China
I don't post on it because I don't know what to say. I detest the Chinese government, and I can't believe the world tolerates what it's doing in Tibet. I understand why some think that constructive engagement is the appropriate course of action, but it's not clear to me that that's the best way to go. If boycotting the Olympics would help, I'd support that course of action. (And anyone who whines about the athletes in that regard is nuts. Though it'd be a profound disappointment to athletes, we're talking about people's lives--and the course of history--here.) Of course China kind of owns us now, so I suppose standing up to them is just about out of the picture...
So you can see why I never post on this...
I don't post on it because I don't know what to say. I detest the Chinese government, and I can't believe the world tolerates what it's doing in Tibet. I understand why some think that constructive engagement is the appropriate course of action, but it's not clear to me that that's the best way to go. If boycotting the Olympics would help, I'd support that course of action. (And anyone who whines about the athletes in that regard is nuts. Though it'd be a profound disappointment to athletes, we're talking about people's lives--and the course of history--here.) Of course China kind of owns us now, so I suppose standing up to them is just about out of the picture...
So you can see why I never post on this...
posted by Winston Smith at
9:49 AM
4 Comments:
I know what you mean. Studying Chinese Religions in an academic environment focused heavily on Tibetan issues puts me in an interesting place on these issues. All around me, people are throwing around ideas about how they could create academic focus groups or discussions about Tibet, and frantically trying to organize them, they are.
But honestly, wtf good will it do to write a letter? It will do approximately zero good. Do these people honestly think the Chinese government will read their letter and be like "Wow, we never thought of it THAT way!" and stop doing what they're doing?
I just don't know what to do. There seems little can be done. We can merely sit by and watch thousands be killed, imprisoned, and oppressed.
Wee.
On that note, I'd like to point out my disgust at this:
http://www.tibetopenletter.org/
That's the academic response, eh?
Does that seriously make these people feel like they've done something? Pathetic.
Honestly, given all that I've read about Beijing's pollution problem, I think boycotting the Olympics would be doing all the athletes a favour.
WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime critic of China's human rights policies, said Friday it would be wrong to boycott the Beijing Olympics.
She said in a statement that while the Chinese government has failed to live up to its commitments to improve human rights conditions in China and Tibet, "I believe a boycott of the Beijing Olympics would unfairly harm our athletes who have worked so hard to prepare for the competition."
Not to mention they'd cut off our supply of Elmo dolls.
Y'know, I could vote Democrat now and then if they were willing to pay a price, any price, some price, for their loudly expressed principles.
"As I said in India last week where I met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, if freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, we have lost our moral authority to speak out on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world," she said.
Talk, talk, talk. At least Jimmy Carter was willing to hiss some people off by boycotting the 1980 Soviet Olympics after they invaded Afghanistan. Maybe not the best decision, but a principled one, one with a price, and to his credit.
Oh well, back to Bush, to make sure he doesn't get re-elected and invade Iraq again.
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