One

Her oil pipelines were blasted recently; skirmishes are never far from her border, and the opposite party should be coming out soon; she had just gone through a series of minor earthquakes; her president is about to be impeached; her government had just survived a confidence crisis; she has problems forming a new government; she is facing constant threat from insurgencies, which she claims is aided by her neighbour, which has just walked past; her first lady is probably the only first lady who had posed nude for a magazine; her neighbours are trying to organize a negotiation for her opposing leaders; she’s having a face-off with her neighbour, who had just walked past, regarding the land surrounding a temple; she’s having troubles trying to bring peace to her southern parts; her prime minister should have no problem asking for direction at the place; and she, of course, is the host for this event.

Finally, after two hours of parades of thousands of human beings in different groups, we’re about to witness the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games to be declared opened.

Whatever problems all these humans are facing back home, whatever dispute or disagreement they have with other participating humans, whatever their belief in religion and politics, whoever are their leaders, wherever they live, whatever languages they speak, they will be here representing humanity as one entity.

Their purposes? To provide a period of respite to human beings around the globe from their worries, and to remind all of them that we are, as shown during the parade, the same. They come together not only to compete against each other, but more importantly to drive each other towards testing and stretching the limits of human body and spirit. They are there, as humanities, to challenge humanities and to celebrate humanities.

So, let the games begin!

Okay, that’s enough respite … Back to my own teenzy-weenzy problems. Now, where am I going to get extra money for my petrol? And food? What expenses should I cut? Should I get another job? Hmm … money, money, money … headache, headache, headache …