Berlin 1936 - Beijing 2008

The first sentence of the U.S. State Departments Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2007 is: "The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which, as specified in its constitution, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount source of power".

So while you're enjoying the 2008 Olympics and you begin to think the Chinese aren't so bad, here are a few things to consider:

• Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
• Chinese Forced Labor Camps
• Shandong No. 2 Labor Re-education Camp
• Human Rights
• Tibet
• A Holocaust of Little Girls
  

Of course, none of this information gets into the news very often because while there's money to be made, human dignity will always take the back seat.

Just like the Berlin 1936 Olympics, everything you see during the Beijing 2008 Olympics will be fresh paint and window-dressing: A well-orchestrated subterfuge designed to promote the false reality that everything is a-ok in the world's largest police state. But only while the world is watching. Underneath the pretty picture the labor camps remain open. Even on Christmas.

Free China