It’s nice to see China adding civil unrest to their list of global exports
Very Awesome
What was supposed to be a majestic procession for the Olympic torch through the French capital turned into chaos Monday as thousands of people from around Europe, many with Tibetan flags, massed to protest the passage of the flame. The torch went out several times, and police officers had to put it onto a bus to try to protect it as demonstrators swarmed the security detail. In the end, organizers canceled the final leg of the procession.
“The Chinese have made sure that for a few hours, Paris will look like Tiananmen Square,” noted Robert Menard, head of the Reporters Without Frontiers group, before the Paris protests he helped organize. “I think it’s shameful.”
A Chinese spokesman, Qu Yingpu, said Chinese officials were grateful to the police “for their efforts to keep order.” He added: “This is not the right time, the right platform, for any people to voice their political views.”
I think the belief that a public space is an inappropriate platform for public expression is precisely the issue so many people are taking with China right now. I can’t think of a more appropriate time to protest than during China’s crackdown on Tibet, leading up to the first Olympics held in a non-democratic society.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:11 am
You can’t disagree that China has a long list of human rights abuses. Recently I read that they’re diverting water from poor parts of the country to accommodate the games, leaving crops to dry and their people both thirsty and hungry.
But isn’t the olympic games designed to be devoid of politics? A place to set aside our differences and compete soley on the human level? The second politics enters it, doesnt it change?
April 8th, 2008 at 1:28 am
“The Games have always brought people together in peace to respect universal moral principles. The upcoming Games will feature athletes from all over the world and help promote the Olympic spirit.”
The challenge is when the universal moral principles are being questionably practiced by the host nation in such flagrant fashion. I’m not sure that the goal is to create a space devoid of politics, rather a space for unity. But our challenge is what we’re willing to sacrifice for unity.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
This isn’t the first time the Olympics have caused human rights abuses. Though few (if any) were as bad as China. An example: in Mexico, in 1968, over 300 students were killed during protests. And many times the cities where the Olympics were hosted put “undesireables” in jail to clean up the streets.
The actual Olympic games may not be the place to protest, but all the media leading up to the games is a great opportunity to let the world know about these wrong doings.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
In a past job i had he good opportunity to work with a few Chinese people still living in China. For the most part they were your normal everyday people, but you would then remember that they were living in a communist ran country & didn’t have the great freedoms we have. They were very little on chit-chat & wanted the conversations to stay strictly business. I would like to have the opportunity to talk with these people now, and ask their thoughts on the upcoming Olympics. I have a feeling that up until the games it will only get worse.