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DEL.ICIO.USTapped for the Opening Ceremonies: “I must be living right.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s an emotional thing, seeing the American flag abroad. Particularly when it’s China. And the Olympics.
And especially when you’re tapped at the last minute to enter the stadium during Opening Ceremonies.
Harris Patel, a physicians assistant student at Emory University, is here working with U.S. athletes as part of the United States Olympic Committee’s 62-member medical staff - the only medical professional from Georgia on the USOC’s medical staff.
Just hours before the spectacular Opening Ceremony, Patel learned he’d be striding in along with the athletes he cares for.
“I must be living right,” said Patel, 34.
His Olympic experience had already been pretty memorable, what with former President Bush showing up at a track and field practice at Beijing Normal University. Bush Sr. told everyone a pole vaulting joke (Patel can’t remember the particulars but we’re sure it was G-rated) and chatted up Atlanta shot putter Adam Nelson for a while.
Patel and his cohorts sent the former prez off with some track and field gear, never imagining he’d get to meet the younger Bush. But through a stroke of luck, he was notified he’d be participating in tonight’s ceremony. Beforehand, his group met the president and posed for pictures (I’ll post them soon as he gets them to me. as you might guess the press doesn’t exactly enjoy unfettered access over here, so I wasn’t there for the meeting with W).
Patel, a 1992 Norcross High School graduate who went to UGA and Alabama before starting at Emory, started working as an athletic trainer in 1998 and first worked with the USOC in 2005, at the Youth World Championships in Athletics in Canada. He graduates this December and plans to stay in sports medicine.
When I talked to him a few minutes ago, he sounded too excited to sleep, even though it’s going on 2 a.m. Beijing time.
“It was awesome, indescribable to see all those American flags everywhere,” he said.
Potato salad diplomacy
Atlanta and Beijing have lots in common: terrible traffic, air quality problems and barbecue (although they serve it dry here). It’s Sam Williams and Hans Gant’s job to build upon the positive similarities, especially now that Beijing has joined the elite fraternity Atlanta pledged in 1996.
Williams, Atlanta Chamber of Commerce president, and Gant, its senior VP for economic development, are over here proudly wearing shirts from the Atlanta Games, pressing the flesh like nobody’s business.
Well, Atlanta’s business, actually. They’ll do what it takes to attract Chinese business to Atlanta and Georgia.
“Over time I could see tens of billions of dollars spent in Atlanta by Chinese investors,” Gant said.
A couple of years ago they cruised down the Yangtze River to cultivate relationships with potential Chinese business associates. No one talked business for hours. More recently they worked with U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss to help Sany, a heavy machinery manufacturer that’s establishing a presence in Peachtree City, expedite visas for Chinese workers.
But sometimes it’s more simple. Sometimes a bowl of potato salad will do the trick. One of the Chamber’s staffers once made dinner for the head of Chinese manufacturer General Protecht, which has bought 200 acres in Lamar County. The executive had never had this Southern staple, and raved about it so much the staffer made him a large bowl to go.
“He still talks about it,” said Williams. “Whether it’s potato salad or local zoning, you’ve got to stay with them and assist them with whatever their needs are.”
He and Gant are frequent visitors to China and during the Olympics are among the fleet of Atlanta business types here to enjoy the Games and stoke economic opportunity. They rattled off a host of Atlanta businesses with a foothold in China: corporate giants like Coke, Home Depot, Newell Rubermaid and UPS of course, but also law firms Jones Day, Troutman Sanders, Paul Hastings, and accounting and consulting firms McKenzie, Deloitte and KPMG.
They’re hopeful a Delta-Northwest merger could mean a direct flight to Beijing to complement Delta’s newly launched direct flight to Shanghai, and run seminars for business types eager to court China.
“Doing business in China is done extremely different than doing business in the United States,” Williams said. “In America, they want to get down to it and make money. In China, they want to know who you are. They want to have a feeling of comfort that they know as a whole the community and state will be there for them long-term.”
Or, as Gant put it, “In the West, once you sign a contract, the deal is done. In China, when you sign the contract, that’s the beginning.”
Here’s what I saw today
I set out for an interview today only to learn that the venue was closed to the media, and although I took a cab there, I couldn’t get one back, because the venue was closed to the media. If that makes sense to you, that makes one of us.
But, my little mishap gave me time, about 45 minutes or so, to walk back to my original location (where I’d hailed a cab in the first place). Here’s what I saw on the way back.
A Beijing parking lot
And one form of mass transit
And two sets of young people
My husband once broke our TV after hauling it in his SUV. I should have called these guys.
This lady’s job is sweeping the street with a broom made of twigs. When she saw me watching her she hopped on her bike here and motioned for me to take her picture.
Beijing’s air is terrible, although people who live here say it’s gotten quite a bit better. So what to do but find a multi-task mask, one that blocks the air and looks cute. This little girl posing with her family outside the Bird’s Nest stadium, was wearing one with yellow polka dots.
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