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Will Tibetan violence cause an Olympic boycott?

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Following the unrest in Tibet over the last week, it has been reported that a growing number of European and US cities are urging their governments not only to denounce the Chinese government, but also think about boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

Speaking last week, the Dalai Lama called for an international inquiry into the rioting and response from Chinese officials describing their actions as 'cultural genocide.'

Although the reports of protesters urging governments to denounce Beijing's Olympics, there has been no discernible movement to formally boycott the event, with others seeing the Olympics as a chance to encourage China to improve its human rights record.

The Spanish Olympic Committee's president, Alejandro Blanco spoke on the issue, saying that:
"There is no doubt about it that the Olympics has the potential to vastly improve the human rights situation in China," with the head of France's Judo Federation, echoing Blanco's thoughts, saying:

"Without the Olympics ahead, the world would not be so concerned over what is going on in Tibet".

What's your thoughts? Do you think that countries should boycott the Olympics or use it as an opportunity to 'encourage China to improve its human rights record'?
mattbrawn

23 responses // Will Tibetan violence cause an Olympic boycott?

  • http://current.com/items/88868939_beijing_locks_down_lh...
    For more on the violence in Tibet and the move Sunday to 'lock down' Lhasa check this link:
    mattbrawn
  • my first reaction upon hearing this horrible treatment of the tibetan people is to definitely boycott the olympics. however, i'm beginning to see the importance of still having them, and using them as a platform of change for china. the olympics symbolize peace and brotherhood, its strong feeling to root on your fellow man in the final seconds of any competition. maybe this peacable environment will have some affect on chinese officials, and other countries will agree to extend an olive branch and help hammer out future improvements. but then again, maybe thats all just a nice dream...
    aBeaUtifulSavAge
  • are you kidding me!??!?!?! I dont know why anyone is even tripping on the chinese really! the west allows isreal to do WAY WORSE to the palestinians!

    i do hope that someone high profile does boycott...or if they dont, that when they come into the stadium during the opening...that some atheletes do a sort of juan carlos type of demonstration. wear a free tibet shirt or free the palestinians or something to that effect. and as often as possible. or the crowds in the stands hold up signs that say that. i bet the chinese will control the media and whenever they see this displayed, that they will cut the feed. i mean you cant throw out everyone, but it would be cool. or some athelete sews a permanant patch on their uniform or something. and the jacked up thing is that the us gov will tell its atheletes to not display protest againt the chinese or they will be kicked off the teams. then i hope alot of atheletes to, and they ALL get kicked off! that would not only embarrass the chinese, but also the USOC. that would be lovely! then there would be no us team, and then a few other nations follow suit. thats the best way to do it.

    or get on the platforms like in swinning, then all of a sudden..right before the gun, stand up and say I will not swim in china until tibet is dealt with...it will only work if damn near all the swimmers participate. and the ones that dont, wont accept their medals because it wasnt againt the competition. I have it all figured out! it would be lovely!!
    okinawanmajik
  • I would like to see the Olympian athletes, one by one, stand in protest against China's treatment of Tibet, and boycott the Olympics....this would be real sacrifice on the part of one human being for the life of another human being, and speak volumes across the world. We are all political beings, whether we like it or not.



    This begins to remind me of Agentina's World Cup win in the year they killed 30,000 of their own people...the world stood silent and congratulated them, as people were being murdered beneath the city streets.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/22/argentina.i...
    Incredulous
  • or the rumble in the jungle... same situation
    okinawanmajik
  • you have to remember though, most of these athletes have lived their sport since they were children, literally giving up everything else. and then they get to the olympics, which could make them historic AND millionaire, and tell them they shouldn't compete. i think having U.S. athletes protest is a fantastic idea and i hope someone (from any country) follows through, but i honestly doubt that people from a country founded upon competition, recognition, and money would boycott their own shot at stardom. its the material world we live in...
    aBeaUtifulSavAge
  • i dont think many atheletes will lose their ability to compete. the issue is solidarity. if all the atheletes together stop the games, it not only will embarrass the chinese, but it will also embarrass their representative nations for not doing anything. As a former athelete, people dont realise how much power we have. If at the World Cup, all the players stopped playing because of the evil that is Isreal, well the world would look at isreal and it could force them to ACT immediately! the games will go on. but to be on this stage i mean come on!! I wouldnt respect them if they didnt!

    as human beings, they have a responsibility to do this, and anything less is cowardace in my opinion.

    make money later in life....or save a few lives now? kind of a no brainer!
    okinawanmajik
  • Australia, one of the Olympics' powerhouses, won't boycott - not yet anyway:
    http://bigpondsport.com/Home/NewsArticle/tabid/70/Defau...

    Personally, I think the media should boycott the Games. That would send a far more powerful message.
    Foraggio
  • Okinawan Majic-

    The issue in context is not the Israeli Palestinian civil crisis, although it is just as important I agree, but the Olympics isn't being held either in Israel or Palestine and it's not being held in the U.S either., It's being held in China, China is persecuting Tibetans as well as aiding and abetting Sudan which uses the oil revenues to fund it's Janjaweed killing machines. China needs to be stripped of it's Olympic privileges as well as all other countries violating Human Rights Laws!!!!
    Mobius2012
  • I honestly hope that china is stripped of all of its Olympic privileges!
    Mobius2012
  • mo-b i understand that its in china...and i agree 100% but the reason i put that, is to point out that americans will be hypocritical if they trip on china in the manner that we are all saying, but wont say anything to isreal for doing WAY WORSE than what china is doing. i realise that china should be embarrassed, but i believe that lazy ass nations like the US should be punked as well, just as hard..you can they are supplying the janjaweed, which they are..but the US is supplying Isreal with its weapons to murder the palestinians. its the EXACT SAME THING! if the us goes down tht road, i hope china says it publically to counter the us's hypocracy...then see what happens.
    okinawanmajik
  • Let's not forget the Indian Violence on Kashmiris since 1947....
    jasminerafique
  • Can you boycott against America, Israel & India?
    You can't :)
    jasminerafique
  • i buy only from mexico!! goya, goya goya!!!
    okinawanmajik
  • The olympics are no longer a show of international brotherhood. What hypocrisy. They are only a way for the host country and the sponsors to get rich. BOYCOTT THE OLYMPIC GAMES and protest the abysmal human rights record of China. Let them then feel it in their wallets since that seems to be the only thing human beings understand now.
    JanforGore
  • Personally , i don't want to make China mad - i want to keep the " happy meals " as cheap as possible - piss China off and your kid will be getting f-all for a toy .
    malathion
  • Well gee, we could always start making goods in America again. What a concept huh? Some free country we are: In hock to China and Saudi Arabia.
    JanforGore
  • and isreal......but you know what. as a former banking analyst..i will tell you that china holds the US by the balls really, though it doesnt bother me, ill be in school! China has so much of the united states' money in the form of debt and so much of the united states' cash that it could give each person in their country $500 and still not use any of their own money. how do you think they are building and expanding so much? with america's money!! dumass'. and you can look this up actually, if china called its notes the us would be finished over night....or the more likely is that they pump all that cash back into the united states. now although the us money isnt really backed by anything, it is still suceptible to inflation. that is whats going on now. plus for years china has fought re-evaluating their currency the yuan.

    the surest way to destroy a nation isnt through war, its by destroying their economy. now the chinese are not stupid...(i mean who didnt cheat off of the chinese kid in class?) and I know the united states knows this. they dont wanna piss the chinese off, so the us will puss out. because it will not hurt the chinese to either call the us's notes or pump cash back into the economy (china makes 18billion PER MONTH of the us's money) thats 216 billion per year and this has been going on for years!!! not this much of course, but its up to 18 billion now. (GAO 2007)

    the us with all its so called might and whatnot is a bunch of puss' when it comes to china. talk talk talk. the only problem is the dollar serves as the conduit between the yuan and the euro so it could hurt china in that respect only...but it would be so funny if china ruined the us like that! i actually see it happening in 2010 or 2011. so far ive been right about everything...we will see!!

    if you dont believe me...go look for yourselves.
    okinawanmajik
  • Well....when Idi Amin was killing his own people in Uganda and the Palestinians hijacked a plane and landed it there. Israel sent their elite forces in and saved their people from that hijacked plane in Uganda....they still get my vote for that maneuver. You have to hand it to Israel for that at least, they protect their own. There have been far too many dictators out there who have been guilty of the opposite...they kill their own people. Granted, Israel hasn't earned any points for the way they are treating the Palestinians in a long time, and the negotiation of a peace settlement is beyond overdue there.

    China and Tibet are another story....China has been getting away with this for a long time, and they want everyone to pretend it's not there, but it is, and it's ugly. Globally, we have a history of violence...the thing is, we decide to sound off on some of it, and some of it gets closeted. The Olympics, however, are viewed by the world as a participatory event, and boycotting has long been used to make political statements. It's kind of like hosting the family reunion...you can't hide Uncle Jasper's alcoholism any more when the shindig is at your house. Game's up.
    Incredulous
  • It's no secret Tibetans are terribly oppressed in Tibet. It was only a matter of time for protests to turn violent again.

    There is a very similar situation in Urumqi in Western China.

    This was my experience in Tibet in 2006:
    http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/chinadiaries/...

    And here:
    http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/chinadiaries
    Germancamera
  • where do you think the U.S. government gets this power? from the people! yes, our gov. has been hijacked from us in some aspects, but if the American people (hell, if humanity) really wanted something one, it could be done. appeal to the governemnts, the U.N., the dali lama, whoever you want, but if you really want to win this thing for man kind (against ALL those big bad countries) you've gotta reconvince mankind that the life of his genetically varied brothers is just as valuble as his own.
    aBeaUtifulSavAge
  • um incred...they hijacked that plane to get the world to ask why did they do it! not to just kill people. and assholes like netanyahu whose brother was the only one killed has made it his life goal to not only suppress and oppress, but kill as many GUILTY palestinians he can before he dies!

    this would be no difference than taking a hostage..if the athletes do stand up and boycott, they in fact would be hijacking the olympics. no difference. they would be standing up so the world would be like, huh? why are they doing this..they wont play because of why? is it really that bad there? wow!!

    yea im behind the athletes! free tibet!

    but not only will china be punked, but nations like germany, or the us or france or whatever...those nations that also did nothing to confront china.
    okinawanmajik
  • If people really want to voice their issues with China, don't buy China made products... guess what, not going to happen. Sad but true. There are too many people with vested interests in the Olympics going ahead, and too many lazy people that won't even get to know the issues, let alone pressure their governments to boycott Beijing. This is one of the few opportunities where global eyes will be on China, it would be a shame to waste this chance to make a stand.
    btbrulz

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