Now that the Olympic Torch has moved on from San Francisco -- and Athens, Paris and London -- we can begin to assess the consequences and ramifications for Beijing 2008 and public debate about China.
A student at the University of Pennsylvania, Xiaoxia Cao, has written about the way in which Beijing 2008 has been seen by the Chinese people as a way of repudiating or compensating for generations of humiliation in global dialogue. And yet, the Olympics is beginning to emerge as a dramatic narrative that hovers between triumph and power (on the one hand) and a public relations nightmare. This week it was the torch and Tibet, we'll see what banners unfurl, what protests are mounted in the weeks and months to come.
One element that's emerging: the etiquette of snubbing. How can national leaders (perhaps sports federations and athletes as well) participate and yet symbolically withhold honor and recognition? Variations will be excruciatingly delicate. The opening ceremonies now emerge as a site for playing out the drama of signaling (both to China and one's domestic or international constituencies). The Secretary General of the United Nations has "too busy a travel schedule" to appear at the opening ceremonies. Sarkozy used his bully pulpit to raise the question. Gordon Brown is explicitly not coming. Bush has not yet made it clear. Presidential candidates are testing what plays with the voters (and maybe what they believe).
Probably, all over the world, there's an emerging vocabulary. Maybe the Dalai Lama is setting or legitimating one kind of response or other (i.e. do something short of boycott). It was breathtaking to see the President of the IOC, Jacques Rogge, knocked somewhat off a general position of tempered denial by declaring that there was something of a "crisis" that needed to be addressed. This is very big news in the dialogue between the Olympics establishment and a host city and country. Suggestions and sitings of these formulations are welcome.
A good summary of where we are now is provided by UCLA political science professor Richard Baum:
"The first true protest started last August, one year out before the games. That's when the first true protestors started calling for a boycott. Then Mia Farrow and some others then started calling it 'The Genocide Olympics.' But it really wasn't until the final run-up to the Games began and the torch started to become an issue that all the floodlights were turned on full. The precipitous decision that really kick-started this was the decision of Steven Spielberg to renege on his commitment to be an artistic advisor for the Games. That very public display created an opening for a lot of people to jump on the bandwagon."
That's from Wayne Dreh's column for ESPN.
I've also written about these questions in a just-out book, (edited with Daniel Dayan), Owning the Olympics: Narratives of the New China, published by the University of Michigan.
(if not already) - and my comments there.
This book is available online for free: http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft2199n7f4/
My current thought is that Western media on this issue is partly biased, and media in China are entirely one-sided. Most Chinese to various extents are "brainwashed" as a result information control in China. But, many Westerners are merely partly correct in their beliefs on the Tibet issue. Everyone, you, myself and any great minds, no matter where we live, is vulnerable to misleading or partial reports. It's not easy to gain a closer-to-truth understanding. It would be a bless if more people across the world manage practice independent and critical in thinking. This is a life-long journey for everyone.
Stephen Hadley in his interview with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday repeatedly referred to Nepal instead of Tibet and was never corrected even one time by George S.
Our National Security Adviser confusing Nepal with Tibet?
What a shame!
How many Americans really even know where Tibet is located?
Obviously Stephen Hadley does not!!
Now comes the Tibet issue and I'm deeply concerned. When the protect/riot occurred on April, 14, I was in China. All media, as controlled by the Government, condemned it as a violent riot and showed photos and videos. When I came back to the U.S. ten days later, I found almost all Western media condemn Chinese government for cracking down a protest.
Most of us know little about the origin and formation of the Tibet issue. Before we jump into the arguments, we'd better educate ourselves on this issue.
Foreign Affairs has an article on this issue, stating that "As a classic nationalistic dispute, the Tibet question pits the right of a people, Tibetans, to self-determination and independence against the right of a multiethnic state, the People's Republic of China, to maintain what it sees as its historical territorial integrity....In the case of Tibet, both sides have selectively patched bits and pieces of the historical record together to support their viewpoints. The ensuing avalanche of charges and countercharges is difficult to assess, even for specialists."
This article is available at http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19980101faessay1360/melvyn-c-goldstein/the-dalai-lama-s-dilemma.html
Especially when you aren't trying. The Chinese government's torch-run plan is and was composed solely of propaganda. They're in no position to complain about it being 'politicized', because that's all they had in mind from the first. They're only sore because someone else managed to preempt their message.
China is spending multiple billions of these games as an investment in prestige, and that alone.
This ritual was started up in 1936 - when Olympic Host Germany decided it would make a really really nifty show of "Uber-Mensch"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9Cbermensch
In other words, the whole thing was a demonstration by one of the most repressive and nationalistic regimes to ever control a large section of this world.
In other words - the whole ritual - as 'pretty' and as 'awe-inspiring' as it's become in the modern era has it's proverbial roots in FASCISM.
Any wonder at the protests and clamors?
"Fool me once, shame on you...
Fool me twice, shame on me. "
Time to end the charade.
Let's put the torch dance to rest.
Stir the pot and make this the biggest deal of the Century.
Don't give the Chinese communists a chance to shine or reform. Push them back into the corner.
Forget all the atheletes of the world and the effort they have put in, politics and propaganda are more important than any Olympics spirit.
Use the Olympics to preach human rights from now on and denounce China this time.
At least, for now, the world attention will be away from the " Now that we are there Iraq war " or the financial debacle of the Century.
Hey, why not ? Their loss is our gain.
Now we're faced with corporate behemoths endorsing totalitarianism and preening athletes whining that their training for visions of glory outweigh the value of human rights in general or Tibetan atrocities by the Chinese in particular.
"Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the hundred schools of thought contend." - Mao's slogan from 1956 seems appropriate today. Torture, human slavery, genocide, denial of basic human rights... these should not be tolerated.
- yes we must immediately return Tibet to being a theocratic slave-owning feudal society.
- but wait, you say they'll be democratic this time? why do you think that? because you can export democracy to them? because the Dalai Lama, appointed by heaven, says Tibet will be democratic?
I guess theocracies aren't good for America, but are fine for anyone else.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/olympic_torch_used_to