No Olympic Games Without Democracy!
This short post today closely resembles my feelings, blogged about here, concerning the lip service paid by the United States to liberty, freedom and democracy. We talk the talk - big time - but do nothing to stand behind what we say.
Once again, a nation of people, proudly independent even though repressed, stood up to their oppressors and were virtually ignored by the Bush Administration. According to this article, President Bush " has long said the United States and China have “a complex relationship,” and that complexity was on full display this week." It sure was. It displayed that we only want to "free" people if they happen to have lots and lots of oil under their sand.
In all truthfulness, it comes down to money. According to this story, Tibetans have learned to keep "their requests modest. They know few countries have the appetite to cross China, particularly at a time the world is counting on the emerging superpower to keep the global economy ticking as the United States appears headed into a recession." Oppression, domination, lack of freedom, and that liberty Bush can't live without sure was on full display this week as he said not a word. It's the economy, stupid.
And yet, once again, the mainstream media is all but ignoring this connection between money and our condoning of severe human rights abuses. (Read all about this connection here). It's there if you dig a few pages deep (like stories on boycotting the Olympics, here and here). The latter story reports on the boycott effort by Reporters Without Borders and its online petition says that ""Given the massive human rights violations in China, it seems unacceptable to us that the Chinese government be allowed the right to host the world's most prestigious sporting event," it reads in part."
The Chinese government has promised improvements in its human rights abuses but has failed to keep those promises: the government blocks access to thousands of news and political web sites as well as currently holds in prison about 80 journalists and Internet users. The full story on China and why we should boycott is here.
If you feel like signing the petition to boycott the Olympic games in Beijing, go here. When the total number of people reaches one million, it will be sent to China's president Hu Jintao. As of today, 719,494 people have signed it.
*(Photo: Brian Sokol / The New York Times)
