countries... no big kids picking on the little kids, or you'll get a time-out.

And although China is concerned with upholding Olympic 51 for all practical reasons, they are very concerned about the situation in Tibet. Our boss said to us that she knows there are some negative perceptions about China, and we want to do our best to keep these perceptions separated from the Games. I couldn't agree more. The Olympics is a place for countries to gather for sport, not for protest. It might be the only time that everyone is gathered up in the same place and they aren't talking about war, trade and economy. It's like a Safe Zone for the world.

As this meeting continued, students were sharing their ideas about "the politics." We were asked, as Americans, what we thought about "the politics." Our responses were, "Well, what part of politics, what do you mean?" We weren't even able to answer the question because for whatever reason, the idea of politics couldn't translate. The the Chinese, politics is about decorum, perhaps more of what we would call "politically correct/incorrect." For them it has nothing to do with elections, offices, political parties, laws or any part of a hierarchy of power. This is why we couldn't understand their question. For us, concepts of "politics" are so broad, for them it is a very easy answer. Not to mention, we also had a language barrier complicating things. I guess it is a little hard to explain, but it was a little hard to understand what was going on.

After work, despite how worn out we were from doing so little, we tapped into some energy reserves and found it in us to head all the way to Sanlitun for burritos. It just had to be done. A burrito and a quesadilla later and we were watching the Spain vs. China Men's Basketball game, making friends with some Americans at the restaurant. As it turns out, our friends work for the State Department at the US Embassy... real good people to know if you're in China. It was great, as always, to chat with other Americans about why they're here right now and what role they have with the Olympics.

All these political moments in one short day. Makes me thankful there are nice American Embassy guys looking out for us over here. Makes me glad I can vote, speak my mind, wear whatever T-Shirts with whatever political messages I want, chant USA when I want, say good things about the president, say bad things about the president and anything else that moves my political heart.