Boycotting Beijing

nobody@vox.com(akaijen) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:56:58 -0400

Man, I so love me some Olympics. I love watching obscure sports, marveling at the freak show of modern gymnastics, and damn I love opening ceremony extravaganzas. This year's show will be piped in from the land that invented fireworks and will be backed by the wallet of an extremely wealthy dictatorship that can spend more money than god. It is guaranteed to blow our minds. I get misty eyed just thinking about it.

But I'm not going to watch the games this year.

Beijing

I was shocked in the first place that the IOC awarded the games to China, not the least because their human rights record is so abysmal as to hardly be a record at all. But it's also a bit more than curious that the Chinese government and IOC officials that lately have been chiding critics with the mantra, "it's the innocent athletes that will suffer from a boycott" will unleash the innocents on one of the world's most polluted cities. Suffer, indeed.

I, like many, have been hoping all along that the glare of the Olympic flame would reveal China's dirty secrets, spurring a behavior change. Recent events in Tibet only highlight the extreme arrogance of the communist regime -- nothing has changed. Indeed it could be far worse than we'll ever know as evidenced by the even tighter restrictions placed on international journalists.

Worldwide, governments and individuals are raising the question of any number of possible "official" boycotts. Perhaps most public is that French president Nicolas Sarkozy revealed this week that he is open to the possibility that France would boycott the opening ceremonies. European Union Vice-President Edward McMillan-Scott has been calling for the 27 European member states to boycott the games for some time. Even some Australians, who love sports more than we do, are calling for a boycott, though we should remind them that the Sydney Olympic committee were the first to step up to "help" China prepare for their debut.

In addition to the problem of Tibet, we should also consider China's role in Darfur, its treatment and possible genocide of Falun Gong and other religious practitioners, its animals rights record, its role in the Burmese dictatorship, its tragic lack of health and safety standards for its workforce, forced abortions, forced resettlements, and its appalling environmental record.

As Australian Democrats Andrew Bartlett has pondered, "if the Olympics were being held in Zimbabwe, would we want to be a part of it?"

So, as much as I love the Olympics, with all its pomp and circumstance , I just can't support this. I also can't support the games' corporate sponsors. This won't be easy considering the Coca-Cola empire owns literally hundreds of brands including Godiva, Odwalla and Nature's Own healthy food products. Giving up Chipotle, a subsidiary of McDonald's, is also a bit of a bummer. I admit, though, that I have to make one exception for Visa because they make my debit card work. You can bet I'll be sending them a letter.

I probably haven't built a strong enough case, but these people can back me up:

"Boycott Beijing" Slate.com, March 24, 2008

10 Reasons to Boycott the Beijing Olympics

BoycottBeijing.eu

Reporters Without Borders

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Boycotting Beijing