With the presidential race so close, and the policy platforms of the candidates so well advertised on the candidate's websites, the only wild card in the debates will be personal appeal and presidential demeanor. Furthermore, the candidate's personas are so well known, that this debate is an opportunity for each candidate to improve his persona in front of the national audience.

Barack Obama is known for providing long-winded, sophisticated analyses of foreign policy and national security issues so Obama will likely try to present a more decisive persona more fitting of a president of the United States, rather than befitting a political science professor. John McCain on the other hand, known for providing testy, feisty responses particularly when irritated, will try to present a more thoughtful, considered persona. Both will try to moderate the aspect of their delivery that is most negative. This over-riding element in the debates will contribute to a rather tepid, lukewarm debate without much promise for new insights about the candidates.

The candidates will address issues that have already been debated in public for months: the Iraq War, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, a China policy, a policy on Russia, global warming, international terrorism, our relations with Europe, and international trade. None of those issues offers a fertile ground for surprising policy initiatives. John McCain is the most interventionist and favored the troop surge in Iraq. Barack Obama voted against the Iraq War, but supported intervention in Afghanistan. The most controversial topic is how to handle nuclear proliferation and what to do about Iran: should the U.S. continue to work through the United Nations or should the U.S. take unilateral action against the Iranian regime.

Accordingly, within what promises to be a very uninspiring debate, the candidates will focus on form and not substance. Viewers will be left with a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the candidates based on their delivery and personality rather than on the substance of the issues debated. Absent the candidate's views on Iran, there is likely to be little new in the way of policy recommendations. The debate will be an acting rehearsal rather than a debate on policy, and that promises to be a dull debate.

Glorious it may have been for those who have been able to take advantage of the new opportunities but the reality for millions without those opportunities has been rather grim. To make Chinese companies fit for international competition, the iron rice bowl has been removed from millions who had anticipated living upon it in the twilight of their lives - traditionally, people remained employees of an organization on a long-term basis and remained on the books after they had retired, subsequently receiving a pension. Not only was this practice ended but many millions were laid off from state owned enterprises in the lengthy and painful transition process from a command economy in which the state made choices about production and prices to a market-based economy.

Those millions of people need new forms of income and most find that remaining in their home areas would not be helpful. Resources are poured into certain areas, mostly coastal cities and the Special Economic Zones and, given incentives to invest there, that is where the new jobs are created. A constant flow of migrant workers from rural areas or from depressed towns or cities ensures that people in work have continually to work hard and suffer from constant downward pressure on their wages. Further, to ensure that labour remains a commodity, interchangeable people distinguished only by the wages that people are willing to accept, companies have an incentive not to make their products more complicated (and perhaps profitable) by training employees. Hence, enormous ghettoes or slums emerge with many negative impacts on public services like health and sewage.

Those migrants who travel overseas may find themselves in worse situations, although many do flourish. Unless a network connection (guan xi) exists, it is likely that the would-be migrant will have to pay a fee to an agent for travel arrangements - these can be the notorious "snakehead" gang leaders. Travel to Singapore might lead to work in the service sector, perhaps retail or restaurant waiting, or else the so-called entertainment industry - many, many thousands of young women are drawn into this industry around the world. Truly it seems demand for services will never be met.

In other cases, the situation might be less fortunate still. In the UK, 19 Chinese migrants were killed when they were searching for cockles in the sea and the tide changed without their knowledge. Another 50 were killed when they were being smuggled into the country via a refrigerated lorry without air or temperature regulation. Others are killed by overwork in the factories established largely for the purpose of exploiting them.

Migration is, fundamentally, a response to the unequal distribution of resources in the world and the search for better opportunities. Those who seek them out often find that the grass is not always greener, largely because of the many snakes skulking in the grass and waiting to devour them.

First, swimming icon Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals, obliterating 8 world records along the way. Tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams won the women's tennis doubles title. Diving divas Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia once again dominated the ladies' diving scene in what will probably Guo's swansong (she has competed in 3 Olympics). There was also Lin Dan's emotional gold medal win in men's badminton. Jamaica's Usain Bolt became “the world's fastest man” by winning the double (i.e. both the 100 meter and 200 meter sprints), setting a world record in the 100 meter run. China also won gold medals in table tennis (ping pong) and weightlifting.

However, the games of the 29th Olympiad certainly had its fair share of controversy and tragedy. There was the fatal stabbing of US men's volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon's father-in-law which in turn injured McCutcheon's wife, Elizabeth “Wiz” Bachman-McCutcheon. And of course, we cannot forget the huge age issue involving those Chinese gymnasts. We must also question: is anything other than a gold medal a failure? China missed out on gold in the women's volleyball, earning “only” a bronze and another Chinese, Lang Ping, only managed to lead her US team to a silver medal. For the first time in recent memory, only gold medals counted.

In one of the poorest regions of Eastern India where the price of grain has made it difficult for people to afford enough to eat, their local government has come up with a solution. They are trying to convince the people to start eating rats.

The thinking here is that rat meat in very high in protein and tastes better than chicken. It is also free. The people just have to catch the rats.

Rats are commonly eaten in China and specific types of rats are considered to be a delicacy in some South American countries.

Central China has been suffering from a plague of rats which were displaced by a flooded lake. These have been shipped by the truck load from the area, down to the south so that they can be served up by restaurants. There is a thriving trade in live rats in Hunan province. Villagers say that they can catch 150 kilograms of rats per night and these live rats sell for 6 yuan a kilo.

In India encouraging people to eat rats will have positive effects on two fronts. It will provide extra food for the people and cut down on the dependence on rice and furthr reduce rat numbers. It is estimated that more than fifty percent of India's grain in fields and warehouses is eaten by rats.

The chief welfare officer for the area claims that he has eaten rat and that it is very tasty. Rich and poor people alike are being encouraged to do this in an attempt to stave off mass starvation if the price of grain goes any higher.

There are schemes to operate rat farms that can supply restaurants and high quality hotels with meat as well as earning money for the poorest of people.

People are going along with this suggestion and doing as the government says because the only real alternative is hunger. They cannot afford enough rice to eat, so they have little choice.

Imagine the outrage in Western countries if our governments offered eating rats as a solution to the current hike in food prices. There would be total uproar.

The 2008 Olympics offer all sorts of swim racing events that Michael Phelps did and there are not as many events for runners and gymnasts. Maybe Michael Phelps should be the best swimming Olympian and not the best.

WHY IS THAT? YOu may say there are a lot of fake things in china, But this is for china's own good.If your country is the host of the Olympics, Will you like the performance with alot of not-so good looking singers to perform?.Then The first look of performers is VERY important.

Second, The footprints fireworks are also phoney. The fireworks everyone sees in their TV's and in the "bird's nest" are only computer generated graphics.

Why would China decide to generate the fireworks instead of capturing them live?The problem is China wants to have good comments on it's opening ceremony, they don't want anybody critizing them for capturing the fireworks badly.Again, this is to make the performance better,for the viewers to enjoy it in a better angle.

One of the most obvious examples and most talked about is the Russia US men's basketball gold medal game. There is no question that the referees who were from Soviet bloc countries though not the USSR were making up rules to favor the USSR. For instance in the end when the USSR had lost the game they added time on to the clock and gave possession of the ball to the USSR because they claimed a member of the USSR team fouled and American. They rules at the time do not allow them to add time nor should possession been given to the Soviets. That extra time and possession gave the Soviets the chance to win the game, which had already ended in there, lose. The referees that favored the Soviets made other obvious errors. No attempt was made at following the rules but new rules were made up on the spot to help the USSR. The US team in protest did not attend the medal ceremony.

The Soviets loved to cheat and it even becomes obvious when you notice that they were once a dominant Olympic contender in most sports but they have now fallen from the height of there Olympic power. While doping was done by about all Soviet teams and we now have actual evidence and people who have admitted to cheating for the East German and Russian teams using drugs to hide the drugs the athletes were given. In fact many female Olympians during the doping era of communist teams are suffering from many problems while the men have had little negative effect. When you look back on the fact that the US Men's hockey team played not amateurs but professionals (lest face it military men who's only training is Hockey and are paid well for it are professionals) who were on steroids it is truly a miracle they were beat.

The soviets did not only use steroids to cheat but they cheated by any means possible. One way that Soviets as well as most other countries except the US would cheat is by having amateurs with government jobs like postal workers who never did there jobs but trained. This was at a time when all the events were for amateurs. Because no one really was amateur the IOC did one of the only fair things in its history and allowed professionals in most sports. The Soviets would use other means to cheat such as when they were caught cheating in fencing by using electronic equipment to register near hits instead of having to make an actual hit. Fortunately this was discovered.

Asian teams also love to cheat such as during the Korean Games when the US Taekwon Do champ was told that the Korean he had beat by throwing out of the ring was not in fact thrown out contrary to what the cameras kept showing repeatedly. China has taken over as the cheating communist country. In the last few Olympics the Chinese have been caught doping more then anyone with some years when they were caught doping more then the rest of the world combined. China isn't as good at cheating as the Russia was.

What is sad is that the US has much lower history of cheating or getting caught at the least and still is the best. Most issues with the US are examples of our snowboarding who was stripped of his medal in Nagano for having used Pot, which is not really a performance enhancing substance. The US is the team that suffers the most from cheaters. While cheaters come and go such as the USSR the US remains the best capable of beating teams without having to cheat.

The IOC seems to only care about money. What the IOC should do is to have one big ceremony where all players who lost to teams which eventually were found to have cheated to given the medals they deserve if they got silver give them a gold if they missed a bronze give them the bronze, and they should put asterisk by the historical records showing that they cheated and show the fourth place finishers for those who were denied bronze medals so the world will know who really got what. The IOC has plenty of money, countries fight hard and spend fortunes making sure they host Olympic events they can easily afford to give the medals to those who deserved them.

Earlier in the year Caroline and Georgina had been criticized for poor form after a series of losses that included not even making the A final in the Polish round of the tour. But the golden haired sisters peaked at exactly the right time in Beijing and entered the record books as one of only four New Zealand Olympians to back up a gold medal from the previous Olympics.

3 Time World Champion and favourite for the gold medal just a fortnight ago, Mahe Drysdale had to be stretchered from his boat and attended to by 12 paramedics after a heroic performance in the men's single sculls after battling the Beijing flu right up until the race. Drysdale stormed into the lead with 500m to go but couldn't hold off the fierce challenge and finished third. He had to be assisted to the podium to collect his medal after being re-hydrated intravenously.

Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater also picked up a medal in the rowing gaining a bronze in the men's pairs. Well beaten to the line for first and second, the pair got to the bronze without a challenge from the rest of the field.

History was made at the Birdcage in the women's shot put where Valerie Vili picked up gold with her first throw of the night heaving the weight a huge 20.56m becoming only the second New Zealand woman to win a gold medal in a field event. The last was Yvette Williams some 40 odd years ago. Only one other throw looked to challenge Vili when the Belarusian reached 20.28m but it was never going to be enough. An elated Vili had to be restrained by Chinese officials in her bid to run across the track and grab the New Zealand flag after her champion effort.

The fifth medal was picked up by road cyclist turned track cyclist Hayden Roulston in the men's individual pursuit. Up against World Champion Bradley Wiggens from Great Britain, Roulston got of to a great start leading the Brit by 2 seconds half way through the race. But the freakishly good Wiggens came back to win the gold and hand Roulston a well deserved silver. All this with a heart condition that could cripple him at any moment, Roulston has entered heroic status in the sports mad land down under.

The greatest day in Olympic history for New Zealand will be remembered for an age and go down as one of the great sporting moments for the Land of the Long White Cloud.