A Minute for Parents

Summary

A Great Time to Teach Honesty

Article

By JoAnn Hibbert Hamilton

The 2008 Olympics in China has given us as parents great tools to launch discussions on both honesty and democracy. China is obviously willing to stop at nothing in order to convince the world how wonderful they think they are in every way, and it appears unwittingly are providing the same audience with example after example of the unimportance of honesty in their code of conduct.

For example, a little girl singer was asked to lip-synch a song in the opening ceremonies to replace a girl who wasn’t considered pretty enough.

According to Doug Robinson’s column in the August 19 Deseret News, B5, fake audiences were shipped in to fill empty seats in Olympic venues to make the event look better on TV. Fake fireworks were dubbed into the televised version of the opening ceremonies to make them look more spectacular than they were (Ibid.).

Thirteen year old girls were passed off as 16-year-olds in the gymnastic contests. According to an announcer, younger girls are more limber, less afraid and with fewer past injuries and so they do better. Evidently China supposedly changed the girls’ passports to show they were 16, while earlier Chinese newspapers had been proud of their young ages and indicated they were 13 and 14. Sixteen was the eligible age.

An article by John Leicester, “Media Peek into China Gymnast’s life,” on the front page of the Deseret News, August 16, 2008, told of the medal winner’s news conference with Yang Yilin, the Chinese girl who won the single gymnastic bronze. While the American winners of the Gold and the Silver were ecstatic, Yang sat alone showing no emotion. She obliged the press with a smile but quickly returned to her expressionless face. When asked if her folks had seen her perform, she did not know. When asked when she saw them last, it was some time over a year. When asked when she would see them again, she did not know that either. She spoke with no emotion. When asked if she got a holiday after the Olympics, she still did not know.

Yang’s gymnastic coach arrived on the scene as she was asked what her plans for the future were. He said, “She will be doing gymnastics.” Here is an excellent illustration for your children about the difference between communism and freedom. Little girls were taken from their families to go without contact for a year or more so they could train to win medals for their country. Obviously the games display a facade. The world is to see one face, but the truth is much more sinister.

On August 20, 2008 KSL reported that part of the Olympic rules included allowing protests. China consented. To date 77 requests were made for an opportunity to protest, but none were accepted. Two ladies in their seventies asked a number of times for permission and as a result were sent to a labor camp for one year.

Chinese officials promised not to censor the media and then they did exactly that, according to Robinson. “When a group of free-Tibet protesters are arrested for making a small protest. . . , when a journalist is pinned down by police and dragged along the ground and pushed into a police van just for covering that protest… , when Olympic officials are telling locals how to dress, right down to the color of their socks and shoes,” . . . , there are questions to be asked, according to Robinson.

May we conclude the 2008 Olympics with a great appreciation for our country and a commitment to be completely honest in all our speech and actions.