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About This Page: This is a discussion on Politics within the LetsGoKings.com forums, at Los Angeles Kings Hockey Fan Forum. Well the Olympic flame relay has hit my neck of the woods and today we had the first round of demonstrations.
BBC NEWS | UK | Scuffles mar Olympic torch
I guess I should not be but I am a little supprised at the lack of action regarding the olympics and the way China has and does conduct itself.
Having grown up in South Africa during apartheid, I grew up in a country where sporting teams were forbuidden from touring or receiving touring teams(And rightly so I might add), but we have a country whose former President(Mao) killed more people than Hitler, has a oppressive regime as witnessed recently, and who have cleared out large swathes of Beijing residents(Some without compensation) in order to build olympic venues.
The only major country to stand up so far and suggest that they might not attend the opening ceremony or in fact will not attend himself is supprisingly Nikolas Sarkozy of France.
I guess when you are an emerging super-power with huge buying power morals do not count.
Yes yes I know I should not be supprised but I am just a little.
Thanks for sharing, but that's gross. What does screwing Nancy Pelosi have to do with the Olympics? I didn't know you were into older women. Can the rest of us be for boycotting the Chinese hosted games without wishing for sex with Nancy? I think we should all get to pick our own screw and boycott partners.
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"For if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination." Thomas DeQuincey, 1700's
Last edited by Leonidas; April 6th, 2008 at 10:52 AM.
The Olympic Committee made a huge mistake choosing Beijing. Not only because of continued human rights abuses in Tibet, after all, the Olympics were held in pre-war Nazi Germany as well as the Soviet Union, but also because of the pollution issue. Thicker smog than I've ever seen, soot in the air, and sandstorms due to deforestation are all going to put all the athletes' respiratory systems under huge stress.
__________________ "If I could lead you into the Promised Land, I would not do it, because someone else would come along and lead you out."
Well at least some gave it a go. I look forward to hearing from most of you when the feeding frenzy begins during the California stetch. In the mean time herewith.
Boycott the Olympics, because it has worked so well in the past???
Exactly
__________________ I haven't crapped Obediah's pants since December 15th, 2007, stay away from the nachos at Champps. Tonga ate all of my mac and cheese, you bastard.
I think it's worth pointing out that apparently nobody is talking about a boycott of the games, just a boycott of the opening ceremony by teams and officials which would be a huge insult to the Chinese government.
This may happen anyway since many athletes from wealthy nations will be do conditioning outside of China prior to their events to avoid the nasty air pollution.
The article Clinton points out that she has long been a 'critic' of China without mentioning that Bill's administration was a major China facilitator. Didn't he give them Most Favored Nation status in trade? Help me out if you remember.
I like they way most professional politicians who are critical of China mention trade deficits, Tibet and Darfur but forget to mention violation of human and labor rights in China proper.
It was stupid when Carter did this in 1980 and it is stupid now.
If they didn't want China to have the friggen Olympics then the IOC should not have awarded the damn thing to them in the first place. Let the athletes have their time....
jom
__________________ Old men's room wall saying: Flush hard, it's a long way to Washington
It was stupid when Carter did this in 1980 and it is stupid now.
If they didn't want China to have the friggen Olympics then the IOC should not have awarded the damn thing to them in the first place. Let the athletes have their time....
jom
Exactly right. As was already stated, the IOC shouldn't have awarded the friggin things to China. And since the award, China hasn't done much to prove to the world that they are ready or care about what's going on.
I'm very facinated with how the media is going to handle being there, and if they are presented with the 100% free ability to write what they want when they want it without any say from the Chinese government.
If the US had a problem with China, they should have made an announcement years ago to really send a message. At this point it seems like nothing more than a headline grab, and it'd be certainly unfair for athletes who are meer weeks away from performing on a world stage.
This topic come up in a discussion today during one of my philosophy classes. Oddly enough, it is a Confucian thought class and our teacher in a native of China.
She said it it pointless and would be extremely detrimental to boycott the Olympics in any way. According to her, China has spent the past 8 years educating its citizens on the history, procedure, and basically anything that has to do with the Olympics, starting with teaching students in regular classes. This has caused a HUGE fervor among the Chinese citizens, the general population is extremely excited and hopeful for the games. As a result, boycotting the games would totally demoralize the country.
The point that I have is if a half-ass boycott of the Olympics is our biggest leverage in persuading the Chinese government in changing their ways, we a are in big trouble. The support we give China economically is the endorsement that is really crucial and far outweighs the support shown through taking part in the Olympics.
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"If you wanna make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs."
-Fight Club
Some interesting points there LAkings 22, so do you and any others on here think that South Africa should have been allowed to compete in pro-sports and the olympics during the apartheid era?
Not trying to pick a fight just wanted to see what people think?
This topic come up in a discussion today during one of my philosophy classes. Oddly enough, it is a Confucian thought class and our teacher in a native of China.
She said it it pointless and would be extremely detrimental to boycott the Olympics in any way. According to her, China has spent the past 8 years educating its citizens on the history, procedure, and basically anything that has to do with the Olympics, starting with teaching students in regular classes. This has caused a HUGE fervor among the Chinese citizens, the general population is extremely excited and hopeful for the games. As a result, boycotting the games would totally demoralize the country.
The point that I have is if a half-ass boycott of the Olympics is our biggest leverage in persuading the Chinese government in changing their ways, we a are in big trouble. The support we give China economically is the endorsement that is really crucial and far outweighs the support shown through taking part in the Olympics.
I don't think we should boycott all of the Olympics, just the opening ceremony. Besides, it would be better for the athletes to spend as little time in a polluted Chinese megalopolis as possible. I want to see some track records broken.
But seriously, the argument against boycotting is "it will make them sad?" Awww, they got disappointed...
Furthermore, some sort of economic sanctions would not necessarily be the answer. China was after all, just as bad if not worse when it came to human rights when it was a true communist country. And there is no doubt that the influx of capital in recent decades have made China a more open society (but of course has had a hugely negative effect on the environment).
The article Clinton points out that she has long been a 'critic' of China without mentioning that Bill's administration was a major China facilitator. Didn't he give them Most Favored Nation status in trade? Help me out if you remember.
Not totally. He extended the already existing status of them being MFN. I believe it was reintroduced by Carter in 79 and has been extended since then by every President.
I am an Olympics nerd. I am really looking forward to watching Phelps tear it up this year. I think that it is unfortunate that there is a political element to the games, HOWEVER, China's policies really are reprehensible & there should be SOME sort of message sent. I wold just hate to see the athletes pay...
Time to talk about china and the olympics? 
homersimps
