One World, One Dream

INCIDENT:
It is Blog Action Day and the theme this year is poverty. If you are not familiar with Blog Action Day, it is a day when bloggers are encouraged to write on one specific topic on a specified day of the year. Last year bloggers were challenged to write about the environment in order to focus our everyday conversations on a topic of importance instead of the trivial chit-chat normally found in our daily interactions. I wrote about the unsustainable lifestyle that our society has grown accustomed to and the need to question that lifestyle in a post called "Global Problem."

This year's topic of poverty is universally felt by everyone around the world. Besides the more obvious definition of poverty as a lack of the human necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, poverty also refers to lack of opportunity -- for example, opportunities to learn, to prosper, or to succeed. Given my Olympic fever back in August, I feel that it is my responsibility to address the other side of the China Olympic story... well at least one aspect of the controversy that I think is poignantly illustrated in this image (whether or not this is real or Photoshopped):

Beijing Olympics, One World, One Dream [SOURCE]

MORAL:
The result of the juxtaposition of the Olympics with the reality of living conditions for so many in China was direct conflict. Yet it was almost too easy to resolve that conflict as the Olympics played out in all of its glory as we are distracted by the pomp and circumstance as well as the accomplishments of the athletes. However it was unfair to everyone involved to have to come to a resolution in the first place. Isn't the Olympics about strengthening infrastructure not only physically but also mentally? Did the people of China reap this ultimate benefit of having the Olympics in Beijing? Perhaps some did and will but one could argue that most did not and that is an even greater tragedy. What happens to these people? And why have we stopped talking about them since the Olympic closing ceremonies?