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And so another Olympics comes to a close. There has been celebration and agonising defeat, disappointment and relief - but thank God, no competitor deaths this time during the Games themselves. As so many times before there have been deaths in the background, deaths we don't see and hear about only if we make an effort: but we all know about Munich and the bomb in Atlanta, and I was among those who watched in horror and shock as the diver Sergei Chalibashvili spun a little too close to the diving platform, and struck his head on it and was killed. I am told that the diving judges deduct points if the diver comes too close to the platform. I am glad to hear it. I never want to see that again.

We know, now, what can be done if an entire country decides to place its unequivocable support behind its hosting city and its athletes - or maybe been reminded, because in culturally-aware patronage structures these sorts of results were the norm. Indeed, outright patronage - and not its uncaring nephew corporate sponsorship - is the only other possible cultural support which can equal these displays of culture and athleticism. There is even one who is in a perfect position to do it, for the London Olympics.

(How about it, Ms. Rowling? Beijing set the bar for the world. Wouldn't you like to be the one who re-defines that bar?)

So beautifully unified was the pattern of these Beijing Olympic Games, who thought to notice the absence of corporate logos on every conceivable surface? The Chinese people discovered what it was to have a city with bluer skies, we discovered what it was to have a major event without corporate logos splashed everywhere. By the sounds of it, for them this is one thing that may stick: the sacrifice of the car, balanced out by a more than doubled rapid transit system, balanced out above all by a clean city. Yet for three weeks, the factories did stand idle. After the Paralympic Games, because we will keep buying, they will start up again.

And for us? Are we in our turn so habituated to the corporate logo that we can no longer conceive of alternatives?

The constant subliminal battle of ideology meant that in some eyes, Beijing was in the ultimate no-win situation. Massive protests would have indicated a deep unhappiness, but the lack of protests demonstrated only a non-freedom of speech. Everything flowed absolutely smoothly and pollution became largely a non-issue because of draconian control, even to attempted weather control, but chaos would

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