Friday, March 30, 2007

Olympic Genocide and Darfur

China came out blasting. It is to be expected when calls are being made for the world to boycott the Olympis Games over their policy in Darfur. Are these people really serious in making such huge unprecedented moves?

Itis like the world is pinning its only hope in ending the crisis in Darfur on China. Instead of engaging it more constructive, such calls labeling the 2008 games as "Oympic Genocide" by actress Mia is by far too extreme.

But still we live in a world of hypocresy and bullying, where the big call the shots.

3 comments:

Aaron Stewart said...

I do have to say that I find it interesting that this is the beef that people are having with China hosting the games when their track record of human rights abuses should be more than enough for the international community to choke on collectively.

Black Kush said...

It depends on what you want to achieve, I believe. China was awarded the games on the minimum changes it had made to encourage further reforms. It remains deep in human rights abuses etc. But the world turns a blind eye. Who cares then?

Anonymous said...

Kush,

If you read Farrow's article closely, you will find that she is not calling for a boycott of the Olympics in China.

Farrow, Eric Reeves, and Nicholas Kristof are the most prominent activists calling for pressure on China regarding Darfur, and none of them supports a boycott of the Games.

A boycott would be too extreme, and would alienate ordinary Chinese people. China has already been denied the Olympics twice on grounds of its human rights record.

What the activists are calling for is to use the platform of the Games to draw attention to China's continuing unwillingness to use its influence over Khartoum to win Khartoum's consent to a UN peacekeeping mission.

This just means gettigng the message out there about China's lack of helpfulness, using the Games as a symbol. Nick Kristof suggests that athletes at the games wear a green armband to signal their support for Darfuris, rather than simply boycotting the games. If they go to the games, they can get much more television coverage while in Beijing.