Jottings from the Granite Studio

I like sleeping with the windows open. Summer. Winter. Whatever. I guess I am a bit of a fresh air freak. Which begs the obvious question: Why oh why do I live in the perpetual haze and permanent dust storm that is the Chinese capital?

Last night was windy and this morning I awoke to a fine layer of dust and soot covering all surfaces of our apartment and my morning run was like jogging in a particle accelerator.

I came back and turned on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer which had…Ah! The curse of coincidence…a feature on China’s Olympic preparations.

I’ve been thinking a lot about expectations lately, and I’d be the first to admit that compared to five years ago the air in Beijing is–marginally–cleaner and more breathable. (I met my Dad once at the airport and he suggested that the plane might have had a fire. I shook my head and told him that, “No, it always smells like this.”) But the old coal smoke and industrial smog have been replaced by construction dust and the exhaust of conspicuous consumption. The athletes, fans, and journalists who hit town in two months won’t have the benchmark of five years past to judge the efforts of BOCOG and the Beijing municipal government.

In an interview for the News Hour report, Sun Weide suggested that drastic measures would have to be taken. We all know what that means: Shut down the factories (Celebrate the games while being temporarily furloughed!), limit the cars (but not too much, how will the upwardly mobile prove how upward they’ve mobilized unless they can drive during the games!), and fire chemicals into the atmosphere (Safety First!).

There is a 110% chance that the athletes and teams will still complain about the air quality and the IOC has been making increasingly stern suggestions that key events could be postponed, rescheduled, or even canceled.

Never mind that 17 million of us will still be living here after the games close and the “drastic measures” are replaced by the status quo.