Voices against an Olympic boycott...

Two people I respect immensely, Fareed Zakaria and HH the Dalai Lama, on reasons NOT to boycott the Beijing Olympic games -- let me know what you think? Zakaria may be right that a boycott of the opening ceremonies, and not the Games overall, would be more effective. Others have pointed out this is unfair to the athletes, that punishing them does nothing constructive. I say Yes and No to that -- athletes are grossly over-paid, over-worshipped and over-congratulated in our society, so why do they need a multi-billion dollar celebrations of their accomplishments? It's the same way I feel about the Oscars, a bunch of overblown, self-congratulatory bullshit. There will just be more doping and corruption scandals anyways, so don't tell me it's about harmony between nations. Why don't teachers get an Olympics, people who actually help the world and deserve a parade? Sure, these world-class athletes have talent, dedication and drive, working on their craft; but so do all my friends in the arts, and for them, perfecting their craft is reward in itself. I went to one of the best universities on the planet, and none of my professors are being celebrated for their contributions to humanity. Why can't you just be an amazing long-jumper and go quietly about your business, why bring super duper ego into it?
Anyways, I am deeply contemplating what FZ and HHDL have to say, regarding my position about boycotting, so read the whole articles from the website, what do you think?

Don’t Feed China’s Nationalism
Public humiliation does not work nearly as well on the regime in Beijing as private pressure. Fareed Zakaria
“At first glance, China's recent crackdown in Tibet looks like a familiar storyline: a dictatorship represses its people. And of course that's part of the reality—as it often is in China. But on this issue, the communist regime is not in opposition to its people. The vast majority of Chinese have little sympathy for the Tibetan cause. To the extent that we can gauge public opinion in China and among its diaspora, ordinary Chinese are, if anything, critical of the Beijing government for being too easy on the Tibetans. The real struggle here is between a nationalist majority and an ethnic and religious minority looking to secure its rights.

In these circumstances, a boycott of the Olympics would have precisely the opposite effect that is intended. The regime in Beijing would become only more defensive and stubborn. The Chinese people would rally around the flag and see the West as trying to humiliate China in its first international moment of glory. (There are many suspicions that the United States cannot abide the prospect of a rising China.) For most Chinese, the Games are about the world's giving China respect, rather than bolstering the Communist Party's legitimacy…”


SEATTLE — The Dalai Lama said yesterday that he did not support a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Asked on NBC "Nightly News" whether he wanted the world to boycott the Olympics this summer, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader replied, "No." When the network asked whether he wanted the leaders of the U.S. and other nations to boycott the opening ceremony in support of Tibet and as a statement against China's recent crackdown there, the Dalai Lama replied, "That's up to them."

"It is very important to make clear, not only just the Tibet case, but in China proper" also, he said, adding that the human-rights situation in China is "poor ... very poor." Asked what his message to China was, he said: "My main point is: We are not against you. And I'm not seeking separation."

BOYCOTT THE 2008 OLYMPICS!!!

(from 18 Mar 2008)

BOYCOTT THE 2008 OLYMPICS!!!

When China was awarded the 2008 Olympics in the early part of our new century, I was very skeptical. As a long-time advocate for Tibetan freedom and close watcher of Chinese policy towards the ethnic minorities within its border, I did not feel China should be rewarded for bad behavior. And please understand when I say ’China,’ I mean the Communist oligarchy currently ruling the nation, NOT individuals of Chinese nationality or origin.

Their human rights abuses, throughout the 20th century but especially since the ’Cultural Revolution’ of the 60s, is utterly reprehensible. They have systematically oppressed freedoms of religion, speech, privacy, and security while also maintaining ugly misogynism and xenophobias. As you may know, China illegally invaded, occupied and brutalized the sovereign nation of Tibet in the 1950s, claiming that Tibet had always been part of China proper and it was only proper to return it to the "Motherland." They argue the same about Taiwan, Manchuria, and Mongolia -- just look at the disgusting symbolism in the Chinese flag. The one large star represents mainland China, and the small stars around it articulate their ideology about bringing back the lost sheep to the fold, as it were.

However, this is a gross misrepresentation of historical fact. Ethnically and linguistically, Tibet is far more connected to India and the Subcontinent than to China and eastern Asia. The Tibetan language is a separate branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages and the alphabet directly derives from the Sanskrit of India. Tibet for most of its history has been sovereign and, indeed, it once ruled China!!!

My friends in the Tibet advocacy community countered me, that modernizing for the Olympics would force China to clean up its act, and it would force the attention of the world on China’s human rights abuses, which it levels against its own people. Open religious worship is restricted and peaceful movements like Falun Gong are demonized. I was very skeptical indeed, but now I am starting to think my friends are right.

Sure, I have no love for the Chinese government and their policies -- I was proud to march on both the Chinese Embassy and the World Bank in Washington, DC during International Tibet Day, chanting "Shame, shame - China, Shame!" along with Richard Gere and other members of ICT -- but the onus is on the Chinese people themselves to wade through the bullshit force-fed to them by the government-controlled media. As free as the capitalist sector of China might be becoming, there is still a disgusting amount of state censorship of the media; radio, TV, newspapers, magazine and even the Internet (as the recent fiascos with Google and Yahoo have shown). The line fed to the average Chinese citizen is that Tibetans gleefully welcomed the People’s Liberation Army so their country could be "reformed."

At my college, there were many Chinese students studying in the Conservatory, some of whom had been in the West before, while others had not been out of their home country prior to that. I had an Indian composition professor who was shocked at the ignorance of these students, who would parrot the Chinese policy on Tibet, totally ignorant of the genocide, torture, murder, imprisonment, oppression and flat-out evil perpetrated by their own government. But if the government controls all your information, how are you to know differently?

Why, I ask over and over again, does the US need to "liberate" Kuwait (an oil-rich nation) when Saddam Hussein breathed on it funny in 1991, but we totally ignore the fact that millions of people have been murdered (ONE-THIRD of the Tibetan population!!!) and a sovereign country has been occupied for 50 years?!?! Tibet was never a perfect country and HH the Dalai Lama himself always maintained that the feudal system of Tibet prior to 1950 was deeply flawed and in need of reform. But no country or people deserve that. I am all for Socialism and Marxism, but the branch of Maoist-Communism practiced in China is truly evil to its core.

 So I ask you to boycott in whatever way you can, the 2008 Beijing Olympics. If not for Tibet, than for the Chinese support of the murderous regime of Burma (which I refuse to call Myanmar), of for their refusal to provide aid in Darfur. Or for human rights abuses in East Turkestan. The list goes on... One of the main reasons Beijing was awarded the Olympics was because they promised to improve their human rights record. They have not.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/17/2191400.htm?section=sport
http://www.boycott2008olympics.org/
http://boycott2008games.blogspot.com/