Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label politics. Show all posts
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Last week I was reading about the Olympic medal count I found myself unhappy with the way U.S. media reports Olympic medal counts, valuing any medal - gold, silver, or bronze - the same.
Here is Yahoo Sports' Olympic medal count as of 9:00 a.m. EST last Thursday.
Top ten countries in raw medal count
35 China
34 United States
16 Australia
16 South Korea
15 France
14 Russia
13 Italy
11 Germany
11 Japan
7 North Korea
So I decided to run some numbers to come up with alternative (and hopefully more accurate) ways to show a country's Olympic performance. Here are the top ten countries in a weighted medal count. (Gold is valued at 3, Silver=2, Bronze=1.) Despite being nearly tied in the raw count, as of last Thursday, China had more valuable medals than the U.S., and this disparity is revealed in the weighted count. By the way, way to go for the Koreans. The J household represent!
Top ten in weighted medal count
87 China
63 United States
35 South Korea
30 Australia
29 Italy
28 Russia
26 France
25 Germany
24 Japan
13 Great Britain
But perhaps the top countries do so well because they have a larger base of citizens from which to choose. So I divided the # of weighted medals by each country's population (in millions) and here are the rankings. Note that the U.S., China, and Korea drop down the list.
Ranking by weighted medals per million capita
1 Mongolia
2 Georgia
3 Australia
4 Armenia
5 Slovenia
6 Azerbaijan
7 Cuba
8 Slovakia
9 Switzerland
10 Finland
.
.
.
27 U.S.
35 S. Korea
39 China
Another thoughts was that countries do well because they have more money to finance training. So I divided the # of weighted medals by each country's GDP (in billions of USD) and here we go. Way to go Zimbabwe. and Borat's people. And the U.S. drops almost to the bottom.
Ranking by weighted medals per $B GDP
1 Zimbabwe
2 Mongolia
3 Kyrgyzstan
4 Georgia
5 Armenia
6 Togo
7 Tajikistan
8 Azerbaijan
9 Slovakia
10 Kazakhstan
.
.
.
19 S. Korea
21 China
44 U.S.
So what does this teach us, class? Not much! Except that last week the U.S. had a lot of bronze medals, I have a lot of time on my hands, and can still crunch numbers after an entire summer of brain stagnation.
The fine print!
Rankings are out of 51 participating countries listed Yahoo Sports as of 8/14/08.
Population is 2008 estimate, from Yahoo
GDP is from the World Bank via Wikipedia
Here is Yahoo Sports' Olympic medal count as of 9:00 a.m. EST last Thursday.
Top ten countries in raw medal count
35 China
34 United States
16 Australia
16 South Korea
15 France
14 Russia
13 Italy
11 Germany
11 Japan
7 North Korea
So I decided to run some numbers to come up with alternative (and hopefully more accurate) ways to show a country's Olympic performance. Here are the top ten countries in a weighted medal count. (Gold is valued at 3, Silver=2, Bronze=1.) Despite being nearly tied in the raw count, as of last Thursday, China had more valuable medals than the U.S., and this disparity is revealed in the weighted count. By the way, way to go for the Koreans. The J household represent!
Top ten in weighted medal count
87 China
63 United States
35 South Korea
30 Australia
29 Italy
28 Russia
26 France
25 Germany
24 Japan
13 Great Britain
But perhaps the top countries do so well because they have a larger base of citizens from which to choose. So I divided the # of weighted medals by each country's population (in millions) and here are the rankings. Note that the U.S., China, and Korea drop down the list.
Ranking by weighted medals per million capita
1 Mongolia
2 Georgia
3 Australia
4 Armenia
5 Slovenia
6 Azerbaijan
7 Cuba
8 Slovakia
9 Switzerland
10 Finland
.
.
.
27 U.S.
35 S. Korea
39 China
Another thoughts was that countries do well because they have more money to finance training. So I divided the # of weighted medals by each country's GDP (in billions of USD) and here we go. Way to go Zimbabwe. and Borat's people. And the U.S. drops almost to the bottom.
Ranking by weighted medals per $B GDP
1 Zimbabwe
2 Mongolia
3 Kyrgyzstan
4 Georgia
5 Armenia
6 Togo
7 Tajikistan
8 Azerbaijan
9 Slovakia
10 Kazakhstan
.
.
.
19 S. Korea
21 China
44 U.S.
So what does this teach us, class? Not much! Except that last week the U.S. had a lot of bronze medals, I have a lot of time on my hands, and can still crunch numbers after an entire summer of brain stagnation.
The fine print!
Rankings are out of 51 participating countries listed Yahoo Sports as of 8/14/08.
Population is 2008 estimate, from Yahoo
GDP is from the World Bank via Wikipedia
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
More than Medals
Disgust-Excitement-Confusion-Pride-Heartache-Frustration. Who knew I could experience so many emotions all at once?
My disgust stems from the way China is bringing to life the very-Chinese concept of putting up a good face. The beautiful little girl lip synching. Several Chinese women's gymnastics team members claiming to be sixteen years old but really looking more like twelve. The opening ceremony fireworks - CG graphics. Migrant workers and students sent home to clear up the streets of Beijing. Food stalls and other unsightly street businesses closed. The renaming of Chinese dishes. (I can tell you that mapotofu on shiny white tablecloth probably doesn't taste as good as "Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman" from a street market vendor.) And of course, China's infamous media censorship. Earlier this year they were laying plans to remove internet censorship "from a list of specific IP addresses—certain Internet cafés, access jacks in hotel rooms and conference centers where foreigners are expected to work or stay during the Olympic Games." Wikipedia? Of course it's available in China. Riiight.
Juxtaposed next to this is a tremendous sense of pride, that the beauty of China and its 1.5B citizens are being displayed on the world stage. That the world can indeed see this shiny sophisticated image they've painted. Maybe this will help people understand that Chinese people sometimes actually stop studying, take their glasses off, and do things outside the laboratory - like athletics. Maybe people will begin to understand how utterly ridiculous the concept of the "Invisible Asian" is in light of the millions of young, bright, optimistic Chinese who are slowly taking over the world.
Along with pride is a subtle fear that the IOC and the world are allowing a communist government to garner this much attention, power, and mainstream acceptance. I'm no foreign affairs specialist, but when China finally overtakes the U.S. as a superpower, what will we do if they decide to stop playing nice?
On a personal front, what will I do if they stop playing nice? The identity and loyalty of thousands of Chinese American kids like me boils down to a simple question - who do I cheer for in these Olympic games? For the country which my grandparents chose to leave? The country in which, if my grandparents made one different choice sixty years ago, I would be making my New Balance shoes instead of wearing them? Or the country in which I am 100% citizen, 100% fluent, 100% educated, but not 100% accepted?
And finally, heartache and frustration, for all of the real stories and real people in the shadows. For the people who still worship in secret. For the athletes who were plucked from their homes as young children in order to become part of China's Olympic machine. For the hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims who are living in tent cities while Beijing shows off its $40B construction projects. For the millions of people and artifacts displaced or destroyed as a result of the three gorges dam. For my parents, who gave up "majority" status in order to pursue a better life here.
That "better life" is what enables me to write this very piece, so I guess in the end I should be more thankful than anything else.
My disgust stems from the way China is bringing to life the very-Chinese concept of putting up a good face. The beautiful little girl lip synching. Several Chinese women's gymnastics team members claiming to be sixteen years old but really looking more like twelve. The opening ceremony fireworks - CG graphics. Migrant workers and students sent home to clear up the streets of Beijing. Food stalls and other unsightly street businesses closed. The renaming of Chinese dishes. (I can tell you that mapotofu on shiny white tablecloth probably doesn't taste as good as "Bean curd made by a pock-marked woman" from a street market vendor.) And of course, China's infamous media censorship. Earlier this year they were laying plans to remove internet censorship "from a list of specific IP addresses—certain Internet cafés, access jacks in hotel rooms and conference centers where foreigners are expected to work or stay during the Olympic Games." Wikipedia? Of course it's available in China. Riiight.
Juxtaposed next to this is a tremendous sense of pride, that the beauty of China and its 1.5B citizens are being displayed on the world stage. That the world can indeed see this shiny sophisticated image they've painted. Maybe this will help people understand that Chinese people sometimes actually stop studying, take their glasses off, and do things outside the laboratory - like athletics. Maybe people will begin to understand how utterly ridiculous the concept of the "Invisible Asian" is in light of the millions of young, bright, optimistic Chinese who are slowly taking over the world.
Along with pride is a subtle fear that the IOC and the world are allowing a communist government to garner this much attention, power, and mainstream acceptance. I'm no foreign affairs specialist, but when China finally overtakes the U.S. as a superpower, what will we do if they decide to stop playing nice?
On a personal front, what will I do if they stop playing nice? The identity and loyalty of thousands of Chinese American kids like me boils down to a simple question - who do I cheer for in these Olympic games? For the country which my grandparents chose to leave? The country in which, if my grandparents made one different choice sixty years ago, I would be making my New Balance shoes instead of wearing them? Or the country in which I am 100% citizen, 100% fluent, 100% educated, but not 100% accepted?
And finally, heartache and frustration, for all of the real stories and real people in the shadows. For the people who still worship in secret. For the athletes who were plucked from their homes as young children in order to become part of China's Olympic machine. For the hundreds of thousands of earthquake victims who are living in tent cities while Beijing shows off its $40B construction projects. For the millions of people and artifacts displaced or destroyed as a result of the three gorges dam. For my parents, who gave up "majority" status in order to pursue a better life here.
That "better life" is what enables me to write this very piece, so I guess in the end I should be more thankful than anything else.
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