Boycotting the Olympics does not make any sense

I am pretty sure those people here who're saying "We should boycott the Olympics to be held in China '08 because of their continuing human rights abuses...." have never been to China, they just get some news from newspaper and internet,then can not wait to say sth irresponsible.


Seeing is believing.Just give you an example,I've got a good friend from New York,when she just arrived China,she was even afraid of going out for shopping in the evening as she heard that China was a terrible and unsafe place WHEN SHE WAS IN THE UNITED STATES.But half a year later,she found that nothing is incorrect and now enjoys her life very well here.


She is not sure if China is a safe place,and her experience tells her the truth.At least we never got a person holding a gun,rushing to the campus,shooting at the students¡*China is a very big country with great population,if you want to get some negative news you can get them everyday,but we can not gain any truth from these individual cases.



I can totally understand why some people are very happy when they get some bad news from China. China's economy is growing very fast and some Americans have a sense of crisis,if they get some negative news about China ,they will be very glad and then comfort themselves:"ok,very good,China has problems,we are still the best". yes,USA is still the most powerful country in the world,which is known by anybody living in this planet.but you should take a correct attitude towards psychology and have a fair treatment to the development of other countries.



As for the Olympics, The motto of it is¡± Faster, Higher, Stronger¡±, not human rights or anything else. There is nothing significant to boycott the Olympics, but a whole generation of players will lose out on an opportunity to fullfill their lifelong dreams.



Just think back,China did not boycott anything in 1984 and 1996¡*¡*

 

Free Tibet!

 

FREE IRAQ

 

She obviously wasn't in Tibet. Or rather, she wasn't Tibetan. Or rather, she was an American.

And do you honestly believe the Olympics is just about sports? China is doing all this nutjob shit to prepare for the Olympics because they are big fans of pole vaults. That's bullshit, and you know it. Hell, everyone knows it. Its not some secret conspiracy theory that China is using this as the huge opportunity to attract business to its country.

And business should be linked to human rights abuse. People's lives are far more important than whether or not some guy gets to run around a track r China gets to show off its ability to fuck with the weather.

 

so what happened in Tibet has shown that all Chinese people are unhappy?your logic is perfect! The funny thing is that we do not know we are happy or not,but Americans know more.

Sorry that I am not going to waist my time to expain Tibet to a person who knows nothing about China.That way, I won't waste the necessary 5 minutes it takes to type what I think ,I'll save a further 3 minitues or so to explain once more after you reply.


At least I've been to Tibet before...


If you know how to Google, pls Google the information yourself,there are some French journalists who saw what on earth happened there ,and just Google to see what they wrote down.I am sure they are more convictive to you.

 

HarryJin,
Why should one support the Olympics?

And how does one "support the Olympics"?

When I asked the similar question about how to boycott the Olympics, the answer I got was "educate people about China's human rights abuses." It's not a good answer for making a dictionary, but it is a specific action plan.

So, why should one support the Olympics and how does one support the Olympics?

Also, regarding your rhetorical question "so what happened in Tibet has shown that all Chinese people are unhappy?" A country can ignore the human rights of people without most of the citizens being "unhappy". Most instances of a country abusing human rights are abuses of minorities, leaving the majority of the citizens happy. The happiness of the general population is not a measure of whether human rights are being abused.

 

PEOPLE ARE DYING IN IRAQ

 

MIKE£¬

If one should boycott the Olympics,why should people hold the games?

Our human society is far from perfection,if some people gain,there must be another "some people" who lose.

How many people died in Iraq? more than 1 million. Tibet is nothing compared with this. Should we boycott the Olympics held in USA next time?

Lol...Americans enjoy our products while boycotting the Olympics.

 

I'm not advocating that people "boycott the Olympics". (I'm not sure how non-atheletes would do that.)

If the Olympics were a way for people of different countries to interact without politics, that would be wonderful. However, since the 1936 Games (perhaps before) the Olympics have been used by the host country to promote its policies, and other countries to oppose those policies. Some athletes have used the Olympics to promote their political positions. Non-participating groups used the Olympic games to agitate for their political causes, unrelated to the host country.

If "Boycott the Olympics" has become the rhetorical equivalent of "protest China's human rights violations" so be it.

China is tiding up Bejing in order to put improve its image during the Games. The centuries old habit of spitting is being discouraged, because non-Chinese find it offensive. If the Chinese government is using the Games to promote its image, I see nothing wrong with the opponents of the Chinese government to use the Olympics to draw attention to the faults that the Chinese are trying to gloss over.

(I'm still not attending, even if they do free Tibet.)

 

Mike,you haven't got my point.you should not use double standard on this issue.American attacking on Irag have caused more than 1 million people dead,which is the biggest fault in the world during recent years.But Bush are still trying to gloss over their mistakes. Now you evaded this issue and only talk about Tibet or other faults China made,it's just like a thief yelling: "Catch the thief!"

 

If you think I haven't posted about the Iraq war, you haven't read my other posts.

I am a lot more vocal about Iraq than about China, because 1) Iraq is being done in my name and 2) I think that citizens of this country can influance what the government can do. Others on this board disagree, but I have been urging people to vote Democratic in November, Iraq being one of the main differences between the corpratist Dems and the corpratists Repubs.

It sounds like your complaint is that the Olympic boycott folks don't share your priority list. That they give the Olympics more importance than you think it deserves. I agree with that, but telling people to stop working on what they care about and start working on my concerns has not worked in the past, nor do I expect it to in this case.

May I suggest that you place more of your efforts more in opposing the illegal, immoral colonial war in Iraq than in arguing priorities with people who think the Olympics are important. The Olympic boycotters are not your foes. Your opposition is that 17 year old who thinks opposition to the Iraq occupation is treason http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4202880#post4202880
Your efforts can be put in disuading young men from joining the military. (http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284598)

The Boycott the Olympics crowd may be fighting the wrong fight, but they're on the right side.

P.S. regarding your OP: insulting people and telling them that they are stupid is an ineffective method of persuasion. Its hard enough showing people their factual errors, without requiring them to admit their personal faults.

 

The World can give China the space to have an Olympics.


Just because we join China in celebrating The Games does not mean that we forget the issues.

Let China host the party.

After all its Not the Chinese who are killing all of those people in Darfur, Sudan. Do we dare to point the finger at who the real Darfur murderers are? China just buys the oil, just like America buys oil. Yes we wield influence but we don't own the problem.

We could use China's help in containing nuclear proliferation in North Korea and Iran. Boycoting the Olympics will not solve these issues.

Is anyone on this thread concerned with The Mainland bullying Taiwan? These two sides should be sitting down somewhere discusing the issues. The two share so much; why aren't they talking?

 

Harryjin just the same old tired lines about freedom and democracy which is the only way these people seem to be able to see the world what they are told to say and do ,they have never been anywhere accept to school and back.I feel that most of these posters are not even old enough to vote let alone travel internationally.they have been stuffed so full of propaganda for so long they are incapable of seeing the world in any other terms..They cannot protest their governments and what they are doing to the world (oil) so they are told to look somewhere else to direct their rage.
Watch their reaction to this post and see who the real terrorists are.

 

Dear all
I'm very glad u all pay attention to China especially Chinese people
because u so care about human right in China
u wonder, holp, try to make, Chinese live happily
Thanks
because I'm a Chinese, so it's my best plessure to answer what ever I know based on
my own experience , if I'm not sure I will confess but not to claim sth arbitrarily

but firstly I'd like to ask you, my friends, what the definition of human right or abuse of human right?

For Tibet, I should indicate that we do not call her Tibet, we call her Xi Zang which is definitly a part of China, a province of China. if you deny this, I would refuse to speak with u, this just like if I said Alaska was a independent country but not a state of America, u should be very angry

But of course, I think Tibet is more easier to pronounce, may that's why many Americans call her Tibet

 

The difference is Alaska voted for and applied for statehood. I don't think the people of Tibet requested provinceship with China.

 

are you Tibet people, have you ask every people in Tibet? if you ask Dalai Lama, I think I know the answer. have you even been in Tibet?
if you just learn Tibet from the media you familar with, please donot get the conclsion arbitrarily

I have not been Tibet also, but I know the road was built by our goverment, the railway which connect the altiplano and outside road was built by our goverment, and I saw more and more Tibet people in the cities of east China

do you know stories of the famous nomark of Tibet---Kong Fansen
if you think all the media of China is cheating their people, so why you or I
believe your TV

hope someone who want to know a common Chinese's thinking, pls contact me ybbhfdf@hotmail.com
I just know and will tell you what I know based my life experience

 

actually this is the first time and first day I post thread on a foreign forum,
I just watched some news from MSNVidieo which I had never visited before
I feels very amazing, because some reports and real cases were hided by our
Chinese media,
at the same time, I really feel angry when I saw the subreptions from
some foreign media along with their bias
I feek angry because all of us are being cheated somewhat sometime
so I cannot help writing so much

 

If in deed they applied to be part of China, then your Government should be able to provide copies of said application. The world was witness to the Treaty of Simla.

Tibet is not the only reason I will boycot the Olympics and currently boycott all Chinese products, there are many including that the Chinese Government still will not tell the world what happened to the students in Tianamen Square is one of the big reasons. I was against my country granting China MFN Status. They don't deserve it.