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opinion:
our view
IOC chooses China?
While you were away
on summer vacation, catching some rays on the beach or backpacking
through Europe, China was awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics.
A big mistake by the International Olympics Committee, but it
is just a microcosm of a problem being ignored on a larger world
stage.
The problem is
that the Olympic games are unfortunately one of the few events
we have left where countries from around the world meet in
one place and are able to peacefully co-exist.
The 1936 games
in Berlin were marred by Hitler's own political beliefs and
so will the 2008 games in China.
The problem with
China hosting the games is it appears as if the entire world
is condoning their atrocious human rights record. By awarding
the games to China, the IOC, the United States and other capitalist
countries are saying that China's torture of people in their
jails and their continual building and selling of nuclear
arms is fine.
While no blame
should be placed on the citizens of China, their bid for the
Olympic games should have been denied based in part by the
practices of the Chinese government.
China has not only
brutalized the people of Tibet, but has also stockpiled nuclear
arms and is in the practice of selling nuclear weapons parts
to other countries, despite a treaty signed by them that said
they would no longer do so.
Besides that, China's
own political stance has become alarmingly convoluted.
China, on the outside, seems to no longer be a communist country,
a point that is clear based on their recent rise in the capitalist
world.
However, the way
China treats its citizens is somewhat similar to the way Cuban
leader Fidel Castro treats his citizens -- oppressing an entire
nation, while living under the guise that they are doing what's
best for the people.
In addition, one
minute they are friendly and want to become allies or business
partners with other countries, yet their intense militaristic
attitudes scare other countries into wondering if they are
protecting themselves or plotting another cultural revolution.
Is this a sign
of what's to come?
The world now seems
to longer be drawn along political beliefs, but between the
haves and the have-nots. In other words, money talks and well
you know the rest.
China has simply
bought their way into the Olympics, much the way they bought
themselves into a free trade agreement, by providing opportunities
for other countries to take advantage of their lax labor practices
and awful working conditions to turn a higher profit.
Frankly, it's shocking
that the IOC would award China the Olympic games based on
past experience, but more to the point it's a travesty that
countries that are usually more progressive than the United
States, are closing their eyes and not acknowledging the problem
as well.
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