To not want my family to watch the Olympics ?

[KatieDD]

I want to boycott viewing because I think it's disgusting they were ever given the games and DH has just put the opening ceremony on for the children to see.

YABU. Watch the games, talk about the games, talk about China, talk about good and bad points raised. The different perspectives and issues involved are very interesting.

It's not as if China has the monopoly on human rights abuse though, is it?

I am annoyed we are there when people have had their houses bulldozed to build the arenas and have not been given compensation.

this is by no means all about sport, bhuna

Let them watch but explain why many people, incl you, have problems with China. Use it as an opportunity to explain.

Harpsichord, I agree about the human rights but ultimately the Olympics are for Sport. Do you know any athletes? They compete for the love of their sport, winning an olympic medal is the ultimate achievement.

I think that everyone feels extremely sad about the abuse in China and Tibet, including competing athletes.

The flag bearer for the USA was a Sudanese refugee who lost his family and arrived in the US at the age of six with no family and he lived in a camp for I think 10 years. How amazing for him to be competing at the Olympics after having such a traumatic childhood.

Are people going to boycott the games in 2012 because UKs involvement with the war in Iraq?

I'm not sure that there's any country in the world that should be able to host the games if the criteria to host were based on human rights abuses.

Support the athletes. At least there is some sort of unity in the world brought about by sport.

YABU, Chidren don't understand the politics.
I have just had a lovely afternoonat a nursery I work at doing the nursery Olympics with a group of 2 to 4 year olds.

southeastastra I completly agree with you

YABU the whole superior holier-than-thou tone of the uk press about china over the last month or so is disgusting.

If the press ever bothered to highlight the mess the british colonials made of africa and the effect it is having right now, and the dodgy arms and oil deals still going on in Africa and the middle east by high ranking brits...blimey.

Olympics is about global celebration of sport, if you don't like their politics DO something about it. I bet we'll all have forgotten where Tibet is in a couple of months.

I can't watch it either. The idea of state forced abortion makes me feel sick.

I agree. Before the Sydney Olympics began, they 'moved' all the undesirable people that were living on the streets to a camp.....apparently...My source lives in Sydney and we were there shortly after the games.

The human rights of aboriginies is horrific and has been for many many years, nobody thought of boycotting those games. Its on a much smaller scale but its no different.

I love sport, it gives some people hope. It was amazing to see countries like Afghanistan parading in the stadium and Iran have two female rowers competing for the first time ever.

my dad had the opening ceremony on this afternoon and both my mum and I were discussing how it was wrong of them to even be able to host it given the current unrest.

in the end i think he gave up and put a documentary about big cat's on. we shut up then lol

I imagine you'd all be glued to that lovely man Hitler handing out the medals in 1936. It doesn't matter that Hitler rounded up all Gipsies and put them into camps, or that there has been brutal repression of dissidents in China prior to the Olympics. After all, it's only about sport innit?

Exactly I feel utterly uncomfortable having anything to do with it, it's a disgrace Bush will be attending, Brown no doubt will at some stage.
Am so cross with it all

Sorry, this is slightly off topic, but what does "YABU" mean and what is a 'troll'?? (Am relatively new to MN!)

The opening ceremony was fantastic, absolutely amazing.

Yes, its a disgrace that china was given the Games, but they have got them and yes, for the next fortnight it is all about the sport. And it will be brilliant. Those athletes have trained for years for this, why should they miss out on what has been their life? The human rights atrocities will still go on, only they will not be as highlighted. Boycotting the Games will not stop that, and while you're at it, there are many countries in the world with appalling issues. I'm not in any way condoning China, and I'm as disgusted as anyone that they got the Games but sport is an entirely different issue from politics, thank god.

And it was brilliant to see athletes from countries such as Iraq and Eritrea there, parading round the arena. They were there because they love sport and deserve the chance to compete.

And Mamazon, if I'd been your dad I'd have turned the volume up and ignored you!!!

And Msdemeanor, I'm more pissed off with Hitler for keeping my dad in a POW camp for four years, tbh.

Lets keep the debate on a less hysterical more reasonable keel, shall we????

less hysterical

I think refusing to watch something on television is a fairly pointless flouncy boycott: are you doing other things such as refusing to buy CHinese-made goods, joining Amnesty International etc? And, as others have said, banning your DC from watching it is a bit unreasonable: you don't want them to equate caring about human rights abuses with Mummy Spoiling Our Fun and you have an opportunity to discuss and explain your viewpoint with them.

Having said which, I won't be watching the Olympics, but that is because all sport in any shape and form bores the arse off me. I can sort of understand people wanting to play sports and be active and stuff but watching other people run about... this is one of those mundane things that I simply don't get.

Are you going to stop your children playing with toys too, they are all made in China - not to mention your oven, your toaster, your setee, your carpet ..... Back to the cave then. I agree that the Tibet thing is really bad but I just educate my kids about it all and let them know what is happening in the world -- good and bad (mostly environment and how to treat humans). They will make their minds up when they are grown up then.

YABU means you are being unreasonable. A troll is someone who stirs up trouble.

I agree with fiffle. Watching or not watching TV is not going to make any difference. If you really feel that strongly about it, stop shopping at Primark, Tesco and Argos. Every bargain you get there comes from a container ship from China.

I am getting distinctly pissed off with everyone going ooh, the Chinese have banned Falun Gong but Germany bans that other crackpot cult, Scientology, and they are still considered a bastion of liberal democracy.

Frankly I don't think that the occupation of Tibet is a million miles away from the British and American occupation of Iraq. And while we are on the topic of people being rounded up and put into camps, what do you think Guantanamo is?

it really isn't just about Tibet though.

how many refused to watch the 1980 olympics in Moscow as a protest at the soviet invasion of Afghanistan?!?!