China and Tibet.What Do People Think re Olympics?

[DloeufyDoo]

That's it.Bearing in mind the situation in Tibet,do people think that the Olympic Games should be boycotted?

Yes
I think China is totally unfit to host the games given its human rights record, period.

Giving the world the opportunity to view Synchronised swimming and Beach Volley ball does not wipe a slate clean

DH said the same thing this morning, should be boycotted but won't be

Agree with Suzywong. Totally inappropriate host.

I can't believe that China is allowed to host the olympics, I would warn anyone going to get out pretty sharp after they are over as any half hearted attempts to behave will end as the ceremony closes.

I would love it if a few powerful countries had the guts to boycott. It would never happen though because of the whole 'sport overides politics' philosophy of the Olympics. And individual athletes would not want to miss the opportunity of a lifetime.

well i wont be watching
having my own boycott

it will never happen though
china too central to other economies now

moral high ground stance gone too with iraq, rendition flights, detention laws et al etc in uk

I think that we should stop buying all the plastic tat that they produce before we say that we won't come and play in their new pool.

Good point teakettle

I first thought about boycotts WRT the Burma stuff (Chinese government one of the biggest influences on the Burmese junta). Not to mention Sudan.

This is a big opportunity for the rest of the world to exert genuine pressure on the Chinese leaders; they are desperate not to be embarrassed over the Olypmics. We won't have another opportunity like this for a long time, if ever.

Agree that individuals can do their bit by not buying Chinese stuff where possible.

Then we should also stop buying from Asda and Mothercare, etc, as their buyers are out there ever so often sourcing goods.

Wooden trainset? Most likely produced in china. Ditto Mothercare cosytoe.

Yes, it wuold make boycotting Nestle seem incredibly simple...

I appear to be having a tranpsosition porblem...

It's all very odd on two scores, the most prominent being their appalling human rights record ... but also their pollution !!

The journalist on BBC News this morning looked like he'd been set down in a London peasouper, pre-1950s.

Yes, and what if there were to be any scandals? Would the chinese authorities deal with it behind closed doors, or would the press be allowed the freedom of information?

My friend was a missionary in china, and she was arrested for walking past a fight that had broken out outside her school and her camera confiscated (read smashed) in case she had taken a picture of it and in case she was planning on reporting home about the incident, and was suitably threatened.

They're a dab-hand at altering film footage to twist events.

They edit out all the scenes where the militia/police are beating the crap out of people.

Gah! What a 21st century mess ..

olympics should never have been given to china in the first place, the fact that they have a diabolical human rights record is not exactly something that has just come to light.
I think the olympic commitee should be the people doing the boycotting - ie sort yourselves out or games are cancelled. If the olympic body is not prepared to take a stand i think we as a nation should boycott these games and as the olympic commitee supports countries with such dreadful human rights we should also withdraw from holding the 2012 games - never going to happen unfortunately.

Totally agree DeRigeur and Teakettle

I it put to an Australian swimmer on the news last night that he and his teammates should not go.

I don't think the burden of protesting China's heinous record in Tibet should fall exclusively to a bunch of 25 year olds who have been training their whole lives, are at their physical peak and may never get another crack at the Olympics. Not before Rio Tinto and BHP and every other bloody resources company in the world have also felt some pain. It's morally ludicrous to suggest some poor rower or javelin-thrower has to sit out what could be the pinnacle of their career while HSBC can continue on its merry way to making billions of dollars in China this year.

FWIW, I don't actually see how what China is doing in Tibet is any worse than what the US and UK are doing in Iraq, so tend to think people could get off their high horses.

sorry, I saw it put to an Aussie swimmer.

Agree with you ninedragons.I think Derigeur has said something similar.I was really interested to know what people thought.

Don't think that anyone has been on a high horse...yet tho

Don't agree that individuals shouldn't make a stand though ninedragons.

US and UK troops have done some awful things in Iraq, and the war itself was/is illegal, but to say that there is moral equivalence between these governments and the Chinese government is preposterous, IMO.

An Olympic boycott would be justified because of its rare power to twist the Chinese government's arm. A threatened boycott - but one that people were prepared to carry through if necessary - would be more powerful still.

the chinese have made themselves an economic powerhouse whilst still being an oppressive regime
a clever move for them that the russians couldnt manage..
in the bigger picture, there is no threat to wield to them, we threaten our own economies too then and that simply wont happen

i say we have lost the right to mount thine high horse...
the human right abuses in china are horrific and many of that there is no doubt, but in days before illegal wars and guantanamo we could say something without it sounding hollow and hypocritical