Olympics becoming a bad-taste farce?

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seaice

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Olympic flame guards belong to police units that crushed dissent in Tibet
1:19am BST 09/04/2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/09/wtorch209.xml
extract:
The Chinese guards of the Olympic flame seen fending off protesters in London and Paris are elite members of the paramilitary units which crushed dissent in Tibet, it has been disclosed.
Officially described as "volunteers" by Beijing, the 30 blue track-suited guards were recruited from specialist squads in the People's Armed Police (PAP), a one-million strong force dedicated to maintaining public order.
The PAP has moved into Tibet and Tibetan-settled areas since the protests against Chinese rule began last month. It has been accused by Tibet support groups of opening fire on demonstrators. ......
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Every nation owes it to every one of the brave Tibetan Buddhists who are standing against a tyrannical government to boycott the one-party Chinese. Germany and France are on board, now it is up to the US to set an example for others that the inherent civil rights of free born peoples shall not be infringed upon.
 
Tibet has been under the oppressor's heel since 1951. During the fifty-seven years since, as Tibetans were slaughtered to make living space for ethinic Chinese, the "international community" has done between nothing and trivialities to change this situation or to improve the lot of ethinic Tibetans in any way. Sorta reminds one of the 1930's.

So in 2008, ask yourself: Is is probable that the Chinese government will do anything favorable for the ethnic Tibetans, such as respecting their language, religion, and culture, if the "international community" causes the Chinese to lose massive face by actually boycotting the Olympic Games? The games are overwelmingly supported as a matter of national and ethnic pride by the citizens of China according to Western media.

Putting it another way, why do Westerners, with a history of monumental indifference to the plight of the Tibetans, presume they NOW know better than the head of state and head of gevernment of Tibet in exile, the Dalai Lama, who has strongly advised that the Games NOT be boycotted?

"On board." Please. Public statements about heads of state skipping the opening ceremonies is not "boycotting" the games, much less boycotting China.
 
For Asian countries, Japan and China especially, public image and "reputation" are unbelievably important. These are psychologically adolescent countries..
Getting dissed at the olympics will most definitely have an effect. As to what kind of an effect, I do not know.
 
DannyinJapan said:
For Asian countries, Japan and China especially, public image and "reputation" are unbelievably important. These are psychologically adolescent countries..
Getting dissed at the olympics will most definitely have an effect. As to what kind of an effect, I do not know.
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The game has to go on and only God knows what kind of effect it will bring during the opening ceremony of the game.
 
The Olympics should be left alone. It's the only time the world leaves nationalistic nonsense behind to come together... ironically, to compete against one another.

Is China's invasion and repression of Tibet wrong? Resounding yes.


Mike
 
Its not fair to the athletes who have trained all of their lives for this event to boycott just because the olympic committee is corrupt and gave China the event.We saw this when we boycotted the Russian olympics the main people hurt and affected were the athletes who had no say in the matter.If individual athletes want to boycott I am all for it but the government as a whole should stay out of it.
 
the games should be apolitical and should not be boycotted, however the protests against the blatant agression of china against tibet and it's ethnic cleansing as well as the obvious attempts to rewrite history to make tibet 'chinese' should continue but not interfere. let the torch alone, but peacefully line the streets and turn your back on it.

the berlin olympics had their effect on hitler and showed that the people he considered inferior were beating his aryan socks off. boycotting him would have not had the same effect as having jesse owen on the podium did.

world opinion is lethargic and slow to get going, but it needs constant prodding to get it going in the right direction.
 
I'm still deciding where I stand on the Olympic protest/boycott issue.

The protests are certainly generating more international attention on the Tibet issue than anything in recent memory. Even the Dalai Lama being awarded a Congressional gold medal was barely a blip. The protesters in Tibet are paying dearly for their public outcry, so they clearly see a benefit.

The Olympics are a powerful time for international peace and discourse. They are about sport and setting aside war, but they are also supposed to foster international dialogue.

True, the athletes have worked very hard for a brief moment. However, the Tibetans are struggling for the future and risking a lot more to get there. I think the political agenda is greater than the athletic agenda. However, holding the Olympics will probably be a greater agent for change than a total boycott.

Danny's comment about psychological adolescence is interesting. I'm extremely irritated that the Chinese want to stomp out dissent and protest around the torch relay, even in western countries where free expression is the standard.
 
It's the only time the world leaves nationalistic nonsense behind to come together
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The USA may be different, but as I've seen it in Britain for decades; world "come together" -- no, that's just hypocritical spin by the globalist corporate liberals, a coca-cola advert trying to pass itself off as reality. People of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your own identity, freedom, self-determination, and country....
Highly paid "athletes" and administrators putting business before principle while waffling about some artificially cobbled-up "ideal"; claiming not to be "national" while at the same time not hesitating to exploit the flag to extract more public funding....
Politicians who see such events as a glorious photocall and are keen to both verbally and literally attack countries containing resources that are useful and can be asset-stripped but no "weapons of mass destruction", yet grovel to those that have a strong militarily-industrial complex....
For various reasons the Dalai Lama has to say what he does. But bear in mind that it wasn't many years of polite requests that caused Australia, the USA and UK to stop backing and arming the genocidal Indonesian invaders of East Timor, and instead urge their withdrawal.
 
The Olympics are a powerful time for international peace and discourse. They are about sport and setting aside war, but they are also supposed to foster international dialogue.
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"International dialogue" between corrupt politicians that cannot even be trusted to run their own countries with any degree of honesty or loyalty, is hardly going to produce settlements which are to the benefit of the general public anywhere.
 
seaice?

maybe best pursued in political forums?

maybe?








Kis
enjoy every sandwich
 
seaice?
maybe best pursued in political forums?
maybe?
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Fair enough.

Btw, would like to make clear that I don't think the ordinary citizens of China have any choice in the Tibet matter or gain from the Olympics (though they may be indoctrinated to the contrary) so criticism of them is not intended. They're forced to pay a bad price for the bigwig extravaganza, same as the Greeks who have not long finished paying off the last time it was there, and the British who will face heaven knows what final bill for the London fiasco that's in progress.
 
Let's try to keep things as apolitical as possible, pretty please, or at least not beat dead horses. The thread is about the conundrum of where to stand on the Olympics because it is being held in a country that has oppressed another people for half a century, yet it is no fault of the Olympians.

In all idealistic senses, the Olympics is a time for the world to come together to compete on the global level. It is a time for the best of the best in multiple athletic fields to put aside government policy for national pride. We compete as Americans for Americans....not our administration. The same thing, I'm sure, goes on in the minds of every other Olympic athlete. Quite honestly, to be honed to such perfection requires one to forgo focus on anything BUT athletic competition.

The question is, are those dousing the flame cutting off their noses to spite their faces? Do we attack the torch because a committee decided where the games were to be rotated years ago?

The government of China is not sitting super high on my "Extra Awesome" list. Tibet should be free, as all people should be free. We should find a diplomatic resolution to the problem (how's that for a canned answer?) somehow. However, physically attacking the flame is merely shooting the messenger...IMHO.

Edit to add: Please continue on with the discussion:)
 
Gee, don't ya think it would have been nice if there was an international response back in the 50's?

Tibet now has more Chinese Han citizens that Tibetan natives. This was the entire plan of China. Flood the country with it's own people and dilute the Tibetans until their culture and national identity is gone.

I always find is funny how it takes something like the Olympics to get national attention to this issue when the Tibetans have been suffering for over 50 years. :rolleyes:
 
Attacking the torch is ... attacking the torch. It's an attempt by some group or other to piggyback on the attention the torch gets to get a bit of publicity for themselves. It has nothing to do with the Olympics -- these people love the Olympics, because without Olympics, no torch, no free publicity.

Boycott? The Olympics will be held in China. Travel and hotel arrangements have been made, the networks have their contracts. When the commemorative paraphernalia goes on sale, boycott! Free Tibet! Don't buy a panda! Yay.
 
What I find tragicly amusing is how folks wrap themselves around an Olympic symbol created for the Nazi's 1936 Olympics and done in a manner to (at that time) show the strength of the Aryan "race." Yeah, it's been adopted and modified but it is hardly ancient nor is it pure in thought and application.

China's olympics will go on. What I want to see is who will be the first athlete to wave a Tibetan flag (large or small) on camera when they win an event or go on camera to talk to a broadcaster to say "Free Tibet!" That is what I will watch the Olympics for. That and the Chinese team beat out a bunch of overpaid NBA thugs masquerding as Basketball players who really want to do well for the USA. Of course, networks won't allow that "Free Tibet" stuff to get out as China media hawks will be hovering.
 
they have cancelled the torch ceremony in san francisco.
they said something about having another ceremony in secret.
 
I would hope that the Olympics themselves are about the pure pursuit of a simple, singular goal - how fast or how high or how far. Nobody gets hurt and at the end the reaction is "I tried my best" or "Wow, I didn't realize people could do so much!"

I'm disappointed that the torch protests have turned ugly. I may not agree with what you have to say, but you still have the right to say it. If you want your "Free Tibet" banner, that's good. If you want your "Go China" banner, I'll think you're a tool of the Chinese political machine (the Chinese gov't finances many pro-China organizations, even in the U.S. I've heard they fund college groups in particular.) but you can still have your banner and point of view. Dousing the torch, attacking the cordon, and getting your bloody face on TV are another thing. Maybe I'm being idealistic, but one lone person facing down a tank in Tiananmen Square was more powerful than a mass riot. The Olympic spirit is a pure thing. In a free country, we should be able to air our disagreements in a civil fashion and shouldn't have to hide a light of hope.
 
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