Olympic Sized Controversy

I remember when the biggest concern that athletes faced in Olympic competition was the relative gender of the person in the lane next to you. Chromosome testing of the Eastern Bloc athletes to determine the proper personal pronoun to use when describing the feats that have been performed in any given arena continue in Beijing, but they are far from the biggest worry. Instead we are now questioning the relative ages of the woman gymnasts on the Chinese team. Does a thirteen-year old make a better gymnast than a sixteen-year old? It seems pretty counter-intuitive, but rules, as they say, are rules.
There are no rules for good taste, and that's what the Spanish basketball teams find themselves guilty of breaking. A picture, showing the players pushing up the outside corners of their eyes, was taken before the team left Spain for Beijing. These photos were taken of both the men's and women's teams as advertisements for a local courier service. One of the members of the men's team, Jose Manuel Calderon who also plays for the Toronto Raptors, wrote in his blog: "We thought it was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as somewhat loving. Nevertheless, some of the European media did not see it this way." European, American, International, twenty-first century - it's one of those subjective things, I guess.
Just like cuteness. Little girls singing about their Motherland with all their heart is about as cute as I can imagine, but cuteness is still relative. Lin Miaoke, age nine, was deemed suitable in appearance, but not in voice. Seven-year old Yang Peiyi's voice was pretty enough, but her distinct lack of pigtails kept her from taking center stage at the opening ceremonies, but she could be heard. "The reason was for the national interest," said Chen Qigang, general music designer of the opening ceremonies, who revealed the deception during a Sunday radio interview. "The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression." At least we're pretty sure that they were little girls.