Contingency plan or propaganda?

Work this morning began as any other workday had... arrive (by shuttle, this time, yay!), go to Kai's office, watch some Olympics on BOB's live feeds and wait for further instruction. After a few hours, Val and I were told we needed to go with some of the Chinese volunteers to hear about a 'contingency plan' from the deputy venue manager. We all went to her office, where two of our friends translated the gist of her message for us.

Let me preface this by saying we had no clue what we were going to hear, but did not expect the first 20 minutes to be about the Chinese government and political party ruling the country. Oh, but we did... the girls couldn't translate everything for us but what I did gather from the hour of 'lecture' was this:

• The volunteers were encouraged not to work for the Olympics because it was fun, but because it was 'serious'. Apparently they should be more serious about their volunteering for China as a nation.
  After this, Chelsea (my Chinese friend) set the lady straight, saying the volunteers were all working hard, and asking why they were being criticized for doing good work, regardless of the reason behind it. She was applauded by some of her fellow volunteers.
  
• As a copy of various Free Tibet materials that could be found online was passed around the room, our speaker explained how China wanted to be one nation, and to keep Tibet. "There is misunderstanding between Tibet and China and the rest of the world. The Dalai Lama has over 400 slaves, but everyone thinks the ground he walks on is sacred," she continued. The students asked us in a whisper if we had heard about Tibet in the US. I almost choked as I answered, and I think they understand why the rest of the world feels the way it does about the situation.
  
• The talk shifted to an incident involving a Hong Kong journalist who was reportedly struck by Olympic security guards..."fake news" according to the lady. She claims that he struck the guard first and that foreign journalists are just "waiting" for a story to happen. Hmm...
• Now, China allows more freedom for journalists, so they can write stories without going through all of the approvals that the government used to require. She said that the Chinese media are more efficient, though, than before, allowing them to get a story out more quickly and eliminate false reporting by foreign journalists.

The volunteers all seemed to think she was exaggerating and said it was too 'serious' of a meeting. They were curious about our (American) thoughts on the issues and seemed to understand that we didn't really agree with the way their media was controlled by the government and such. To be honest, they seemed to agree. I think they are all really bright and it will be interesting to see what change this generation of Chinese will bring about to their country in the future. They rolled their eyes and laughed at some of the things she was saying, not to the point of disrespect, but to illustrate that they weren't buying into everything.

Oh, I almost forgot... the point of all of this political talk? To get the point across that pretty much THE most important thing to the Chinese at the Olympics is that absolutely NO political signs or demonstrations will occur in the venues. For example, if anyone comes with signs, shirts or posters that say anything negative about China (especially in reference to Tibet), it will not be tolerated. Well no kidding, there aren't supposed to be those kinds of messages displayed at the Games.

So, folks, the contingency plan is: If you see a Free Tibet sign, get it down and alert the proper authorities. Noted. Sheesh, what a meeting.

On a more positive note, the first cycling event starts tomorrow. I can't wait!