The closing ceremony to the Sydney Olympics ended with an artistic performance by the next hosting country. China and its main city, Beijing, will be hosting the Games later in 2008. The display that China put on was breathtaking. It felt, at the time, that having to wait for four years for China’s opening ceremony would be far too long.
There is no doubt that for China hosting the Olympics is of huge significance. Among many reasons, such as pride of one’s national achievements, the most important one could be that China feels it has finally arrived on the world stage.
China will ensure the Olympics are held at the most fabulous facilities. The Games will be known for their effortless management, a smog-free Beijing and polite people who will all want to practise their newly learnt English skills. They might also be remembered for the fact that China, for the first time, won the most medals out of all participating countries. Team America, you can start worrying.
Within this scenario, it must be horrific for China to have the “Free Tibet” demonstrations, first in Tibet and now during the carrying of the flame. London gave some indication of things to come. The momentum grew in Paris and it will be interesting to see how dramatic things will be in San Francisco.
There has been some pressure exerted on sponsoring companies to withdraw their money, on leaders of countries not to participate in the opening ceremony and even to cancel their athletes’ participation.
Germany’s Angela Merkel is rumoured to have withdrawn from attending the opening ceremony. Of course one has to remember that she and her Foreign Affairs Department might still be annoyed at the criticism and snub China played on Germany when Merkel met the Dalai Lama recently.
This will not be the first time that the Olympics have been used to punish a country. Many athletes from various countries have suffered badly when their teams were withdrawn because of some political point being made. Even I felt this when I attended the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984 and the Russian block boycotted the games in retaliation for the US boycott of the Olympics held in Moscow in 1980.
So what is the reason for China’s troubles in Tibet? Tibet’s history is fairly colourful in that it has been overrun in some form or other by most of the big powers, whether it be Mongolia, Russia or the British empire. Now it is controlled and owned by China. As with the rest of China, there seems to be little freedom of speech or permission for religious affiliation.
Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, China has had to pump a fair amount of money into Tibet to try to lift its population out of abject poverty. The population has more than doubled since China took over. The GDP is 30 times that of the period before 1950, and infant mortality has dropped from 43% to 0,661%, among other achievements. In other words, not everything China is doing in the highest country in the world is evil.
It seems the issue revolves around human rights abuses. The Dalai Lama seems to have given up on the idea of a separate nation and is purely trying to exert some pressure to restore human rights. This effort is much frowned upon by the Tibetan government in exile that still operates out of India. Yet no other country has recognised the government in exile as the legitimate government of Tibet.
It doesn’t seem quite as straightforward as one might think. Yes, there are human rights abuses. And yes, China has been incredibly heavy-handed in dealing with the Tibetan uprisings. It is not known, and it is unlikely ever to see the light of day, how many people have died so far for the cause.
But compared with what America and its allies are doing in Iraq, the situation in Tibet hardly makes a ripple in terms of human rights abuses. Let’s check out Darfur. What about the Congo, Zimbabwe and recently Kenya, the beating and killing of monks in Burma, and then there’s Russia and Chechnya? These are just a few examples of countries where there have been onslaughts on human rights and human lives lost that make Tibet look like a peaceful haven, almost.
Of course that doesn’t mean that I condone the infringements on human rights in Tibet or the way that China took over Tibet or the manner in which the Dalai Lama was banished. In fact, I was quite sad that I had not made the trek into London to take part in the protests.
I just think that if one were to make an effort to speak up about human rights abuses, one should be more inclusive. Let’s make a big noise and a consistent one about all of the human rights abuses and let’s punish the countries that condone or practise them — not just China.
Fact: The Dalia Lama lived in splendid luxury while the Tibetan people lived in oppressed servitude. Life under the Dalai Lama meant that you’re worth as a human being was worth less than a infected dog.
Fact: The international community is threatened by China so they exploit the falsehoods behind the Lama’s claims and thus try to discredit it.
The Chinese should just burn down Tibet and get it over and done with.
America in Iraq, eh?
Until that point, you had me thinking the Thought Leaders, er, Thought Police at the M&G had actually started thinking, or found someone to write a column who wasn’t still trapped in post-modernist relativism and hate america psychosis.
I agree that one should speak out against all abuses, Anja, but one has to pick one’s fights. If you decry every human rights abuse in the world, apart from spending eternity compiling the list, your focus will be diluted and so will your potential to effect meaningful change.
There are many terrible things happening in the world, and the Tibetan situation is one that has been happening and largely ignored – SINCE 1959! Now its time has come.
Suggesting that you don’t know the extent of China’s actions, or that they may not be all that bad, is simply obfuscating. If you put serious effort into researching China’s actions in Tibet since 1959, you will discover the breadth and the depth of their wanton abuse and destruction of the Tibetan people, culture, religion and environment.
China has 1.3 billion people, Tibet less than a 1% of that. The Dalia Lama is not seeing political separation merely the freedom of religion, civil rights and a mild form of local autonomy for Tibet’s locals.
What terrible fate awaits the 1.3 billion people if these non powerful easy things are conceeded and linked to economic and people development.
Has China not learned from the evil Imperialist ways of the West that it moans about with regular frequency?
Brent
Liansky said: “The Chinese should just burn down Tibet and get it over and done with.”
That’s what Hitler did when the Jews where in the way of his economic plans for Germany and everybody got upset? Wonder why?
So the people are in the streets everywhere. London – stiff upper lip protests and Brown decided not to touch the torch. France – pull off a riot and put out that flame like only the French could. San Francisco – hanging off the bridge to stop the hanging. Maybe we should create a special Oh-Limp-Pics for those not-so-free societies to be paraded every four years. It will give us all a chance to show how we feel about injustice around the world. It is obvious that the media will only report on it if there is a sound-bite and a photo opportunity. Maybe something for tyrant to carry the torch of torture every four years. Mm, I think I have an idea… http://angryafrican.net/2008/04/09/oh-limp-pic-games-celebrating-tyrants-everywhere/
Surfers have balance or they fall off the wave. This is pretty good riding but not the best.
Visit China: the break is good and it will make you a better rider.
For the ignorant you will find a genuine attempt at all levels to deliver to the people. You will find great practical and structural difficulties, many of which cannot be understood unless you examine the way the west( in this case Britain Holland, Spain, America,France and others all Christian) and Japan have behaved in this area. You will find a culture that is inclusive but remarkably anarchic and a paradoxical policy of assimilation that no matter the prejudice and the errors is the opposite of nationalism and racism both as your figures show and also that the west is infamous for. You will find a nation of billions spending billions in a genuine attempt to be included. You will find much that shows this attack on the torch relay is unutterably rude and misguided. You will be ashamed of these people in the West.
The people on the streets are attacking the shopkeepers who sold them the goods at low prices and gave good credit and who made a profit by dint of very hard work, which they are capable of because of the great cultural asset the West tried so hard to destroy.
The people on the streets are a dirty, stupid, lazy thinking lot who link themselves to the great protests of the past but are deluded in doing so. The media is tolerating them. They are behaving as the Republican party in the USA would love them to behave right now. China has got a small problem with them, which being what they are they will feel far more deeply than most others will realise, but we have a far greater one and it is or fault because we have not looked hard enough at China for long enough.
America is fighting a war in Iraq. China is not fighting a war in Tibet.
People are — quite understandably — treated very differently by an occupation force actively at war than one ostensibly at peace.
I think part of this is US insecurity over China.