I went to the downtown campus today and holed myself up in the beautiful Gerstein Library and actually got all my studying done. That, however, did not mean I learned anything -- I got 67% on the online practice quiz. And shit, the exam's tomorrow.

My eyes are not getting any better, but they aren't getting any worse. I can't wear contacts and my glasses aren't strong enough so I'm so blind at the moment. I hope this doesn't interfere with my exam. And I hope my anthropology prof -- the one resembling Johnny Knoxville -- is back from his excavation in the Middle East all tanned and cocky. I need some sunshine in my life.

And I'm so torn over the Beijing Olympics. I'm proud to be Chinese, sure, but not exactly proud that my home city of Hong Kong still isn't being granted democracy despite being promised so during the British handover in 1997. Nor am I impressed with the legions of mainland Chinese that don't seem to remember all the horrible things that the current Communist regime has done and continues to do. The Tiananmen Square massacre happened in the same place the Olympics are now being held. Tibet was raped royally in the Spring. Darfur is worsening because of China's meddling. And the Chinese people expect us to be proud of what this regime has brought us? An opening ceremony certainly won't change my thoughts on Communist China. Or as The Globe and Mail put it: "China put on a hell of a show; It helped that democracy didn't get in the way."

Please, world, do not fall for China's charms. My homeland is still a cesspool of Orweillian surveillance, corruption, poverty and smog. The opening ceremonies, and the Beijing Olympics, are not the real China. That isn't even China.

But gotta love my preferred country Canada for good taste. Look at our flag-bearer, Adam Van Koeverden -- an immigrant like me now proud to be Canadian:



Err...better picture.

I've been watching this, and I'm the worst debater and I can never back myself up because I don't believe in confusing people with rhetoric or using political or social norms as acceptable reasons to oppose China. But when people disapprove of the protestors at the Olympic Torch relays -- ironically called the Journey of Harmony -- I shake my head in shame.

One Chinese national said "This is not the right venue for such protests." But when is it a 'right' venue? Certainly wasn't in June 4th, 1989 in Tiananmen Square when Chinese tanks bulldozed pro-democracy students in Beijing. Certainly wasn't in Tibet a few weeks ago when Chinese tanks shut down Lhasa. If not now, when? Certainly wasn't for the monks in Burma whose Saffron Revolution died an embarrassing death by the military junta. I say shame on the growing complacency in the world.

Another Olympic enthusiast said: "The Olympics is not the place for politics." This was concurred by the IOC head, Jacques Rogge: "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing." But how is supporting the Beijing Olympics different from supporting the same regime that has committed cultural genocide, not only in Tibet, but parts of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia? As Buddhist nuns and monks are being imprisoned and 're-educated' by the Communist regime, we have the audacity to turn away and claim division of diplomatic support from political support. I say shame as we passively condone the affrontation of simple, basic human rights.

And Nancy Pelosi, oh your only crime is that you are an American woman who uttered: "If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, we have lost our moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world." If you were from any other country not affiliated with Gitmo, with Iraq, with Afghanistan, if you were any other politician from any other freedom-loving Western nation, you would be cheered and lauded. But to those who ignore the Communist boot in the face of every Chinese citizen -- whether they be the Uighurs, Tibetans, Mongolians, ethnic Manchurians, even the Han who dare defy the doublethink of this Orweillan regime -- and instead rely on the moral hypocrisy of Americans as a good enough reason to let the boot continue stomping, I say shame: we cannot equate what we perceive as our moral hypocrisy to paralyze our collective desire and responsibility for equality.

I say shame as the Olympics unfold with bombast and well-deserved euphoria from the honourable athletes; I say shame as Beijing reaps the benefits of ignorant tourists worldwide; I say shame as the Communist government continues to strengthen its hold with the propaganda of success; I say shame as freedom-loving people around the world criticize the West's moral hypocrisy as they jealously guard their own rights; I say shame as the Tibetans flounder in the fog of tyranny. I say shame as the boot continues stomping.