The Olympics give us a great opportunity to learn about different countries in a non-judgmental way. The camaraderie between the athletes and those watching allows us to appreciate our worldly neighbors instead of only focusing on the politics of it all - which of course the people very little say in. Likewise, cinema allows us to learn about different countries in respectful ways, especially when the film focuses on the people and not the government. It is with that I decided to do a small series of foreign film recommendations based on celebrating the Olympic spirit and learning about the rest of the world with an open mind.

Today I give you a film from our Olympic host China. In the past weeks the focus on China has had to do with pollution, dirty politics in Darfur and their underage gymnasts. And while all of those things are supremely important, there is an entire country of people who have nothing to do with those issues outside of their personal carbon footprints.

One filmmaker that always does an amazing job of capturing the lives of everyday Chinese citizens is Jia Zhangke. He always manages to portray the important issues of the day but still make clear the individuals struggles people face.

Olympic Film Recommendation : CHINA

Jia Zhangke’s The World

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What would the Olympics be without controversy…?

I’m not talking about Beijing pollution, media control and the vast human rights issues – from Darfur genocide to Tibet’s destruction to Spielberg’s exit to British journalist persecution – but about the athletes and their performances.

Gone, it appears, are the swimming false starts (and normal swim suits), the track and field drug exposes, the simpler gymnastics’ scoring that revealed individual nationalistic biases. However, the biggest controversy so far has been the age-doping.

Jon Stewart has some “athlete-producing sweatshops” fun below.

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Abhinav Bindra is why I love the Olympics. I should probably first explain that my favorite part of the games has always been the parade of nations. Seeing all the different countries, many that we seldom hear of, walking proudly in support of their people is a pretty amazing thing. The sad part about the parade of nations is that, as the annoying announcers told me 50+ times on Friday night, most of teams have not and will never win a medal.

And while Bindra’s team of India has won medals, they’ve never won an individual gold. That all changed this morning when Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men’s 10- meter air rifle event and India’s national anthem played for all to hear.

More than that, he wasn’t the favorite to win by a longshot:

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Olympics Olympics Olympics! We love the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between when it comes to the 2008 Beijing Olympics here at TakePart.  It’s reason enough not to miss our Top 10 Stories about the Olympic Games, which we’ve been reporting on in the months leading up to now. Catch the best in TakePart Olympic news below:

1) 2008 Olympic Torch Relay Will Create 11 Million Pounds of CO2 by Nicole Hughes

The 2008 Olympic torch relay hasn’t galvanized a lot of warm fuzzy feelings and hand holding this year. Opposition to China’s treatment of Tibet has inspired international protests, with some dissenters even managing to snuff out the torch and delay the tour… [click here for the full story]

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President George W. Bush, the first president to attend the Olympic Games on foreign soil, has reported that he hopes to tame the biking trails of Beijing while in China this month. Three years ago the President got a taste for the Games by going on an hour-long bike tour with hopefuls from China’s Olympic Mountain biking team on their Olympic mountain course. Bush joked with the Associated Press that he was planning to enter one of the Olympic bike events, but First Lady Laura Bush reminded him that “they don’t give medals for last place.”

I don’t know how it works at the Olympics, but I for sure know they don’t give medals out for scoring last place on the G-8 climate scorecard, which is just what the U.S. did according to a study last month via the Huffington Post. I’m glad George is promoting the joys of biking in one of the most polluted cities on the planet, but how about a little help from the GOP on the climate change front back at home?

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Everything I learned about pollution in Beijing, I learned on YouTube…sort of. Sure I’ve read about it - but it’s one thing to peruse an article and it’s another to see rivers of toxic waste streaming out of a factory and killing all vegetation within a two-foot radius. Sadly, many people in China are forced to use this untreated toxic water for drinking and watering crops, and pollution has made cancer the number one cause of death in the country.

Government does little if anything to regulate factory emissions and waste, and in fact, Chinese environmental advocates live under constant fear of arrest. The video below is a startling first hand depiction of the social effects of pollution in China:

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

35 Million Tons of Toxic Stew by Wendy Cohen

“Waterboard Thrill Ride” Opens At Coney Island by Blair Golson

* * *

Nicole Hughes:

Green Summer Music Tours Not To Be Missed

Eat Your Veggies: Quit Composting in the Fridge

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Andy Kondrat:

Almost Half of Earth’s Primates In Danger of Extinction

Beijing’s Pollution Not Gone, Just Moved Outside of Town

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Jon Popham:

GOP: Drill More Oil Or We’ll Shut Down the Government

Global Warming’s “Sausage Fest” Effect

* * *

Gina Telaroli:

Olympic Flag Bearer for the US: A Champion of  Darfur

Time to Act: Sexual Assault and Women in the Military

Tonight marks the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a celebration of the competition and camaraderie that will define the coming days.

When you’re watching keep an eye out for the US flag bearer Lomong Lopez. Lopez has a pretty amazing story, he was one of:

the so-called Lost Boys of Sudan, not only was rescued from his Kenyan refugee camp by a U.N. program that sent him to live with a family in upstate New York at age 16, but also qualified for the U.S. team in the 1,500 meters and inspired his Olympic teammates to elect him their flag bearer. [LATIMES]

One issue facing Lomong is his personal connection to Sudan and thus Darfur and China’s perceived human rights violations in that area. He is a member of Team Darfur and wants to bring attention to his former homeland. When his fellow activist Joey Cheek was denied access to China earlier this week, Lomong expressed his disappointment but also his Olympic pride:

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You may have noticed quite a bit of information flowing from this website concerning the city of Beijing and the problem of pollution leading up to the Olympic Games, but by no means is this problem limited to China’s capital city. As the city itself has been working to clear the air around the area the games will be held, high-polluting factories haven’t simply shut down around Beijing - they’ve been moved to outlying regions.

The Washington Post reports that when China was given the Summer Games back in 2001, the government immediately went to work reducing pollution around Beijing. But the main goal, it seems, has not been to reduce pollution around the country. One such example from the article:

As recently as five years ago, [one] region about 125 miles east of Beijing was a resort, and its sea overflowed with pike, flounder and carp. Now there are few fish, and it’s a rare day when Zhang, 53, can see the sun through the smoke. She can tell the direction of the winds from the color of the soot blowing by her home. The gray iron deposits come from the southern steel mills, while the white powder comes from chemical factories, and black dust from coal and coking plants.

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The Olympic Games start tomorrow, and though China has made concerted efforts to cut pollution down before the games begin, today the residents of Beijing woke up to a “white smog,” a phenomenon occurring when pollution is so thick that a skyline is virtually invisible.

How thick is a white smog, you ask? ABC (this is the Australian one, not the Disney one) puts it pretty well as such: “The smog is so thick that passers-by on the streets fail to cast shadows.” Gross. But if rain does hit Beijing tomorrow afternoon, as forecasted, the smog may dissipate prior to the Opening Ceremonies.

Way before this development, the pollution had already become such an issue some athletes had decided not to compete for health reasons. And this isn’t really helping any. At this point, though, it’s up to nature to hopefully lend a helping hand so that the events can proceed unhindered. As it’s not so likely you can take action to help unpollute Beijing before the Opening Ceremony, instead you can takepart here to see fifty ways you can reduce your own pollution output.