China’s leaders might be called the “Communist Party”, but if Beijing is anything to go by, this nation is a celebration of a capitalism. So this is what happens when you mix market-minded capitalism with the heavy handed control of authoritarianism?

In the video below, Naomi Klein attempts to answer this question. She suggests that the millions of landless, homeless peasants act as the ‘Mexicans of China’, providing the unpleasant manual labour at a price that makes large scale projects possible. Also, the government can put money ahead of people by ensuring relaxed environmental/labour laws and barely policing the ones they’ve got. It’s the kind of thinking that’s made China the economic envy of many in the West, and the perfect partner for some of the world’s most successful businesses. Is the Chinese government providing the ultimate cocoon of capitalism, with the Olympics a crowning award from global capitalism’s heavyweights (ie. Olympic sponsors)?

News organisations and journalists have been reporting that the Olympics are sold out, but thousands of seats remain empty at many events.

Considering how many Beijing locals (and tourists, for that matter) would love to attend the Olympics, the ticketing allocation process is clearly inefficient if so many seats are empty at popular events like beach volleyball.

I recorded a short video to show you what the stadiums look like from a spectator’s perspective:

..oh yeah, and I included a call for London’s 2012 Olympic Organisers to allocate resources to making sure seats are almost never empty.

I’ve got some smart friends and readers. What do you guys have in mind? What technologies could be used to make sure thousands of seats don’t go empty at London’s games?

Last night was my first Olympic event – beach volleyball. As I approached the stadium, rows and rows of Chinese men dressed in “Beijing” uniforms were lined up in perfect rows, standing at attention. At first, I had assumed they were cleaners, like those I’d seen at Tianamen Square a few days before:

But these guys didn’t have brooms…

…or dustbins…

Still, I thought it was worth a photo, because it’s not often you see people standing so straight or so evenly placed in a sports ground… And then I saw where they were sitting in the stadium…

…These guys weren’t cleaners, they’re the security. And possibly not just any security, either – one of my fellow spectators explained that she’d seen one of the guys in the uniforms above sporting an Olympic photo ID, and he was wearing a military uniform in the photo.

I guess having a hundred Chinese military uniforms in the stadium would have been a little confronting. Polo tops with chinos as camouflage? Who knew?

My MacBook is running like new – for months it’s been getting increasingly sluggish. Finally, I decided to see what could be done. I did some searches for optimizing my mac, and I came across a number of posts encouraging people to remove Google Desktop, Google’s search program that allows you to search through your own local files.

Besides recovering the 6000 megabytes of storage space Google was hogging for the application’s cache files, I’ve also noticed an appreciable improvement in both speed and battery life(?).

So there’s a tip for ya!

A few media reports are suggesting that American customs agents may be cracking down on Australians bringing Vegemite into the US. My friend, Brad Blanks, an Aussie expat in New York, has taken a stand for Australians, by launching his website, vegemiteisok.com.

Brad’s definance against American oppression has seen him quoted across the web through a Reuters wire article: “Vegemite made me the man I am today,” said Brad Blanks, a
reporter with a New York breakfast radio show. “In Australia
the slogan is that Vegemite puts a rose in every cheek; but
today America has slapped the cheek of every Australian.”

Given that Vegemite’s owner, Altria, is one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for the brand’s owner. Nevertheless, I support Brad’s initiative, and wish him well.