The Olympics Are Political
Today the 2008 Summer Olympics start in Beijing. The debate in the lead up to the Games has focused on whether or not this sporting event, representing the pinnacle of thousands of athletes' careers, is also a time to discuss politics. The host nation of China has the ignominious distinction of possessing one of the world's worst human rights records. From an illegal military occupation of Tibet, to repressive policies in Muslim East Turkestan, to stringent family planning that has included forced abortions, and the jailing of democracy and free speech activists, there is little to say positively about how China treats those who live inside their borders. Taking a look from Beijing towards the African continent and we see China's endless thirst for fossil fuels manifesting itself by propping up the Sudanese government and providing Khartoum with the money they need to perpetrate genocide in Darfur. These are not issues that the global community has taken lightly and it is because of their gravity that the political side of the 2008 Games will be a focal point over the next few weeks.
No one has ever cast doubt on the Chinese government's ability to put on a stunning show during the Olympics. Over $40 billion has been spent to make the Games more glamorous and high tech than ever before. Some of the architecture associated with the Games -- the brand new airport, the Water Cube that hosts swimming events, and the Bird's Nest Olympic stadium -- is on par with the most beautiful and interesting designs in the world. And when they can be seen amid Beijing's quantifiably unhealthy smog and haze, I am sure audiences worldwide will marvel at their grandeur.
I am a huge fan of the Olympic Games. I love the sport, learning about the life time of hard work athletes put into making themselves not just remarkable, but Olympian. I enjoy a bit of healthy nationalism, knowing that rooting for my American countrymen and women to defeat all others comes without a hint of worry that whatever patriotic country western songs (or pop anthems if you're in the UK) will be used to, say, build public sentiment to start a war of aggression. I even love watching analysts and pundits break down the details of a sport they probably haven't watched or commented on since the last Olympics four years prior.
But the enjoyment of sport is not diminished by the recognition that there are serious problems in China that demand global attention. China has invited the world in and we are coming, but let's not pretend we are making a compact when we turn on NBC or ESPN to not let our beliefs about human rights and freedom enter our mind.
I've been involved with efforts by Students for a Free Tibet related to the Olympics for over eight years. When focus shifted to the 2008 bid, we were there. And once the International Olympic Committee awarded China these Olympics, we shifted our efforts in recognition of the opportunity that would be afforded to Tibetans while the whole world was watching the Games.
You see, no occupied people have ever had their occupier given such a prime stage for global attention in modern history. While the Chinese government will seek to focus the world's attention on the bright lights, new stadiums, and rising Chinese medal count in Beijing, Tibetans and their supporters are working to shift that spotlight onto China's brutal occupation of Tibet.
Already this week activists from Students for a Free Tibet have taken a daring action that focused attention on Tibet. On Wednesday two Americans and two Britons unfurled giant banners from 120 foot high light poles outside of the Bird's Nest stadium, calling for Tibetan independence. Massive protests by Tibetans and their supporters in London, Toronto, New York, San Francisco, and Kathmandu (among many others) have garnered significant attention as well.
I don't know how coverage and global perceptions of these Olympics will change once the athletics start, but for now I believe the world has come to the conclusion that Tibet is an issue that must be at the forefront during the Games. Will further protests have an impact? With hundreds of millions of people watching the Games, I have no doubt that the continued public discussion about China's ongoing military occupation of Tibet can net results that help Tibetans move closer to independence.
As you watch the Olympics over the next few weeks, remember that the events on TV are not happening in a vacuum. And when images of protest and calls for Tibetan independence or religious freedom break into coverage of gymnastics or water polo, recognize that they are taking place because the world is just not ready to abandon morality and human dignity because there are Games on.
To stay up to date on the global action for Tibet during the Olympics, please visit freetibet2008.org and Tibet Will Be Free, the official blog of Students for a Free Tibet.
Matt Browner-Hamlin is a Democratic internet strategist, writer, and consultant. He has worked with Students for a Free Tibet for over eight years, including two years as a full-time staff member. The views expressed are his alone and not the views of any of his clients.
Read more HuffPost coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
Follow Matt Browner Hamlin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mbrownerhamlin
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China has a horrible human rights record. But the United States is complaining? Give me a break.
Here are some startling statistics that I have tried to post here about five times, but the Huff Post apparently doesn't want you to read it:
China has 1.3 billion people and 1.5 million people in prison.
The U.S. ha 300 million people and over 2 million people in prison.
source: use "the Google".
I'm torn with regard to the Olympics. On principle I want to completely avoid them because of China's abuse of Tibet and their police/corporate state (which our own President admires and is attempting to duplicate). My husband was watching the Olympics last night however, and once you start watching you can't help but be drawn in. I'm ashamed and embarassed by our President and his Administration, but how can you not be incredibly proud of the Americans competing?? After 8 years of the Bush Administration and his never-ending war in Iraq it's nice to have a reason to be proud to be American!!
It is interesting that progress only seems to happen when we allow countries to join in world events and decisions despite their moral and ethical shortcomings. The Olympic committee could just as easily have dismissed China as a possible location BECAUSE of their known history of human rights abuses. Instead, they have shined a spotlight on those abuses for the world to see. China will change because it has too.
Yeah, I think hosting the Olympics convinced Hitler to change . . . The Olympic Committee and its member states did not pick China for noble humanitarian reasons. They picked China, because they were peddling for influence there. It's about $$.
Enough! Show me a country without human rights abuses.. France blew up a Green Peace vessel, Britian is still in Northern Ireland,Austrailia mistreats the Aboriginals, we have overseas torture camps, Are there problems in China sure there are, but rather than bemoaning the bad why not look at the good. The current Government in China is less than 60 years old has a population that is more than 4 times ours. When Mao took control half the population of China was starving, addiction to Opium affected millions. Female children were routinely murdered or sold into slavery by their own parents. Now look at them everybody eats, every day, the Chinese loan us money, and they are building a maglev train system. Do we need to address human rights abuses ABSOLUTELY. Given what the Chinese government has had to work with things are infinitely better there now than they are in most places.
no one spends 40 billion on a two-week track meet; of course it's pure propaganda.
China is a police state. They are successful at it. Bush once said
he wouldn't mind America becoming a dictatorship, if he was the
dictator. What better way to learn a trade than from the master?
You cannot seperate the politics from the olympics. Even to host
the games is a political manuver. But supporting this type of
oppressive regime either by doing business with the government,
or by attending as President, is not going to help change anything.
And with all Bush has put into place over the last 8 years, the US
is just one more disaster away from becoming China.
all this concern about human rights in China is really about disintegrating the People's Republic of China. The media is responsible for the killings in (can't remember the name) square. Why don't they concentrate on the abuse of human rights in the Americas, especially the U.S. and the oh-so-pure Canada?
Nowhere in this discussion do I hear mention of human rights
abuses in Burma and 8/8/08 being the 20th anniversary of the
violent crackdown of Burma's pro-democracy movement (for starters, see http://www
It is now being said that the President is looking for a legacy (beyond more sewage treatment plants and garbage dumps named after him). Should not we the people encourage him to leave a legacy of one shining point of light?
The President did meet with Burmese dissidents in Bangkok before traveling to Beijing. He is quoted as saying the discussion would have been "more meaningful if the dissidents had been talking to presidential hopefuls Barack Obama or John McCain ... We will have to wait to see if there will be any new US foreign policy initiatives that impact Burma, although I expect less change under McCain than under Obama" (Wai Moe, Bush Warm, Knowledgeable on Burma, Say Activists, The Irrawaddy, 9 Aug 08).
Bush, we know, thinks in terms like "regime change."
He could rid Burma of its toxic leader, General Than Shwe.
Regime change in Burma would happen more quickly were it
initiated in Bush's remaining months (and Burma needs help NOW).
If not Bush, then it's up to Obama, who is thus far silent on
the tragedy of Burma. The Burmese are and have been pro-democracy.
Is the same true for U.S. (or is "democracy" something we just like talking about?).
Or human rights in a dozen or more countries either.
It sure is... but I think the media has to understand when it is and when it isn't and report things fairly. Josh Xiong talks about this in a piece:
http://jos
How dare our "Idiot in Chief" lecture anyone about civil liberties when he has done all that he possibly can to not only stomp on, but jump up and down on American civil liberties on a daily basis!!
The only reason he went to China was for the same reason ALL presidents that are about to expire (Thank God) do which is to take as many trips on the taxpayers dime as possible before their clock runs out.
He is an embarrassment to the US without saying a word!!! This is probably the first time since I was a child hoping Christmas would hurry up and get here that I want time to pass quickly and get this fool out of office!!
What I do not understand is this. There is an irony to the fact that the air pollution is so bad at the Olympics that people and athletes have to were a mask. Am I the oly one that thinks this is appalling?
Also, none of the astute and erudite pundits have comments on why China and Beijing have such acrid air pollution. They burn a lot of coal. This should be a warning to our leaders in DC that are pushing "clean coal". Again the media is letting down this country, About 2 years ago Rolling Stone published an aricle about how many more coal burning plants, about 1.000, had been approved by this administration and their rubber stamp Congress. I wish this was really looked into as to who owns these new plants and their infuence in Wash D.C.
You might want to do a bit more research to better understand WHY china needs so much energy. More than 60% of their carbon emissions are generated in the production of EXPORTS...
The idea of the Olympics as an amateur compitition and celebration of excellence has become disgraced with this Olympics more than any before. CHINA is nothing more than a facist state masgerading as a socialist society. Repression , freedom supression , and even govt supported worker slavery is the real life of the Chinese people. The fact that The USA is even allowing business with China is a disgrace and an indication of how low our govt standards have sunk. The USA is no longer the moral standard in the world when George Bush greets the Chinese dictators as equals. There are reasons why we are suffering in a financial depression now and dealing with China as a business is a leading cause. Slave labor is the rule in China. People paid less than convicted felons in the US. There should be an Asterik on these Olympics ! If Seoul was a joke then Bejing is a total farce . count the un -drug- tested Chinese medals and then ..........
I'm really sick of our mentality here in the US that all other countries are frail terrible places, where dictators hold onto power by a thread. This is the same kind of sentiment that got us screwed up in Iraq (we will be greated as liberators), and its the same kind of sentiment that has gotten our little chicken game with Iran so far. It's a completely holier than though attitude that is bound to get us in trouble.
I know that China controls their state media, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the populace of the country would die for its leaders. Their President was on the ground personally managing the earthquake recovery hours after the first aftershocks. It's a dangerous assumption to underestimate Chinese nationalism and China's confidence in its leaders.
The Olympics are political, eh? Congratulations on your discovery!
Let me share a little nugget that will change your life: *EVERYTHING* is political. Everything.
Apparently The IOC and Mr. Jacques Rogge have made a grave mistake which will discredit the World's desperate fight for Human Rights a lost cause.
They have awaken the TYRANT DRAGON who is spitting fire and wielding it's Tale of Conspiracy and Power. Now China is basking in the most prestigious Glory of Human Rights Abuse the World has ever witness.
I was somewhat bemused to hear Pres Bush waxing eloquent about human rights in China. His remarks seemed a bit hollow to me, considering that he himself has engineered and promoted some of the most dreadful abuses you can imagine by allowing our government agencies to torture people. Yes, our country does encourage in other parts of the world the freedoms we ourselves enjoy; but when those excellent things are spoken by Mr Bush there is a ring of hypocrisy in his flowery remarks. This is troubling since it gives the impression that we say one thing yet sometimes blatantly do quite the opposite.
I understand the objection to including "professional" athletes in the Olympic Games that many people have, but keep in mind this was done because many countries were providing government sponsorship or subsidies to their athletes that was equivalent to good full-time pay which we have not done with American athletes, at least not to the same extent. Certainly the acceptance of professional athletes in the Olympic Games has made it almost impossible for us to ever see the magic of another “Miracle on Ice” (1980 Winter Olympics, US Men’s Hockey defeats the Russians). Watching Cobey Bryant and LeBron James (or whoever it’s going to be) trounce almost any team, even if it does include Yao Ming, just won’t be the same. So focus on swimming or gymnastics or some other sports that don’t have highly paid professional athletes.
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