China is great, and it has great people and a great goverment. The Chinese goverments productivity makes our democracy look like a joke. America alone takes up half the world military spending and has the largest prision population in the WORLD. I dont want to here any more crap about China is bad until I here it from the general public of CHina. YES CHINESE HAVE A VOICE AND THEY USE IT!!! If you dont know how Chinese feel ask them we got plenty in America they are mad as hell and I think they are Right to be Angry. I lived in China for 6 years, they dont take kindly to these insults and they should not.
I am beyond sick of this hollier than thou western Bull Crap. The countries that colonized and subjegated the planet are now the ones whining about Human Rights. The President of the United States has authorized Torture, and invaded 2 countries during the time Dafur was going on. As far as Tibet goes how about we investigate Turkey and the Kurds, Israel and the Palistinains, America creating 2.4 million refugees in Iraq. What is China doing in Tibet now, well whatever they think is best for the Unity of the NATION. America had a Civil war to unify a nation. China must maintain unity, not split apart because some protesters and Western Leaders like the Da Li Lama. These Western leaders NEVER condemn Western countries for anything.
Why Flunk the International Olympic Committee?
The dictionary definition of "fail" is "the omission of expected or required action."
I am torn as to whether to discuss the failure of moral leadership by the IOC, or the phenomenon of low expectations.
The Dream for Darfur IOC Report Card documents how the IOC has shirked the messy and difficult business of the genocide in Darfur. Yet the IOC, whose headquarters sit safely in the lovely Swiss town of Lausanne, could have done so much. It has contacts at the United Nations. It has a special Olympic Truce in its own charter which promotes "respect for universal fundamental ethical principles". The IOC enjoys relationships with Olympic corporate sponsors worldwide, including some of the most powerful companies on the globe. Further, the IOC has
a network of 200 national Olympic Committees -- each boasting prominent members. The IOC has young athletes at its beck and call, role models and potential spokespeople for humanitarian causes. And above all, the IOC has the Olympic Games. This is an organization with global reach, and great potential power.
The crisis in Darfur is, after all, a genocide being underwritten by the IOC's chosen Olympic host. What have they done to end the first genocide of the 21st century? Nothing, despite the fact that when it awarded the Games to China seven years ago, the world knew then that there would be human rights issues to confront now. The IOC has had nearly a decade to plan for human rights contingencies.
But when I traveled to Switzerland to discuss with them what they might do to help bring peace to Darfur, they did not offer a single idea. They did not have a clue.
We could chalk up the IOC's lack of response to genocide to cynicism. Or laziness. And maybe both are true. The Report Card describes the IOC with the word "inept".
But I'd also say the IOC's indifference is also the mark of smallness. Of small minds, seeking to protect their turf. The Committee's reaction to what the United Nations has called "atrocities of the worst kind" is the antithesis of what draws people to the Olympic Games. What drives the athletes to do their personal best, beyond simple fame, is that whisper in their hearts that an already incredible record can be beat, and that they are the ones to do it. The IOC has
reduced its own glorious mission, this idealism and love of humanity that exudes from the Olympic Charter. The IOC is shrinking its own mandate. They have rejected their humanitarian mission; surely they don't take it seriously if their response to the anguish in Darfur is to go to a refugee camp to distribute t-shirts. Their response is the opposite of a great athlete's courage, optimism and against-all-odds belief in the impossible.
At the outset of the Dream for Darfur campaign, I was hopeful that the International Olympic Committee could be moved to action. Many people told us not to expect much, that the IOC would play both sides of the game, acting politically while claiming to be apolitical. They were right.
The Beijing Olympics is already tarnished by China's multiple human rights violations. We are sad to call this event the Genocide Olympics. But it makes me sadder still that for the children of Darfur, survival itself is a challenge -- of Olympic proportions.
The IOC has let us down. But we are not stopping our advocacy. When August 8th arrives, and the Games begin, hopefully with no major political leaders in attendance at the opening ceremonies, I will be in Chad, broadcasting images of Darfur from one of the refugee camps.
The International Olympic Committee is going about business as usual with China, while the Chinese-supported atrocities in Darfur continue. I'd call that a dismal performance, and a dispiriting belittling of what could be a great institution.
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The Olympics are meant to be two things, a competition between the best athletes in the world and a way to find common ground and bring the world community together. Instead, we've turned it into a money machine and one more way to battle our differences politically. Both are a crying shame.
These athletes train and struggle their whole lives with the dream of making it to the games. And when that dream is finally being realized the rug is suddenly pulled out from under them by non-athletes who want to send a bitter message. You know what? It's games, for pete's sake!
If we want to send a message to China, dangling a few runners and ball players isn't really all that powerful or effective. It'd be so much better to limit import/export and financial dealings, negotiate politically or even threaten war. Yet we take this route.... Hey China.... we don't like the way you treat people so we won't let some of our kids play with some of yours!!!!! As if not showing up for a race will stop the genocide!
Money trumps humanity everytime. This is heartbreaking and right in front of our eyes and we (those in power) do nothing. But "we" are doing nothing about Zimbabwe either....or Somalia...
The modern Olympic movement & the IOC have a wretched record when it comes to human rights. I consider Jessee Owens winning his event at the 1936 Olympics in Germany a slap in the face for Hitler & the IOC. Mr Owens was too much of a sportsman & gentleman to even consider giving the IOC or Hitler a well deserved slap in the face. Mr Owens was an American athlete & a black man. The incident at the Olympics in Mejico City in which American athletes who were black men accepted their prizes with raised fists & bowed heads was a well deserved slap in the face to the IOC & the USA. Those who are protesting China's treatment of Tibetans by disrupting the torch runs are giving China & the IOC a well deserved slap in the face. Ms Farrow's blog upbraids the world, China & the IOC for denying human rights to all people.
The IOC has a record of giving sportsmanship, sportsmen & amateur athletics a bad name. The Olympics in China should be cancelled by the IOC. That will not happen. A boycott of these games would be a proper response to the policies of China & the IOC which deny human rights to Tibetans. Since his holiness, the Dali[sp] Lama, opposes a complete boycott of these games, there won't be a massive boycott of the games by the world's amateur athletes. Ms Farrow's blog will do as a protest; it will do very well.
America was treating black people as second class citizens in 1936, I think the entire western world was fairly backwards. Jesse Owens won the olympic games but he still could not go to school with white people or sit at a lunch counter with them. Lets face it the Western world has a really crappy Human Rights record. China on the other hand fought to free its people from a feudal system and Tibet too, it was ruff but in the end they established a great nation. They deserve respect for doing a damn good job governing 1.3 billion people with peace. prosperity, and a lot more freedom than you know . I lived there for 6 years never felt more free in my life. The people are happy with there goverment for the most part because there goverment is not run by large corporations and special interest groups. We would kill to have a goverment like theirs for a few years to clean up the mess ours has made of America.
China has human right issues. But let's not mix up those with the recent Tibet events.
The press has relied on propaganda from "Tibet Independence Movement", failed to confirm claims of "killings" (mostly by Tibetan mobs), photoshopped events in Nepal and India as brutality in China, and made a farce of journalism with irresponsble reporting and derrogative statements.
CNN, Washington Post, and NY Times took the moral high ground and proclaimed China to be oppressive regime.
Dalai Lama should take responsibility with what "Tibet Independence" is doing. Flying flag is OK, killing innocent people is not.
I am so absolutely sick of hearing about Darfur and Tibet. Sure, they're human rights disasters backed by China but what about *our* sponsored human-rights disasters?
Darfur isn't even the worst disaster in Africa. As always, Western-backed genocides perpetrated by proxies aren't crimes at all, simply "realpolitik" just as Hussein's genocide against the Kurds in the early 1980s was funded without interruption by the US Congress and a President who refused to acknowledge the genocide for what it was.
What's going on in eastern Congo now makes Darfur into a minor joke. It is so utterly absent from any media discussion. It is destabilizing an already unstable country that has had difficulty asserting control of itself for decades now. Rwandan and Ugandan troops flooding, raping and killing everyone in sight and Western countries suckered in by the RPF as they accuse Rwandan exiles of actually being genocide masterminds when the RPF set the stage. After extradition to Kigali, critics of the RPF are quietly executed. Sexual assault reports from Congo will make you WEEP. What's going on in Congo will blow your mind... but Western corporations want a weak government in Kinshasa so they can exploit, exploit, exploit... What's going on in Darfur is rank amateurish by comparison.
I won't even start with Ethiopian atrocities in Somalia, which is now dwarfing Darfur in sheer numbers of displaced peoples and debauchery by invading (US-paid) Ethiopian forces. Even attempts to tie Ethiopian behaviour to future funding failed.
You rate rape, slicing off limbs, torture, burnt villages, murdered cattle, and government-sponsored genocide according to victim counts and the root cause. Your rating also hinges on how long ago such offenses occurred. Once a more recent atrocity than the one in Congo reaches front-page coverage, according to you, Congo should become yesterday's news. If newer insidiousness produces even larger counts, that would then give reason to no longer care about the Congolese, according to you.
Is it that I read your post while having my morning coffee, or am I awake and have read your post accurately? Quelle indifference.
Were it not for Mia Farrow, Steven Spielberg would still be involved in setting up the Olympics. Why should she give up now when Tibet is still in the news? To you, Ms. Farrow, and to your son so much driven by the ethos you have given him, I say never give up. Ever. Only by drawing attention to any genocide regardless of how long they've been going on and who is sponsoring them can we drive mass rapists, torturers, and murderers out of business. Amazing. We should give more attention to Western-driven atrocities than those effected in-country by non-Western nations or to the Congo's because it's more recent.
Patrick, I take it you do not care about Darfurians currently being raped and killed and whose homes are being burnt and cattle slaughtered. Their lives have become meaningless to you.
How offensive.
Since your choice awarding China the Olympics cannot be reversed, let no one boycott or refuse to attend this rare event that is capable of bringing humanity together. Instead, use it as a platform to issue messages of peace and compassion for one another, and hopefully enough members of your species will listen and help heal your world so you can survive the coming cosmic storm. The world you inhabit is speaking to the universe, and it is listening.
Deliver your message to China's leaders rather than to Mia Farrow. Without voices of dissent, butcherers continue unabated. Get fucking real.
That my dears would make too much sense.
Surely, the tragedy in Darfur is immense. A few journalists in the US and Europe have been trying for ages to get this on the Agenda of some Agency that can, and will do something about it. So far, no deal. Mia is to be congratulated for keeping the situation alive in people's minds. Two caveats on her post.
1. One can assume that the situation in Darfur is well-known not only at the UN but also to virtually all Governments, including, perhaps especially, those representing other African Nations. The list of
'onlookers' is very long. If we want to assign blame, the Government of China is but one entry on a very long list. Why single it out?
2. The IOC's brief is not to enact political change. It is responsible for holding a sporting event for which millions of athletes from all over the globe have trained their hearts out. Their dream, and the dream of countless more millions, who wish to see their athletes perform at the most 'unifying' event currently on anyone's radar screen, should not be tarnished. However worthy the cause -- and they don't come any worthier than Darfur --- the Games should not be used for political purposes.
Yosser, don't know what happened. I posted this as a response to PatrickWalker. The post I addressed to you has yet to appear.
Something's happenin'. Don't know what it is.
ou rate rape, slicing off limbs, torture, burnt villages, murdered cattle, and government-sponsored genocide according to victim counts and the root cause. Your rating also hinges on how long ago such offenses occurred. Once a more recent atrocity than the one in Congo reaches front-page coverage, according to you, Congo should become yesterday's news. If newer insidiousness produces even larger counts, that would then give reason to no longer care about the Congolese, according to you.
Is it that I read your post while having my morning coffee, or am I awake and have read your post accurately? Quelle indifference.
Were it not for Mia Farrow, Steven Spielberg would still be involved in setting up the Olympics. Why should she give up now when Tibet is still in the news? To you, Ms. Farrow, and to your son so much driven by the ethos you have given him, I say never give up. Ever. Only by drawing attention to any genocide regardless of how long they've been going on and who is sponsoring them can we drive mass rapists, torturers, and murderers out of business. Amazing. We should give more attention to Western-driven atrocities than those effected in-country by non-Western nations or to the Congo's because it's more recent.
Patrick, I take it you do not care about Darfurians currently being raped and killed and whose homes are being burnt and cattle slaughtered. Their lives have become meaningless to you.
How offensive.
1. Because China, who has oil deals with despotic African leaders, in this case those of Darfur, and who invaded Tibet, sends setters there to mix with Tibetans as a strategy to elimate Tibetan blood, established a puppet regime there that colludes with the Chinese government against the Tibetan people, and imprisons and murders dissenters there, is hosting the Olympic games. Last time I checked, China is the only one hosting the Games.
2. Ever since the 1972 murders of Israelis at the Olympic Games held there (hope I got the year right), the Games are used for political purposes. Think of it this way, once the price of milk goes up, does it ever go down again?
The Olympics is big business. The IOC claims a noble spirit and cause, as if Mount Olympus rose from Eden. In this contrast it is cynical, if not criminal. But why are we surprised? After all Nationalism is its base...
Thank you, Ms. Farrow, for your continued efforts to save lives as real as ours. Thank for exposing the truth and being so courageous. I hope it makes more than just symbolic difference, but real palpable different. And, to the cynics, the cold hearted selfish few who bash you, don't give them any listen as they sit on their comfortable sofas watching fox and cnn and thinking bush is a great president.
China is doing trade with Dafur they have a policy of non interference into other countries's internal affair albeit a bad choice if the regime in Dafur trade oil for weapons and use it to massacre people. The UN should take charge to stop the bloodshed and I doubt China can stop the bloodshed alone. Oil is a powerful trading tool, without Chinese weapons, they can still get them elsewhere. Especially with oil price on a high these days.
How convenience for Mia to blame China. Where were she and Steven Speiberg when the Tutsi were slaugtering the Hutu.!? Why aren't Mia and Steven raising their voices to the horror in Iraq? And shame on Steven Speiberg for pulling a stunt on the Chinese people. They have put their heart to making the Olympic a great sporting event and you have to pour cold water on their party. Darfur problem cannot be solved by one country along. United Arab Emirate is the second biggest trading partner of Sudan follow by Japan and France. China did not create the Darfur situation. Stop bashing China. China may have its own self-interest but todate it has done more good in Africa than harm. Just asked any Africans and you will be shock how grateful they are with China getting involve in Africa. Sure you will find some who think China is exploiting her, but the fact of the matter, Africa is getting lots of development from the Chinese. Give her credit.
I am glad to see realist commenting on this piece. What are all these attacks on China getting the Olympic Games supposed to amount to? The "Blame Game" is so kindergarten and weak. "europena" and "Obserever1" have summed it up perfectly and there isn't to much more that can be said. To "stringer", sure it's real nice what Mia's doing for Darfur, but when most of what she's saying is a load of tripe, what's there really to be thankful for?What does it have to REALLY do with China the country? She's hurting as much or more then she's helping. And one more thing, the biggest Olympic embarrassment we've ever seen is the list of our own (U.S.) athletes that have been juiced to the gills over the last 30 years.
Why is it China responsible, or more responsible for Darfur than you and me? And what does IOC has to do with Darfur, or more to do with Darfur than anyone else?
The imperialists exploited Africa for centuries -- a history of slavery, poverty, devastation and greed. Now it is China and IOC who are the ones responsible?
Let's start doing something for the people in Darfur instead.
Right. I totally agree with your logic. Other imperialists have done it before China, so China should be allowed to do it as well. So then Hitler did to Europe what bush is doing to the Middle East; ergo, that's okay. Great, great logic, as McCain would say, my friend.
Several months ago, some 25 million in US aid was earmarked for Darfur. Ban Ki Moon was estatic.
It got tied up in the Increased War Spending Act. I don't remember Mia saying a single word about that.
One would think that China rules the world.
Can the rest of the world not get involved and solve this crisis.
Cannot the English, the French, US and South Africa go in there and get it solved.
But no, Darfur is another excuse for China bashing.
When Spielberg left China, how much money had he already been paid.
What happened to that money.?
People like Mia are well intentioned and "well used". They are leading the world into a cold war.
THAT IS THE DANGER.
This politiziation of the Olympics will end up with many more divisions among countries than most people imagine.. Think about the future.
The US can act with impunity when it is war, why not do the same when it is humanitarian causes.
Absolutely right. george bush is not leading us into another cold war. Mia, President of the United States, is.
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't the president of the IOC a former member of the Fascist Franco regime? Why should we expect anything from this international bread and circus? The only time I ever pay the least attention to the Olympics is when someone uses it as a political platform to gain international attention. Otherwise, I could care less about a bunch of naturally endowed narcissists engaging in meaningless feats of strength and agility.
Thank you for your long and continuing history of work on issues such as this.
Thank you, Mia. I was shocked that the IOC would even consider China, given not only supporting the government of Sudan with their oil contracts, but also their long list of internal suppression of human rights.
It is a moral failure for an organization who has as one of their official goals in their mission statement, "to promote a positive legacy from the Olympic Games to the host cities and host countries". Why on earth would such an organization choose China to promote? It defies reason and compassion for the rights of man.
Hey, Esprit, get real, according to posters here, the Europeans had their imperialist shot at depriving Africans of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and now it is China's turn. No dissent permitted. If the Europeans did it, why can't China? Geesh.
I fail to see any connection between the Olympics and Darfur. The Olympics are not a political organization, in any way. Never have been, and hopefully never will be. Even if these rather spurious claims that China is somehow responsible for what happens to another country a long way away, it certainly has nothing to do with the Olympics. The only reason to attack them is to attack international good will and to prevent the good people of the planet from gathering together in peace.
It is, of course, the ultimate hypocrisy for any American to focus on attacking China when the US is engaged in a massive genocide in Iraq, that is much, much worse than what is happening in Darfur. I think we all know that the Americans who engage in this charade are just trying to avoid responsibility for their own actions. Very sad.
The Beijing Olympics are not being tarnished in any way. All you're accomplishing is to further embarrass America in the eyes of the world, and to compound her crimes with the sin of hypocrisy. And it will have absolutely no effect on the Chinese, who do not deserve to be attacked in this way.
You are right, .. but we also have done nothing with the first genocide of the 20th century, in 1915. As the great George Carlin used to say "the owners of this country do what they want". Period.
Thank you, Mia, for reminding me once again. I forget sometimes because I feel there isn't anything I can do. I admire people like you and some others who continue to look directly at this horrifying and ongoing genocide and work to end it.
There is something you can do. Donate money to the cause.
The Summer Olympics is an elaborate track meet intended to (1) put cities and regions on the map and (2) make money for vendors. The vehicle it uses are the frantic efforts of amateur athletes who seek , what else, money and fame. The Olympics is not a search and rescue mission; it has no military; it has no governmental authority; it does not have any power. True, it does have a board of arrogant non-entities whose pomposity is rarely exceeded. (Quick, name the Olympic executives?) And, it drums up a lot of advertising dollars from sponsors. If the Olympics have let down Darfur, then so have the college football bowl games, baseball's world series, the NBA playoffs, and Monday night football, to mention only a few.
The first genocide? Which came first, Iraq or Dafur?
Which Iraqi genocide?
In Africa, everything is largely interconnected. Western duplicity undermined Lumumba and the Congo and saddled it with an immensely corrupt and pliant dictator in Mobutu for decades. Once he fell in the 1990s, Congo turned into a bloodbath. It was the worst loss of life since World War II and yet was virtually absent from any media discussion.
Things spread because the national lines were designed to carve up various regions to ensure no single ethnic group had absolute power which could lead to unwanted strong central governments that would bar the plunder of their nation's natural resources.
White supremacists regimes fed warfare into Angola and dragged in Zimbabwe. Congo continued to up in flames. Spillover effects led directly to the Rwandan genocide. Move just across the northern Congolese border and you're in Sudan. What's next door to Sudan? Ethiopia and Somalia. What's south of Somalia? Kenya. Throw in HIV and you have a continent in is the biggest human crisis in recorded history. When a white man can say this, it must be that bad. For too long, Africa as a whole has been ignored and abused.
Posted April 17, 2008 | 03:50 PM (EST)