Should we continue with the olympic games in China? ( Archived) (126)

I am afraid to watch the news tomorrow to see what is going to happen in San Francisco. A few people have already been arrested and at the time the torch never even left France at the time. The TORCH is only a symbol of what is yet to come. Thia should be stopped now before it goes any further. I see our Prime Minister is not attending at least the opening of the games bu there is no mention YET of a boycott. I beleive there will be one. Fingers are crossed as I cannot bear to see anymore useless bloodshed.

I do know that President Bush was asked to boycott. Who knows, but it is not too late!!!!!!!

Just make sure we stop buying goods originating in China.

It is difficult because so many large corporations now manufacture there.

Ultimately it can only help the rest of the world's economies and the return of some manufacturing industries.

This is guaranteed to change China's human rights record but only if we all take this action.

For sure this will not happen unfortunately!

I suppose the problem is that if you find a reason to boycott one Olympics you can find a reason to boycott them all..except the Australian ones...then that is the end of the Olympics. But maybe that is what we have come to!

This could well be changing now with the Internet. The profile that Ron Paul ( ) created using the Internet was impressive (Not him) The possibility of a world wide boycott spread through the Internet and other Media is a real possibility.

I certainly don't condone boycotting ALL Olymic games, I just believe in boycotting this particular one. There has been so must travesty and unrest on the Bejing games, I believe there is going to be a Huge amount of lives in jeopardy. Whatever country was who as the runner-up should get it now. Hopefully it woud be more peaceful. I feel so sorry for the olypyians. It is unfortunate that politics DID enter into this, but it did. I am losing sleep over what I can see coming. JMO

Hi FM
I'm greek australian.
Just wondering how come you made aus an exception.
Is it some kind of joke I'm not tuned into?

I keep my fingers crossed as well...

But looking at the economical state of the US
I doubt they can afford to offend China.

Unless ALL Western Nations boycott.
The Entire EU, India, Sth American States, and Australia.

Again, Australia having close ties with China,
as it sees itself as part of Asia will have
a big problem boycotting.

uhm.... so you are into turning a blind eye
to whats happening in the hosting country?

What of human rights?

Can you enjoy games, when others are being
mistreated at the same time, Agman?

Idealistically speaking...no...definately not.


But, I'm not sure how the world would cope without it's biennial dose os synchronized swimming.

Wise man

I would love to see the US boycott the games......

Hi Breezee,,

My reason for making an exception is that the Australian games in Sydney in my opinion were the best ever games and in the spirit they should be held in. There are arguments for boycotting the Chinese, Russian, American, Korean etc games.....actually I probably should have left out Barcelona too...those were good games. Didn't the african nations boycott Montreal?

I'm sympathetic, Uli, but I'm afraid I see a bit of a problem here.

True, China has a miserable human rights record, is heavily into person/thought-control, and is presently unrightfully dispossessing countless individuals in its own version of the US' "urban renewal" for The Games.

However...if we boycott China for these things, then what about the United States, since its government has murdered hundreds of thousands of civilians, illegally tortured and imprisoned individuals, and has sponsored state terrorism around the world?

Canada materially participates in the Iraq war, and if we regard that war as immoral (even in part), then surely we should consider boycotting Canada?

England, with its vastly upgraded Orwellian Surveillance State, probably should be boycotted as well. Germany has its own version of thought-control which in my view should be subject to protest.

What I'm getting at is that while western governments are by and large superior to non-democracies/totalitarian states, we are not really in a good position to morally posture - particularly the US, which is probably the foremost purveyor of hegemonic violence in the world at present.

So, I say if we boycott China, we should also consider some form of protest against the many rights-violating acts of Western governments.

Jeff

I wish politics WOULD stay the heck out of it as you do and let the athletes do there job but unfortunately the western world does not see it that way. So Sad!!!!!

I can't remember what went wrong with the Athens Olympics (or I may never have realised 'cause I was here at the time and negative stuff may not have been covered on the news).....

The Athens Olympics were the first games after 911.
I thought they were non-controversial and incident free