See You In London In 2012!

Beijing Olympic 2008 was brought to a close on August 24 at 8:00 pm in a glamorous hand-over ceremony, taking one more time the whole world to another round of delights!

I was with my family at Kingwood Hotel last night partaking in Mooncake Festival Dinner of Gao Yang Xu Association, Sibu. The organiser was thoughtful enough to present the entire live closing ceremony of Beijing Olympic 2008 as an added programme so that no member would feel a sense of loss for missing the grand show.

Whilst surfing, I hopped on this wonderful blog with an impressive coverage on Olympic Games. I strongly recommend you to log in for a browse.

Have a good day!

The pictures show the fireworks at the closing ceremony.

www.olympic-spirit.blogspot.com

Beijing Olympic 2008 - Our Only Hopeful

Shuttler Lee Chong Wei has emerged to be the only hopeful to get Malaysia onto Beijing Olympics scoreboard.

After a 12-year drought, Malaysia dreams to break it and Lee has radiated an optimistic ray to bring back an Olympics medal.

In the international arena, sports is keenly contested. It really calls for deep commitment to bring out talents to make Malaysia stand tall.

Perhaps we should discard the out-dated narrow-mindedness and adopt a broader perspective. We really can afford no more in this globalisation era to continue to be bogged down by issues on race and religion.

Let's give Chong Wei our best wishes!

Beijing Olympic 2008 - Malaysia Boleh!

We were in Meng Lei's office chatting over some aromatic Chinese tea when Beijing Games erupted into a hot topic. Gee, our weekly tea session was turned into an Olympic forum!

This was not at all surprising as the whole world now is thrilled by this superlative sports meet. If you have not yet partied along, then it is still not too late to tune in to CCTV channels 1, 2 & 7 to join in the excitement.

Then amidst talks and laughs, someone blurted out, "How likely it is for Malaysia to get onto the Olympic scoreboard?" This was an outright concern of a humble Malaysian who has our team in Beijing close to his heart.

Slim, someone murmured. "The only event to bank our hope on is badminton," another chipped in.

The inspirational slogan "Malaysia Boleh!" echoes loud and clear in my ears. But, looking at our dismal sports performance, we all can't help taking a relook at the chanting of it.

The essence of "Malaysia Boleh!" is certainly not intended for just showmanship. The core of the slogan is to inspire Malaysians to work towards achieving greater success in all fields, including sports.

But don't just stop there! We have to translate the spirit of it into concrete actions to put Malaysia on a firmer foothold!

Otherwise the slogan would be relegated to just say-say only!

Malaysia boleh!

Yahoo news: Yang Wei wins gold on night of 1000 errors!

Beijing Olympic 2008 - United States Versus China

China and U.S. had a close encounter at the Beijing Games on August 13 over women's gymnastics.

With the two best gymnasts in the world and the Olympic gold medal within their grasp, the Americans bumbled and fumbled it away. In this American-dominated event, China beat Americans.

The Chinese flew as high as acrobats and lit up the arena with smiles as bright as their new medals. Too bad, the Americans just flopped!

Beijing Games is the latest platform that the two superpowers arm-wrestle with each other.

Over the years with the rise of China, the Americans have been exerting diplomatic pressure on China over trades and politics. One of the contentious issues was on the China's policy on Yuan Reminbi).

Until July 20, 2006, China pegged Yuan to the dollar for straight eight years at 8.27 Yuan to 1 dollar.

When the America's deficit on the balance of payments worsened, the business sectors in U.S. lobbied hard to put through bills to exert tough measures on trades with China. Particularly highlighted was China's dollar-pegging policy which was viewed by Americans to be a wilful manipulation of Yuan's exchange rate for the absolute advantage of the Chinese exports. Responding to Americans, China quashed the allegations, calling them entirely baseless.

In a somewhat diplomatic compromise, President Bush eventually cleared China of currency manipulator allegations, saying there was no clear evidence. China then made it clear that it had its own agenda on revising the existing exchange policy. In a dramatic move on July 20, 2006, in the absence of a notice in advance, China dropped the dollar-pegging policy and replaced it with a managed-float exchange policy.

China has big muscles to flex now!

Alicia Sacramone of the U.S. competes on balance beam during the final of the women's artistic gymnastics event held at the National Indoor stadium on August 13, 2008. China won the gold, while United States won the silver and Romania the beonze.

Beijing Olympic 2008 - Emerging Asia And China

Beijing Olympic 2008 is now into its 5th day. I missed the first part of the world's hyperclass games meet due to my satellite receiver having gone a bit off-track in tuning. After the technician adjusted it back, CCTV channels 1, 2 & 7 were crystal clear on the screen in front of me.

When President Bush took office in 2001, he vowed to focus more on Asia in America's global strategic planning. This shift in foreign policy of U.S. had profound implications for Asia.

Touching on Asia, President Bush propounded that Asia would emerge to be the global centre in terms of strategic significance and economic influence in 21st century. As such, the core of the America's foreign policy would have to be shifted to Asia to tune in to the likely new world order. Simply put, the emerging Asia is scaling up in global influence.

The single nation that commands the global shift of attention to Asia is China. China is exerting more influence now in international arenas. In years to come, China's foreign policy would pressurize U.S. to an even further extent.

Japanese gold medalist Ayumi Tanimoto stands with her medal at the medals ceremony of the judo half middleweight division finals at the Beijing 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Tuesday, August 12, 2008.

Beijing Olympic 2008 - Moving Forward By Leaps And Bounds

It came somewhat as a shock to the world to read about London's Telegraph newspaper reporting that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. Simply put, some of the opening fireworks were believed to be faked.

I don't know for sure to what extent the report is true. Anyhow, the report should not have been too shocking. The dazzling opening ceremony was really the work of modern wizardry, opening the eyes of the world to the transformed Middle Kingdom, from a backward nation to a modern state by leaps and bounds.

If the glamorous opening of Beijing Olympic 2008 had put you to wow with disbelief, then the surge of China to the rank of a global economic player should have in no small way raised your eyebrows with surprise. I started tracking China way back in 2001 when it started to go on the rise, with foreign reserves at less than 180 billion U.S. dollars, much less than Japan's.

In just about 7 years' time, the foreign reserves have made a big leap to stand now at more than 1 trillion U.S. dollars, overtaking Japan about two years back to be the world's largest foreign reserves holder.

China is still moving forwards at full steam!

Beijing Olympic 2008 - China Surged Up To Be Economic Power

Chen Xiexia's mighty lift in women's 48 kg weightlifting gave China its first gold of the 2008 Olympics. The stout Chen did China proud in this globally acclaimed sports meet.

Deng Xiaoping in 80s opened up China's economy to global trades and investments in his ambitious plan to lift up the giant in its economic performance.

In less than 20 years after Deng implemented economic reforms, the gigantic Middle Kingdom was lifted up to new height economically, making it a global economic power with influence surpassing a lot of developed nations.

In 2000, Goldman Sachs propounded BRIC theory to project the likely new order of the world economic powers in the nest 35-40 years. According to Goldman Sachs, Brazil, Russia, India and China would emerge to be the key economic players, taking over the places of Italy. England. France and Canada in G7. The theory suggests that the future economic powers would be reshuffled, leaving only U.S., Japan and Germany to stay on in G7, the global rich nations' club.

The rise of China is certainly not coincidental or miraculous. China has all the fundamrntals to take it to greater height, making it a global power player now to be reckoned with.

In the early 60s, the brains in the Pentagon of the U.S. instituted a strategic study on the east. Calling China a sleeping lion, the study underpinned the fundamentals of the strategic planning for the Asian region by the States.

The one-time sleeping lion is now roaring loud, making the world look up to this Middle Kingdom with raised eyebrows.

Beijing Olympic 2008 - The Dragon Flying High!

Beijing Olympic 2008, this world's most important sports event, has caused the global attention to be deflected away from all other current issues.

It was natural for China to bid hard to host olympic games. This global sports spectacular meet of superlative class has profound meaning for the hosting country, with implications reaching far beyond the economic benefits springing from the games meet.

In Asia, Japan in its endeavour to walk out from the dark shadows of WW2 defeat bid successfully to host the olympic games in 1964. Tokyo Olympic 1964 was essentially a springboard for Japan to go global.

In 1988, the olympic games meet in Seoul was symbolic of the economic success and modernisation of Korea.

Similarly, Beijing Olympic 2008 is a vindication of China to the world that it is now a nation of power and success. It means a lot to this upcoming power in its strive to gain stronger foothold and influence internationally.

Stay tuned in to the games!

080808 - An Auspicious Date, An Eventful Day

Aug. 8, 2008 has been viewed by many Chinese as an auspicious date. The centennial date promises luck to them. As such, they would not want to let it slip by!

Coincidentally, PRC has also slated this date to be the opening day of Beijing Olympic 2008. This coincidence makes today a really special day!

Anyway, today is eventful. Births, weddings, Beijing Olympic 2008, etc fill up this centennial day with cheers all over. To a lot of people, 080808 is remarkable and memorable. To the rest, this is just another God-blessed day, as meaningful anf good as all the other days.

On 080808, Malaysia is bustling with politically inclined high-profile talks of a sodomy charge against DSAI in the sessions court and an upcoming PP by-election. Heated as they are, the politically motivated events keep the Malaysians on the toes. It appears that they have stolen some of the limelight from the prominent 080808 in Malaysia.

Stay tuned in to the grand opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic 2008 tonight at 8:08 pm. Cheers!

The pictures show the Swiss team and the splendid opening ceremony of Beijing Olympic 2008.