HOLD YOUR HORSES!!!11, or move 'em...to Hong Kong

In an interview with CCTV Timothy Tsun-Ting Fok, president of the Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, discussed several aspects of the decision to move the 2008 Olympic equestrian events, right up there with Trampolining in my book, to Hong Kong. He expressed, among other things, his disappointment in the fact that the average resident of HK exercises only 30 minutes a week, as well as concern about time constraints and various other obstacles that we so closely associate with Olympic committees; i.e. Athens, "well, guess we don't really need a roof."

This is certainly a worthy topic concerning the games in Beijing, but what was more intriguing was the reasoning behind the move to Hong Kong. The program broke to a clip of some upper-age bracket woman, apparently very well versed in horse respiratory systems, explaining in an eastern European accent that, "(our very expensive)...horses must have at least 10 to 15 kilometers of (emphatically,) disease-free area around them at all times. Beijing doesn't have that." (Apparently Hong Kong does, but my efforts at yelling at the TV went unnoticed)

Aside from me assaulting the integrity of equestrian events, I'm more concerned about what this implies; Beijing is endangering horses' lives!!, yes, but what about the alleged mass influx of visitors to the city? Once again I find myself wagging my finger at Chinese efforts to control pollution; however, there is something to be said about a city that expects to host the games. Mind you, there will be a large number of people, media, and diplomats all of which could easily be impressed in one way or another.

Two thousand eight is right around the corner, let's face it, China will have little time to reduce its pollution significantly. So, grab a mug of dirt with a side of smog flavored rice, and let's enjoy the games in either Horse-free Beijing, or silly-Olympic-sport-hosting Hong Kong!!