The opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China was very interesting. The motto of the Olympics is called Together for a Shared Future. Many events will take place in the surrounding regions of the Yanqing District and Chongli District. The opening ceremony took place on February 4, 2022, and the Winter Olympics will end by February 20, 2022. There are 7 sports in competition including 15 disciplines. Beijing was selected as the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics after beating Almaty by four votes on July 31, 2015, at the 128th IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The events will be run entirely on renewable energy. The torch relay to start the ceremony was on October 18, 2021, in Greece. Protesters opposed the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece because of political reasons. The opening ceremony was held at the Beijing National Stadium. During these controversial times, IOC President Thomas Bach told athletes to "show how the world would like, if we all respect the same rules and each other." We pledged that, there will be no discrimination for any reason whatsoever." The final seven torchbearers reflected multiple decades of Chinese athletes in sports, beginning with the 1950's, and concluding with two skiers who will be competing in the Games—21 year-old skier Zhao Jiawen from Shanxi (the first Chinese athlete to compete in Nordic combined), and 20-year-old Dinigeer Yilamujiang from the Xinjiang autonomous region (cross-country, and the first Chinese cross-country skier to medal in an ISF event. Unlike past Olympics, the final torchbearers did not light a cauldron: instead, they fitted the torch into the center of a large, stylized snowflake, constructed from placards bearing the names of the delegations competing in the Games. Three similar snowflakes were also erected as public flames in Beijing outside of the stadium, Yanqing, and Zhangjiakou; the latter two were lit by speed skater Yu Jongjun and skier Wang Wezhuo.
There is no event of this magnitude without controversies. The controversies on the 2022 Winter Olympics are obvious. The truth is that the vast majority of Americans and Chinese people desire happiness, peace, and justice. The problem is that the political leadership of China and America historically have made mistakes involving human rights. So, this Olympics is in Beijing, so we have to show what true and real. Many nations have diplomatic boycotts of this year's Olympics due to the human rights situation in China, and the Uyghur genocide in Western China (where many mostly Muslim Uyghurs have been brainwashed, abused, and harmed). In China, there is massive Internet censorship too along with other human rights issues. Also, America is not clean from critique. Economic inequality, racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other evils are found in America. Likewise, it is hypocritical for some to legitimately criticize Western imperialism (along with the imperfections of America) and be silent on many human rights abuses done by the political leadership of China. That's hypocrisy and cowardice in my mind. Many people have cited environmental concerns about the Winter Games because of lax snowfall. Diplomatic boycotts of the games have been done by Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, India, India, Kosovo, Lithuania, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Many Tibetan protesters criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for allowing China to host the games due to its policies against Tibetans. In November 2021 the disappearance of former Olympian Peng Shuai after she made allegations of sexual assault against Zhang Gaoli, former Vice Premier of China and a high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member, has put pressure on the International Olympic Committee.
The IOC refused to have a boycott of the Olympics in supporting the Uyghurs, because the IOC wants to get out of politics. In January 2022, it was reported that the United States is considering legislation to strip the IOC of its federal tax-exempt status in response to the IOC's "refusal to challenge China on human rights abuses." The Global Times (it is CCP owned) wants to criticize nations who go forward with a boycott. The IOC wants to be neutral by saying that they want staging for the Olympics while saying they don't approve of human rights violations of a person or people. This position has generated criticism, with Jules Boykoff accusing the IOC of hypocrisy by saying that it ignores its charter that promotes equality and anti-discrimination when it is convenient to do so and that the IOC has shown an "unfortunate propensity for turning away from human rights atrocities to make sure that the games go on." However, during the opening ceremony, IOC president, Thomas Bach had called for the end of various types of discrimination during his speech indirectly referring to the human rights abuses in China. The COVID-19 pandemic is still in China. Many games are changed because of the virus. The NHL won't send players to the Games citing health and safety concerns. Yet, the virus has declined in China. China has some of the strictest testing and building protocols on Earth in dealing with the pandemic. In America, the infections of the virus have radically declined too. China is wrong to have mass censorship of the Internet. The government has banned for example Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and since 2019. Many athletes fear that their free speech rights would be violated. In January 2022, the Beijing Organizing Committee warned that "Any behavior or speech that is against the Olympic spirit, especially against Chinese laws and regulations, are also subject to certain punishment." Uyghur and Tibetan activists want athletes, sponsors, and other international participants in the games to speak out on human rights issues in the Games. In the run up to the Olympics, the Chinese government deployed dozens of fake Twitter accounts to push the Government's position in the Peng Shuai scandal and the IOC's involvement. Now, we know the truth.
As early as February 2, 2022, there was the first matches in the round robin stage of the mixed doubles tournaments. There was the first day of competition in men's moguls and the women's moguls (of freestyle skiing on February 3, 2022). There were the first matches in the group stage of the women's tournament involving ice hockey in the same day. By Friday on February 4, 2022, there was the third day of the round robin stage of mixed doubles tournament (in curling). Figure staking starts in figure skating and the second day of ice hockey involving the group stage of the women's tournament. On February 5, there was the fourth day of the round robin stage of the mixed doubles tournament. Luge has its Heats 1 and 2 of the Men's singles. On that same day, there is the first day of competition in the women's slopestyle (in snowboarding). In the biathlon, mixed relay, Norway had gold, France had silver, and the ROC had bronze. In cross country skiing, Therese Johaug of Norway won gold, ROC's Natalya Nepryayeva won silver, and Austria's Teresa Stadlober won bronze. China won gold in the short track speed skating, Italy won silvery, and Hungary won bronze. Americans Jaelin Kauf won silver in the women's moguls (of freestyle skiing) and Julia Marion won silver in snowboarding's women's slopestyle.
There are many mysteries behind tons of holidays. Easter is celebrated by many people around the world. Many people claim that it is just a time that people celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Easter has many church ceremonies, decorated eggs, and stories about rabbits. Yet, Easter is never mentioned as a requirement for us to follow or celebrate. We can praise the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ without Easter too. People debate the day when Jesus arose from the dead. Easter is the slightly changed English spelling of the ancient Assyrian goddess Ishtar. The Babylonian name is Astarte, the consort of Baal. So, while it is not a sin to celebrate the Lord's resurrection, the origin of Easter is not from a Christian origin. We know that Jesus and the Apostles never observed Lent. Colored eggs were found in the traditions of the ancient Druids, Hinduism, and in other pagan civilizations. The origin of Halloween is self-explanatory. Halloween's customs came from the ancient Druids and the Romans. On October31, a special feast was held in honor of Pomona, goddess of the fruit trees. Later, the Druids, an ancient order of Celtic priests in Britain, made this feast an even more extensive celebration by also honoring Samhain, lord of the dead. This was normally done on November 1, and it was therefore decided to conveniently honor both Pomona and Samhain on October 31 and November 1. The Druids believed that the night before November 1 on October 31, Samhain called together wicked souls or spirits (which were condemned to live in the bodies of animals during the year). The Druids were afraid of this spirits, so they chose October 31 as a day to sacrifice to their gods for protections. They really believed that on this day they were surrounded by strange spirits, ghosts, witches, fairies, and elves, who came out to hurt them. In addition to this, they also believed that cats were holy animals, as they considered them to represent people who lived formerly, and as punishment for evil deeds were reincarnated as a cat. All this explains why witches, ghosts, and cats are a part of Halloween today. Trick or treating came from Ireland of Irish farmers begging for food form house to house in the name of their ancient gods (the tradition had people wanting to get good luck or be tricked). A Jack of Lantern is an old Irish symbol of a condemned soul. Valentine's Day had a long origin too. Many churches, schools, and other business have these ceremonies. Valentine's Day came from the ancient Romans. They viewed February 14th as the day of Lupercalia or the day of the wolf. According to the last Pastor David J. Meyer in his article on Valentine's Day, "...This was a day that was sacred to the sexual frenzy of the goddess Juno. This day also honored the Roman gods, Lupercus and Faunus, as well as the legendary twin brothers, who supposedly founded Rome, Remus and Romulus. These two are said to have been suckled by wolves in a cave on Palatine Hill in Rome. The cave was called Lupercal and was the center of the celebrating on the eve of Lupercalia or February 14th. On this day, Lupercalia, which was later named Valentine’s Day, the Luperci or priests of Lupercus dressed in goatskins for a bloody ceremony. The priests of Lupercus, the wolf god, would sacrifice goats and a dog and then smear themselves with blood. These priests, made red with sacrificial blood, would run around Palatine Hill in a wild frenzy while carving a goatskin thong called a “februa.” Women would sit all around the hill, as the bloody priests would strike them with the goatskin thongs to make them fertile. The young women would then gather in the city and their names were put in boxes. These “love notes” were called “billets.” The men of Rome would draw a billet, and the woman whose name was on it became his sexual lust partner with whom he would fornicate until the next Lupercalia or February 14th...." So, February 14th to the ancient Romans was about sexual lust. The red color refers to a symbol. There is a story of Valentine who was prosecuted by the emperor Claudius II Gothicus after he refused to worship the Roman gods. In prison, he signed a letter saying "from Your Valentine" to a woman he allegedly healed from blindness. Another St. Valentine of Terni married young couples. The Emperor Gothicus opposed this as he only wanting unmarried men, so he executive Valentine on February 14, 269 A.D.
Christmas is a holiday that is probably the most deceptive holiday in human history. People celebrate, have parties, and do other things that I can't mention here around that time of the year. Now, many customs and traditions of Christmas is not only not found in scriptures. It's contrary to real morality. Christmas has the word Mass in it. The World Book Encyclopedia defines "Christmas" as follows: "The word Christmas comes from "Cristes Maesse", an early English phrase that means "Mass of Christ." The mass is embraced by Roman Catholicism heavily. The Mass in Catholicism teaches that the power of a priest can transfer the host of communion into the body and body of Jesus Christ which is not found in the Bible. Communion is to remember what Jesus Christ did on the cross. As for Santa Claus, the term came from St. Nicholas which very few evidence confirms his existence or his life story. Jeremiah 10:2-5 mentioned that, "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen... For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good." Christmas comes near the time of the Feast of Saturnalis. The pagan Romans wanted to celebrate their god Saturn. They celebrated this festival from December 17 to 24, then on December 25th, they started the new birth of the unconquerable sun. Though Christmas did not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian, the Chronograph of 354 records that a Christmas celebration took place in Rome eight days before the calends of January. This section was written in AD 336, during the brief pontificate of Pope Mark. The early Church never celebrated Christmas at all. Coffin in The Book of Christmas Folklore tells us:
"Most people have heard that the Christmas tree originates in the tannenbaum and is some sort of vestige of Teutonic vegetation worship. THIS IS PARTIALLY TRUE. However, the custom of using pine and other evergreens ceremonially was well established at the ROMAN SATURNALIA, even earlier in Egypt" (p. 209). The Encyclopedia Americana says: "The holly, the mistletoe, the Yule log . . . are relics of pre-Christian times." "PAGANISM!" The book, Answers to Questions, compiled by Frederick J. Haskins, found in public libraries, says: "The use of Christmas wreaths is believed by authorities to be traceable to the pagan customs of decorating buildings and places of worship at the feast which took place at the same time as Christmas. The Christmas tree is from Egypt, and its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian Era."
As for the Biden administration, I'm glad that Trump lost the 2020 election. That was a great victory among the forces of democracy and equality. Yet, we can't keep our guards down just because we have a new President. We just have to be clear to honor what the Biden administration got correct and critique when it has shown error. That is the point as we must have our independent thinking. We have massive economic problems in America now. Also, we are in better economic shape in 2022 than in 2020 during the days of the Trump regime. Biden has seen 467,000 new jobs in January of 2022, 709,000 in the revision of November plus December 2021 numbers, and 6.6 million new jobs in 2021. That is the best GDP growth in 40 years. While this is going on, the GOP continues in its attacks on our freedoms from book censorship campaigns to voter suppression campaigns. There is no question that CFR members and other establishment groups are in the Biden administration. Anthony Blinken (State), Lloyd Austin (Defense), Alejandro Mayorkas (Homeland Security), William J. Burns (CIA Director), Janet Yellen (Treasury), Linda Thomas-Greenfield (Ambassador to the UN), Gina Raimondo (Commerce), Cecilia Rouse (Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors), John Kerry (Special Envoy for Climate), and even Tom Vilsack (Agriculture) are all members of the Council on Foreign Relations. People know about my views on the CFR. I don't agree with the CFR's promotion of neoliberalism. We don't need the extremes of isolationist nationalism (that doesn't work historically) or overt imperialistic globalization. We need peaceful solutions while working with other nations in terms of trade, collaborations, and solving problems (while standing up for human rights and democracy). I agree more with the Biden administration on views on the economy and voting rights than on some of their foreign policy (with drone strikes, etc.). It's not a secret that Biden is hawkish involving foreign policy issues. On Russia, Russia is an authoritarian far right nationalist nation. China is a country whose people are sincere, but their leadership promoted Internet censorship, oppression of minorities, and other evils. Those things are not justified. Also, it is important to condemn Western imperialism too.
Many people talk about the Emergent Church movement. I heard about this movement for years. What is it? It came about in the late 20th and early 21st century. Many of its followers are in many movements like liberal, post-liberal, reformed, Evangelical, etc. They want to live their faith in a "post modern" society. They are growing in numbers. Many of them dislike organized religion. Some say that they are not "religious," but they are just "spiritual." I hear of these proclamations all of the time in this generation. Many of them place a high value of good works and social activism. The problem is that many of them follow New Age actions like contemplative monastic mediation and prayers. Some want to sugarcoat the faith of Jesus Christ for the sake of adhering to some form of political correctness (where no one is offended, and the status quo remains. The reality is that the truth can be loving, and sometimes the truth will offend people. That's how life is). Some try to diminish Christianity and call for acceptance for all religions, even religions hostile to Christianity. At an emergent church workshop in San Diego, Tony Jones said, "This is about our belief that theology changes. The message of the gospel changes. It’s not just the method that changes." Obviously, the gospel of Jesus Christ never changes. Emergent Church leader Tony Campolo said that there are many ways to Heaven. Rob Bell of the Emergent Church Movement said that what if DNA evidence proves that the virgin birth was a myth. I'm not making this up. Saying that is contrary to Christian doctrine. The Virgin Birth and the resurrection are major cornerstones of the Christian faith. There is nothing wrong with fighting for social justice and equality, but any Christian should also promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ too. In other words, folks don't live by bread alone but by the word from God. The Gospel teaches about helping the poor, saving souls, and being a living witness of righteousness. The Gospel is powerful and transformed lives throughout the ages of human history.
By the 1800's, architecture expanded massively in the world. In 1800, the White House in Washington, D.C. was completed by a team of people like George Washington, Pierre L'Enfant, and architect James Hoban. All 3 men were Freemasons. The great African American scholar and STEM expert Benjamin Banneker also worked with Andrew Ellicott in a survey of the original border of the District of Columbia. The Temple of Saint Philip Neri in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico was completed in 1802. The Arc de Triomphe in Paris was created by Jean Chalgrin, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1809, there was the birth of the city planner Baron Haussmann. In 1817, Dulwich Picture Gallery in London was designed by Sir John Soane as the first purpose-built art gallery. The United States Capitol was completed by 1811. It was designed by Benjamin Latrobe, a Freemason. In 1821, Karl Friedrich Schinkel completed his Schauspielhaus in Berlin and Benjamin Latrobe's Baltimore Basilica was completed. James Renwick Jr. (the American architect) was born in 1818 and Benjamin Latrobe passed away in 1820. By 1825, the front and rear porticoes of the White House are added to the building. In 1830, the Altes Museum in Berlin, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, is completed after seven years of construction. In 1848, the construction begins on the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., though it will not be completed until 1885. The American Institute of Architects was founded in 1857. The competition to design Central Park in New York is won by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux by 1858. The U.S. Capitol dome was completed in Washington, D.C. by 1863. William Le Baron Jenney builds the first metal-frame skyscraper, the Home Insurance Building, in Chicago in 1885. The 1889 Paris exhibition showcases some of the new technologies of iron, steel, and glass, including the Eiffel Tower. The State of Liberty was completed by 1886.
William Van Alen completed the Chrysler Building, an Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, US in 1930. The Empire State Building in New York City was completed by 1931. Expo 67 in Montreal features the American pavilion, a geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller, and the Habitat 67 housing complex designed by Moshe Safdie. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was finished by 1966. I. M. Pei's pyramid addition to the Louvre is opened by 1989. Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, designed by César Pelli completed (world tallest building 1998–2004). Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art by Steven Holl opens to public in 1998. By 2006, the Freedom Tower was started to be constructed. "Water Cube", "Bird's Nest", South railway station, and other buildings in Beijing, completed for the 2008 Summer Olympics. One World Trade Center opened in NYC in 2014. In 2010, Burj Khalifa became the tallest man-made structure in the world, at 828 meters (2,717 ft). Torres Obispado in Monterrey, Mexico the tallest skyscraper in Latin America, completed by 2020. In 2021, Central Park Tower in New York City, the tallest residential building in the world, is completed. The Sagrada Familia is expected to be finished by 2026.
By Timothy
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