Is boycotting the Olympics fair to the athletes? Should we really care what they want?
The torch arrived in America today behind a ton of secrecy. The plans of its route had been changed and somehow - they weren't leaked to anybody. Why? BEcause protestors were going to make their presence known and attempt to extinguish the flames.
People are in an uproar because protestors around the world have been picketing, blocking the torch's route, and extinguishing the flame. People seem to think this is unfair because the Olympics are about the "spirit of competition" and the poor athletes have worked so hard.
I hate to say it but WHO CARES! I could care less if an 18-year-old kid doesn't get to compete in the Olympics. The issue should be China and their chronic human rights violations, environmental atrocities and treatment of Tibet. It should not be about kids wanting to play a game.
The Olympics will pump BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS into the Chinese economy - but at what cost? IF Americans participate, we will be funneling our dollars to the horrendous policies of China. We will be supporting the thousands of people force from their homes to make way for Olympic Stadiums. We will be supporting the Chinese crimes against the people of Tibet. Hell, the Chinese issued new threats against the Tibetan protestors saying that they would protect the torch at all cost (ie murdering protestors).
How the hell do we support this? We have boycotted before and we should boycott again. Like I said, who cares if a person doesn't get to compete - there are more important things in this world.
Comments
an you imagine what would happen to China if no one showed up? How glorious would that be?
Would that it was all that simple. We need the world's largest nation to be part of the community of nations.
Do you really believe that any Middle Eastern Country will join a boycott? What would a boycott do? Did the Russians leave Afganistan because of our boycott? It might feel good to get behind a boycott but we need the Chinese to put pressure on the Sudanese.
Should the world boycott us because of what we did in Iraq? That would certainly throw our economy into a tailspin. How long could we survive on $15 a gallon gasoline.
Nothing is simple.
Nothing is simple. Like saying boycotts and protests do or do not make a difference. Boycotts and protests are not simple, so they do and they do not. A protest, like a shot in a basketball game, or like getting a college degree, is a gamble, a truth, an expression of who you are.
Should making a statement depend on whether or not the statement gets the outcome you want?
That would be the height of dishonesty, wouldn't it?
For those people who say don't politicize the Olympics, I ask, Aren't they already jampacked with politics?