Boycotting the Olympic Games
It can’t have escaped your notice that, in recent weeks, there has been a lot of speculation surrounding China’s human-rights record and the effect that could potentially have on the Olympic Games (which are being held in Beijing later this year). This does not only include the effects of the recent Tibetan crisis, but also China’s historical and continued stance towards human rights, as a Communist nation.
So, I’m going to tell you why I (and my family) will be boycotting the Olympic Games this year - regardless of what ‘resolution’ is reached in Tibet. For me, that’s a big thing, as the Olympic Games are a big family event, one we all gather around the TV to watch, and to cheer for the British athletes. I hope that, by the end of this post, you will join me in boycotting this abusive and appalling regime, not only for the Olympics, but for the future as well.
I’m not usually one for such public, political protesting, but I do believe that this deserves some form of attention from the general public - as no government seems willing to do anything.
First and foremost are some of the 70 laws that the Chinese government are imposing on Beijing during the Olympics’ duration. I think Wikipedia sums up the information best:
The Beijing municipal authority has declared that more than 70 local laws and decrees would be made before the 2008 Summer Olympics which would banish local people who don’t have hukou (residency permits) of Beijing. It would also banish vagrants, beggars, and people with mental illness from the city. The municipal authority also made it clear that it would strengthen border control, call for a “special holiday”, or forcible shutout, to make Beijing citizens stay at home during the Olympics. It also seeks to strengthen controls over Chinese and foreign NGOs and forbid any protests during the games. The government has also strengthened its laws relating to prosecution of those deemed to be disseminating material not beneficial to the state.[78]
If you ask me, that’s pretty shocking, as well as pretty damning. How can you call yourself worthy of hosting a competition that is all about equality and bridging differences, whilst banishing the mentally ill from their home-town? A forcible shutdown of all business/industry, to keep Beijing citizens indoors (no doubt so they don’t ‘interfere’ with the proceedings)? Really civil, really humane, really… Olympic.
Second is the ongoing conflict in Tibet. I’m not going to say much about this, as it’s been all over the news, in practically any country you can care to imagine (with the exception of China and its Special Administrative Regions - where the news has been about how horrendous the Tibetans are being). However, I will point out one thing - a report cropped up a couple of days ago on the ChinaView blog. This blog is moderated/written primarily by Chinese people who have lived and experienced life within the country, and under the fascist regime. A recent post (dated 29th March) implicates China in inciting the riots in Lhasa by means of undercover policemen, intended to blend in with the Tibetans and provoke them to violence against the Chinese police - who then promptly slaughter or arrest them in their hundreds. You can read the full article on the ChinaView blog, but here is an excerpt:
A Chinese woman from Thailand (who prefers that her name not be used) was studying in Lhasa when the protests broke out in March. As one of her friends is a policeman, she visited him at the local police station quite often and got to know other policemen there.
After the protests on March 14, she and other foreigners were sent to the police station where she saw a man with a knife in his hand walking in with some arrested Tibetans. The man later took off the Tibetan-style clothes and put on a police uniform.
I don’t know about you, but that just makes the whole China-Tibet situation even more complex, and even more disgusting.
But the biggest issue for me at the moment and, indeed, a good part of why I am boycotting the Olympics, is the West’s fickleness. No Western government has taken a stand against China, no country has pulled out of the Olympics in protest, and even the UK’s own Gordon Brown says that the Dalai Llama wants the Chinese to continue to stay in Tibet - a direct contradiction to the repeated statements the Dalai Llama has made. All of this has been done under the guise of “sport and politics should be separate” and seeing the flame be received in London by British athletes and celebrities, not to mention endorsed by politicians, just makes me physically sick.
I’m boycotting the Olympics because none of the above in any way fits with the “Olympic spirit”, equality, the Bill of Human Rights, or anything like that - yet we still embrace China and ‘all it stands for’.
This world sickens me. Please, if you have any shred of decency to show humankind, boycott China - and boycott these Olympics.
I fully agree with you, China is not ready nor worthy of hosting the Olympic Games. It is only their emerging consumer power that has made the Olympic committe give it to them, and far too early. They cannot and will not change their human rights record in time, and the preparation for the games will lead to so many more abuses of liberty - eg putting their critics into mental institutions as I have just learnt on the news.
June 4th, 2008 at 21:29The Olympic Committee have been blind beyond belief, they have been influenced by Western Governments and should realise the depth of the human (and animal if the round up of cats is true) suffering that will be caused by their decision. I know that atheletes will also suffer by the cancellation of the Games, and that is most regrettable, but I truly feel the world should use it’s power to make a stand, cancelling the Olympics should be the signal to China that if they want to join Democratic society and profit from free trade, there are string attached and rules which must be obeyed now - not in 50 years time.
I really can’t argue with you on that. Entirely agreed. Didn’t know about the cats, though…
If anyone with a conscience has been reading or watching the news for the past five months or so, they’ve seen a string of stories swirling around Beijing (and China period) as a questionable site for Olympic Games to take place. I don’t think any right-minded person would choose Beijing today, but this choice was made at least 10 years ago, before Darfur and 9/11, before the scandal broke around the time of the Winter Olympics in Utah. It was made public then that the IOC site committee members were being bribed shamelessly (and freely and happily) by potential host cities hoping to swing a vote their way. God only knows what Beijing had up their sleeve to swerve IOC judges in their favor. The final five host cities were Toronto, Paris, Osaka and Istanbul, which when you think about it isn’t the best bunch, but Toronto is certainly the best of the lot. Paris has hosted the games before (before they adopted the same practice of shipping their “undesirables” to the hinterlands as Beijing does now. Istanbul is questionable, especially with regard to Turkey’s spiky relationship with the U.N. and Osaka would have been an excellent choice as well. All the Asian host cities have been especially good Olympic venues, but for Beijing to get chosen must have been a monumental task as far as swaying the judges. Imagine, the bribers did their job so well that a Communist government, a COMMUNIST government that is the living, breathing antithesis of the Olympic ideal, oppressing it’s people to this day, oppressing or allowing to oppress people in Tibet and Darfur, displacing it’s seniors and women and children, whether mentally or physically challenged, an earth-quake prone region, a city hosting outdoor Olympic games but continually choked by world-renowned smog to the point where they have to shoot rockets of chemicals into the clouds to produce or keep rain to keep it at bay, and keeping their citizens near prisoners, beat out Toronto by two votes? How does the world show up in the spirit of world unity in such a country? How do you respect the IOC after making such a clear error? In any event, these games (dubbed The Genocide Olympics by Mia Farrow, should be a hot
July 22nd, 2008 at 16:22bed of controversy. Local schools here have raised literally hundreds of thousands (helped along by Michigan’s governor and the Detroit Lions) to send King High School’s marching band to play at Olympic ceremonies during the first week’s festivities. I expressed my outrage at Detroit Public Schools not only allowing this, but encouraging and condoning it. If only from a safety standpoint. As far as US sanctions go, China is on and off the list of travel restrictions for it’s citizens. But I could go on and on. The torch relay around the world and the protestors it produced should have been a wake-up call to the world. If they protest a torch, what will they do to the Olympics themselves? I’m shocked more countries are not boycotting the games. I guess we’ll see the results in just a few weeks time.