Thoughts on China & the Olympics

[MandyPepperidge]

What does everyone think of the choice of China to host the Olympics?

Today, as well as in the past few days, the torch procession has been disrupted by protesters. http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...edName=topNews And Hillary is calling for a boycott of the opening ceremonies.

Personally, I hope we boycott the opening ceremonies. I think it is too detrimental to the athletes and their achievements to boycott the entire thing.

[cuteASAbug]

I saw the news article today about the torch and it made me kind of sad. I think it's too late to boycott anything now considering that this isn't exactly a new thing and that people have known for years that China would be hosting this summer's Olympics. Right now, it is too short notice too much of an economic for any country to take over the Olympics, and considering that the only time that the games weren't held was in 1940 and 1944 due to World War II, I think that it would do more harm than good and would go against the Olympic spirit to boycott the games now.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Personally I think the main, if only, reason China has been "upgrading" the past 5-8 years has been because of the Olympic bid. The government sees it as a chance to show the world that the country's not backward and that its form of governing doesn't suck. It's propoganda. And I think that's a kindof crummy reason for reform.

[EE-BO]

I do not like seeing the Olympics being used to express political opinions. Jimmy Carter's boycott of the Olympics was one of the worst decisions of a totally failed Presidency.

Every nation has aspects of existence that some other nation will find objectionable- some are more generally objectionable than others.

But if we cannot even set aside our differences to allow athletes from around the world to compete in the Olympic Games which have nothing to do with politics- then how will we ever be able to achieve any degree of global peace?

Granted I think "world peace" is an unrealistic goal, but it is awful funny how people that seem to think that is the answer to everything cannot even accept the kinds of things that could open the door- or at the very least won't have any real impact.

[MandyPepperidge]

Originally Posted by EE-BO

But if we cannot even set aside our differences to allow athletes from around the world to compete in the Olympic Games which have nothing to do with politics- then how will we ever be able to achieve any degree of global peace?

The Olympics have everything to do with politics and world peace. They were reinstated largely in part as a means of bringing the world together for a "friendly competition" (for lack of better words). Giving China this distinction seems like a slap in the face to those who had these ideals.

[cuteASAbug]

What's so different about giving China the Olympics? Germany had them in 1936, which was chock full of political propaganda, and the same thing happened with the Soviet Union in 1980. This isn't exactly anything new in the world of the games.

[Taualumna]

The only reason why Beijing got the Olympics was because TPTB thought that it would improve their human rights issues. Otherwise, it would have gone to Toronto (we were in the final two anyway). We have our issues here with poverty, etc, but it's really no different from any other big city.

My worry now is that these issues could lead to hate crimes against the Chinese communities outside of China.

[33girl]

I think the Olympics are a complete waste of money and time, no matter what country they're in.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by Taualumna

The only reason why Beijing got the Olympics was because TPTB thought that it would improve their human rights issues. Otherwise, it would have gone to Toronto (we were in the final two anyway). We have our issues here with poverty, etc, but it's really no different from any other big city.

My worry now is that these issues could lead to hate crimes against the Chinese communities outside of China.

It's never that simple and it just makes Toronto sound like it's crying sour grapes.

[shinerbock]

I think it is stupid to complain about something after the fact. It isn't like human rights abuses in China are a recent phenomenon. The proper time to raise this issue was after China made their bid. Don't get me wrong, China is a horrible country regarding human rights, but we already knew that.

I'm soured to the Olympics anyway, as I was pretty disappointed in the international community slamming the Atlanta games. As someone who attended both Atlanta and Sydney (and don't get me wrong, I love Sydney), Atlanta was ridiculously better prepared. Many of the facilities in Sydney were incomplete, and it was obvious that many others were hastily constructed. I realize that the bombing is likely to blame for some of this, but it is hard for me to look at Sydney and the disaster that was Greece being celebrated and yet concede that Atlanta wasn't a success.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by shinerbock

I think it is stupid to complain about something after the fact. It isn't like human rights abuses in China are a recent phenomenon. The proper time to raise this issue was after China made their bid. Don't get me wrong, China is a horrible country regarding human rights, but we already knew that.

I'm soured to the Olympics anyway, as I was pretty disappointed in the international community slamming the Atlanta games. As someone who attended both Atlanta and Sydney (and don't get me wrong, I love Sydney), Atlanta was ridiculously better prepared. Many of the facilities in Sydney were incomplete, and it was obvious that many others were hastily constructed. I realize that the bombing is likely to blame for some of this, but it is hard for me to look at Sydney and the disaster that was Greece being celebrated and yet concede that Atlanta wasn't a success.

Except for the opening ceremonies in Atlanta which I found exceptionally wretched and not having attended any Olympic games in person, I'm with you.

I do have to say that the Tibet protesters took the opportunity presented to remind everyone what China is like. I think a lot of people had been hoping that things were getting better as China opened more to industry and trade, but nope.

ETA: although the more I think about it, the fact that the reaction to Tibet this year didn't rival Tiananmen Square in 1989 might owe a lot to the media focus as the Olympics approach. So, in that sense, China hosting the Olympics may be doing some short term good.

[Kevlar281]

I was going to type some comment about China’s terrible human rights record and then I remembered that my keyboard has the words “made in China” stamped on it…

[NinjaPoodle]

The Chinese government denies everything. For them, it's always about saving face. This is the same country that to this day, denies the Tiananmen Square Massacre happened.

[AGDee]

Protesting the torch being passed around the world doesn't hurt China in the least. Why would they even care what happens to the torch when it's not in their country? Being one of the participants in the torch's journey has traditionally been quite an honor and the people hurt are those who don't get to participate when they were looking forward to it. Same with boycotting the opening ceremonies. These athletes have devoted most of their lives to their sport to reach this pinnacle of being in the Olympics. They are the ones who miss out if the US were to boycott. Just as it hurt the athletes who missed the 1980 Olympics in the Soviet Union.

If you want to protest China, then don't buy anything made there. I'd wager a guess that most of these protesters were wearing something made in China while they were protesting.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

Protesting the torch being passed around the world doesn't hurt China in the least. Why would they even care what happens to the torch when it's not in their country? Being one of the participants in the torch's journey has traditionally been quite an honor and the people hurt are those who don't get to participate when they were looking forward to it. Same with boycotting the opening ceremonies. These athletes have devoted most of their lives to their sport to reach this pinnacle of being in the Olympics. They are the ones who miss out if the US were to boycott. Just as it hurt the athletes who missed the 1980 Olympics in the Soviet Union.

If you want to protest China, then don't buy anything made there. I'd wager a guess that most of these protesters were wearing something made in China while they were protesting.

I generally agree with you, but did you see the coverage of the group who accompanied the torch in England? They were described by torch runners as "Chinese thugs" who didn't even cooperate with local police on the run.