[chuck]

There was an article the other day in paper here - sorry, don't have a link, but gist of it was that apart from family and immediate supporters of competitors - there not a lot of punters lining up, or booking tickets or tour packages to the Beijing Olympics.

Apart from the pollution issues, the human rights issues, there's not really that much of a demand to go.

Potentially this could be a complete cock-up for the Chinese authorities. This is after all, meant to be the great, triumphant announcement to the world, about the glory of the 21st century China.

But if no-one turns up to watch - and to date it's been a PR disaster. Having to put out the 'flame of peace - that binds the nations' is a bit of a joke really. It's even more idiotic/ironic than the wall of steel that surrounds GW when he's touring. We're talking about a symbolic icon for gods sake.

Anyway - it's not like NZ is doing much about it - we've just become the first Western nation to sign a free trade agreement with the Chinese - so all 4 million of us are about to shipped to Shanghai in a deal for cheap labour. The sheep do get to stay behind and look after the place.