The Olympic torch is going to pass through San Francisco this week, and all manner of protests have been planned. Some have already been implemented. The locus of these protests has been, largely, China’s relations with Sudan in light of the situation in Darfur and their actions in Tibet suppressing the local population.
As a resident of Sonoma County, I’ve long been subjected to bumper sticker rhetoric showing the iconic red, gold, and blue Tibetan suburst with the words “FREE TIBET” emblazoned below. People ranging from west-county hippies to Beastie Boy Adam Yount express great concern that the unique cultural heritage and traditions of the Tibetan people are being systematically eradicated by the totalitarian government in Beijing.
I’ve got news for you: The uniquie cultural heritage and traditions of all the Chinese people have been under the same process for the past 49 years. Millions died in Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution. Nothing about the Tibetans makes them more important than hundreds of millions of their neighbors who are every bit as entitled to religious freedom, self-determination, and all the various civil liberties we consider basic human rights. Screw Tibet. Free China.
To me the difference, between the denial of human rights for Chinese and Tibetans, comes down to this: China invaded and has occupied another country for many years, without cause (sound familiar?). That’s not to downplay the rights issues of the Chinese by any means.
I agree most with the philosophy and reason for boycotting the Beijing Olympics, that Reporters Without Borders has: The issue at hand isn’t ONLY about a free Tibet, or China’s hand in the Darfur/Sudan crisis, or China’s history of restricting the flow of education and information, or their crackdown on the freedom of the press, but it’s about the larger trend of China’s ruling body having an horrible history of human rights violations and they should be held accountable. As a country that has people in prison for exercising the basic human right to the freedom of speech, they have no business hosting an annual gaming event whose own Charter states:
“Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy found in effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”
Mayor Gavin Newsom said that people should boycott China, not the olympics. I say F— that! the International Olympic Committee are the ones that decided to host the games in China to begin with.
As you said, Mao Zedong’s “revolution” butchered millions of people. But, on the flip side, one could ask: Does that make the millions (estimating here) that have died in Tibet, due to the Chinese, any less important or devastating, just because the Chinese have it bad, too?
I think the real crisis here is that some people will champion for only a smaller, more “manageable” cause, such as a free Tibet, after watching “Seven Years in Tibet” then going to buy a “Free Tibet” bumper sticker. The truth is, many people aren’t paying close enough attention to see the dots which, when connected, reveal a more frightening and attrocious account of human rights violations, other than what has taken place in Tibet.
I think it’s more reasonable to say “Screw China. Free Tibet.” Because at least then it will be a small step in the right direction.
Tibet declared independence in 1911, taking advantage of a really messy Chinese civil war, and they failed to back their claim when China reasserted its control in 1951. They fielded a 5,000 man army and were crushed. They’re living with the ramifications of that mistake now.
If you want China to change its policies, you’ll buy-in from China. Telling them to relinquish control of Tibet, which they consider to have been theirs for roughly 500 years (that’s about four times as long as the United States has controlled California) is something they’re not predisposed to. Do you think that not showing up at the Olympics will change that? As we know from previous “Made in the USA” pushes, the American people have no collective capacity to read the country-of-origin labeling. So how do you propose to talk China into letting Tibet go? What do you offer them in return? Nothing, particularly compared to what they’d get if they gave civil liberties and democratic institutions to the entirety of China (Tibet included).
I don’t see any good resolution coming to Tibet without significant human rights progress in China as a whole, short of somebody undertaking to war against China for Tibet’s independence. That, clearly, would lead to a lot more harm than the proposed good. It’s not like we’re looking to restore some egalitarian democracy here: prior to 1950 Tibet was effectively an autocratic theocracy in which most of the people were serfs living in squalor, laboring to enrich a small caste of religious leaders and oligarchs that lived rather nicely while their people suffered. I know it’s fashionable to think the Dalai Lama is a wonderful guy, but history tends to differ on this matter.
I don’t think there is a place in the world left where the Olympics can be held with out someone being angry enough to protest. Are the Olympics being held in Beijing worse than the 1936 Berlin, 1980 Moscow, or Sarajevo in 1988? The Olympics should be an event that transcends politics and used as an example of what is good and right in the world. Not a tool of political expression to demand change. Politics has no place in Athletic competition. Just watch, soon you will see political pundants analyzing the virtues and performances of American athletes by party affiliation.
If you can’t find enough to protest please feel free to check out this website:
http://protest.net/
If you really wish to protest the games don’t participate. Don’t watch. Don’t go. Wait until they are played in a place that you have no disagreements with.
@PF: While I generally agree with your sentiment, I think that has almost as much to do with the rampant misbehavior of the various power-players in the world as it does with the general lack of tact displayed by the chronically-outraged. I don’t expect a lot of torch-bearers to get knocked over on the way to the Canuckistani Winter Olympics in two years.
Oh yeah, and cool link.
I want to know where the greek gods stand in all of this.
Pending anybody getting smote by lightning, I’ll assume that Zeus has adopted a wait-and-see attitude on the whole matter.
all these “causes of the day” make me sick. when I was a kid we wrote letters to president reagan to free leonard peltier or angela davis. same idiotic premise 30 years later