Beijing Olympics: Food and water will be diverted - May push China into a prolonged recession!

A fellow swim blogger sent me this and though swimming isn't discussed in this article what is discussed is the unimaginable lengths China is going through to make the Olympics a successful event. The extent to which they are going is summarily irrational and boggles the mind.

From the article: "... A forced shutdown of Beijing's factories and power plants during the games will throw China into an economic downturn.

Diversion of safe food to the Olympic Village will cause food riots elsewhere in China.

The transfer of 80 billion gallons of water -- equal to the annual water consumption of Tucson, Ariz., a city of 535,000 -- from Shaanxi and other provinces in northwestern China will shut down factories and agriculture in the region. ..." [Link]

Now, the media is full of horror and hyperbole but what made these predictions plausible to me is that China claims to spend $30-billion on defense; (the Pentagon thinks it is more like $97-billion or more), but please realize the USA spends $515-billion on our defense budget. [BBC reference: Link]

With that in mind, Beijing is spending $39-billion on these Beijing games. That is between there entire defense budget or one-third of their defense budget depending on who you believe. Imagine if the United States spent $200-billion on an Olympic Games? That comparable scale of spending would have to have a ripple effect within any economy. With Tibet going off, The Sudan, and Dafur as a political hot potato for China, these Olympics games could be China's "Rubicon." (The Rubicon was a river that Julius Ceasar crossed to reenter Rome. His crossing the Rubicon was the apex of his career. After that it was all down hill.)

If China is embarrassed by their pollution, poverty and human rights abuses, the games may be considered a success but China and it's communism may be considered a "flop" by the rest of the world.

The photo above is the lighting of the 2004 Olympic Flame. It was found here at the Beijing Olympic site: [Link]