If you took a nap these past couple days, you may have missed quite a spectacle. If it wasn’t Jerry Yang fighting for his company’s existence it was the Olympic torch fighting for its non-extinguishment. Both are symbolic of our times, and fittingly, both should be important news every Asian should be aware of. Here are just a few reasons why Jerry Yang’s brand and the Olympic flame matter so much in today’s world.

Yahoo’s Importance

Ever since its launch in 1994, Yahoo! has become a worldwide brand and one of the most visited portals on the web. Although created by Jerry Yang and David Filo while they were students at Stanford University, Yang has become the unequivocal face of Yahoo. Yahoo! was the quintessential model of success, and its growth surged quickly and even withstood the harsh financial decline of the dot com burst. However, it is currently in its rockiest times as potential takeover bids for the company have come, most notably from computer giant Microsoft.

More than ever, media outlets and financial publications will scrutinize Yang’s ability to navigate through these tricky times. What Yang will do next to ensure that Yahoo! will maintain its power as a brand and sustain profitable numbers is everyone’s guess. Already, people have questioned his leadership skills, his aptitude in business and his ability to negotiate with people. No one has yet stated the obvious, which is how Yang’s next steps as an Asian entrepreneur may profoundly impact the score of up and coming Asian visionaries.

He fits the stereotypical Asian computer geek character; heck, he was an electrical engineer at Stanford for goodness sake. However, he’s defied all odds by creating from his dorm room one of the most powerful brands in the last 15 years. As interested as I am in seeing what will happen to Yahoo! in the upcoming months, I’m more intrigued at how Yang will handle his negotiations with Microsoft’s power players and other takeover bids. Just as Yang’s web creation changed the way we function on the Internet, Yang’s performance in the boardroom may set up a precedent for future Asian entrepreneurs.

Olympic Flame

The Olympic flame has caused a lot of heat, and protestors have already caused the torch to extinguish its flame in Paris. As most of you well know, it’s an Olympic tradition for the torch to change hands among competing countries in honor of the Olympic spirit. According to the Olympics’ website and charter, the goal of the Olympic Movement “is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”

Many believe that to have the Olympics in China is a travesty to this Olympic spirit. Human rights organizations have been dissatisfied with how China has acted with human rights issues such as its involvement with Tibet and its un-involvement with Darfur, Sudan. This discontent will clearly dominate the headlines of this year’s summer games. As much as the Olympic Committee will try to focus on the actual sporting events, media coverage will most likely show an Olympics filled with protestors, boycotts and mixed emotions.

How China and the Olympics balance the games with empathy and celebration will be quite a task. What was supposed to be a great introduction of China’s growth and development to the rest of the world is slowly becoming a public relations nightmare. One has to wonder if more protestors will line the streets in the coming months of the torch’s journey. Will ambassadors and country leaders boycott the opening ceremony? Will athletes boycott the games? Will the outcry against the Olympics headline every news outlet in the coming weeks and months? How will the public view China after all is said and done?

In other words, reigniting the torch’s flame may be as easy as pushing a button, but if things get worse from here on out, one has to ask, “How will China reignite the Olympic spirit?”