Being the novice masters shot putter that I am, I am keenly aware of the importance of athletic excellence. Yet I have to point out again that the connection of athleticism and the Olympics creates at best strange bedfellows and at worst a catalyst for tragedy as we are seeing this weekend in Tibet - all based on the strange idea of cultural homogeneity and fragility:
China's hypersensitivity to foreign attitudes toward its occupation of Tibet is well known. The country threatens grave economic consequences when foreign leaders meet with the Dalai Lama, and even moved to censor foreign performers after Björk shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" after her song Declare Independence at a recent concert in Shanghai. Officials complained that Björk "broke Chinese law and hurt Chinese people's feelings."It would be nice if the Olympics were delayable or their award revocable or that just one nation would say that supporting this is to support a tyrant. Yet, when faced with machine gunning (again) in the street, the heavily-invested CBC continues to declare: "come August, come what may, getting together is the right thing to do" and from the indifferent IOC all we hear is this:
"We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Jacques Rogge told reporters Saturday on this Caribbean island. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."Good Lord - we couldn't have the organization stopped from organizing. What could be more important than that?
Comments
Mike Campbell - March 16, 2008 10:46 AM
Tibet aside, I wasn't planning to watch one darn minute. (ok, maybe shot put)
Alan - March 16, 2008 10:52 AM
I boycott the shot put coverage as well but that is to protest insufficient shot put coverage. In order to rebalance the universe, I give you this:<p><center><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yvw8WtSKmZw&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yvw8WtSKmZw&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></center><p>And this:<p><center><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nJ5gL8avcOo&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nJ5gL8avcOo&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></center>
Alan - March 16, 2008 11:57 AM
<center><img src="images/2008b/_44493278_2_afp_tibet.jpg" vspace="15"></center>
Temujin - March 16, 2008 6:20 PM
I vaguely remember hashing this one out with you before Alan, and I don't mean to be a dour prude, but how many items in your home have a "Made in China" label on them?
Don't you think it's at least a little paradoxical to protest the Olympics when we import uncountable millions of dollars worth of goods from the very same country?
Alan - March 16, 2008 6:30 PM
Granted there are some but not when I catch it. We make a pretty conscious effort to not buy from tyrants. I have no idea why we import the goods of any country with manufacturing penal camps.
Temujin - March 16, 2008 7:45 PM
Fair enough
<i>I have no idea why we import the goods of any country with manufacturing penal camps.</i>
I suspect this is a rhetorical question, because the answer is pretty clear. People like cheap, quality items.
Some friends of mine went on holidays to Cuba last year, and I was a little irritated at them for choosing such a destination. The whole "supporting Castro's regime" didn't quite sit well with me. On the other hand, a lot of people earn their livings because of tourism. People who would otherwise be resigned to the sugar cane fields (perhaps).
Alan - March 16, 2008 8:16 PM
Not rhetorical at all. I would not buy goods from Nazi Germany even if they were cheap and reliable. I try not to do the same with China, though the can be insidious. Ikea helps as does Home Depot book shelves from Vietnam. Thankfully they are easy to avoid when it comes to food and ale.
Hans - March 17, 2008 9:29 AM
totalitarian government + fatuous archaic international athletic movement = ome more reason not to watch television in the summer.
sean liddle - March 17, 2008 9:40 AM
Ikea was awesome back when all the pieces were fabricated through forced labour of inmates in Swedish prisons, but I think you will find some of their bits are made by persons in China now.
As far as the Dhalai Lama goes, having watched the episode of Penn and Teller Bull*hit where they exposed he and his followers as a religious dictatorship when in power, and looking into it a but further, any support I may have had for they went out the window (aling with any respect for Sister Theresa).
Renee - March 17, 2008 1:37 PM
<br/>
Man, principles are so 20th Century. We're in the Morality 2.0 world now, don'tcha know?
PS: "struggling at"
ry - March 20, 2008 6:34 PM
Ah, so the Dalai Lama is a fraud(didn't need Penn and Teller to tell me that). So? That rather grant the PRC to do the exact same thing to the Tibetans as the elites of Tibet did to the Proles? This logic escapes me. Maybe I'm misunderstanding Rght Rep Liddle. I jsut don't get this or where he's intending to go with it apparently. Yeah, most of the 'Free Tibet'-ers are ignorant tools. So? What has that got to do with the rightness or wrongness of Chinese occupation and cultural indoctrination? Seperate problems if you ask me. But then, I'm an idiot.