'In bidding for the 2008 Games, the Chinese promised to improve matters. Yet, under President Hu Jintao the government has tightened the screw on political dissidents, non-governmental organisations, internet users and ethnic minorities......It is often said that sport and politics should not mix. With the Games being wholly or partly financed by governments, they inevitably do...' [extract Telegraph.co.uk 11/4/08]
'Fears that tomorrow’s (6/4/08) Olympic flame relay through London could be disrup
ted by violence intensified after it emerged that eight Tibetan protesters had been shot dead by Chinese police.' [extract Timesonline 5/4/08]'London's relay saw protesters trying to douse and even snatch the Olympic flame as athletes and celebrities carried it through the city.' [extract news.bbc 7/4/08]
[Image: New York City protest March 2008]
'More than 40 athletes taking part in the Beijing Olympics have today signed an open letter addressed to China's government urging it to respect human rights and freedom of religion, particularly in Tibet.' [extract Guardian.co.uk 7/8/08]
Four Free Tibet protesters including two Britons are arrested for hanging giant banners opposite Beijing's Olympic Stadium on a day of protests against the Chinese government. Watch here and for other protests and video viewpoints.
- Should sport and politics be kept separate...can they be?
- Should we or other countries have boycotted the olympics because of China's human rights issues - including restricted freedom of speech, internet censorship, detaining people, death penality, Tibet?
- Has the olympics had a positive role in at least raising peoples awareness?
6 comments:
Good good good......
How do you think the media is doing reporting the games?
Josh Xiong thinks they're playing politics.
HuffPo Plays politics with Olympics
What I found the most disturbing was an article in what I think was the times.
Street children, prostitutes, ugly people, chinese protestors etc were taken off the streets and put into 'camps' because the chinese government wanted to 'cleanse' the city and surrounding areas.
It was doubted they'd ever be seen again. They still haven't, the media weren't allowed anywhere near it apparently and were threatened.
How can sport and politics be kept seperate when sport is the whole damn reason these atrocities happen?!
The girl whose voice was used for the song the little girl in the cermony mimed was not allowed to to sing herself because she was not pretty enough.
That says enough.
China has its way, we have ours. We shouldn't try and 'convert' the Chinese just like they don't try to convert us.
The Chinese value human life a lot less than us Westerners. Which frankly has good reason. There are 6.76 billion people in the world I'm sure a few undesirables can be spared from the world. True the way that you select the undesirables is troublesome but never the less I'm sure the way the media report these 'atrocities' is x9001 worse than they really are.
Its all about scale. They may kill a few people, but take a look at Iraq/Afganistan etc.. Much worse.
Anon, it isn't about "differing cultural values", it's about basic human rights that have been, or at least should be, recognised by everyone. As long as you're thinking "I would not be okay with that happening to me" you've lost the right to point at moral relativism.
I'm not even saying we should be "converting them", I'm fine with and appreciate different attitudes to property, economics, wealth, education, suicide and euthenasia, and even religion.
But once you start saying "there are types of people who it is alright to kill without prior justification" you're jumping off the slippery slope.
Even if it turns out the reporting was under nine thousand times worse, the fact remains people were rounded up and "dissapeared" for not looking nice. The chinese girl not being pretty enough to sing really says it all.
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