The devious Chinese administration is up to its old games – surprise, surprise.
They agreed to journalists being free to report when they signed the contract for the 2008 Olympics.
Now?
What do you think? A top spokesman said Falun Gong sites would be blocked – yet another official stated other, unspecified sites, would be unavailable.
And the IOC? “We’ll look into it”. How many times in your life have you heard that one?
Many journalists are on-site already, and were blocked from Amnesty International’s site Tuesday when it published a report critical of China’s human rights record.
The one thing that surprises me is how China were given the games in the first place. I guess the Olympics are, after all, a political, rather than a sporting platform today. Money has always talked, and it spoke loud and clear when Beijing were awarded this quasi sporting event.
The concept of the games has long been forgotten, and we now have incidents such as a professional USA basketball team competing against amateurs – professional athletes being paid small fortunes by sports goods manufacturers set against some poor bugger who has spent everything he has just to buy training equipment and every spare minute when not working trying to train.
This is not to detract from the many men and women who have spent years, and their own money, preparing for it.
What would I do if I were an athlete taking part? So easy to talk when I can remain objective on the subject. Seriously. Yes, I would have to do one hel of a lot of soul searching; but feel sure that in the end I would decide against taking part.
Apart from anything else, there’s the pollution to think of, and that is not to make light of the BIG issue, a “sporting” event in a country that has trampled on human rights for far too long. Yes, there have been a few improvements; but to use a vulgar, if appropriate, expression, China has the West by the short and curlies. Governments may cry “foul” when talking about China’s human rights track record, but, when it comes down to it, business and trade are the name of the game.
They agreed to journalists being free to report when they signed the contract for the 2008 Olympics.
Now?
What do you think? A top spokesman said Falun Gong sites would be blocked – yet another official stated other, unspecified sites, would be unavailable.
And the IOC? “We’ll look into it”. How many times in your life have you heard that one?
Many journalists are on-site already, and were blocked from Amnesty International’s site Tuesday when it published a report critical of China’s human rights record.
The one thing that surprises me is how China were given the games in the first place. I guess the Olympics are, after all, a political, rather than a sporting platform today. Money has always talked, and it spoke loud and clear when Beijing were awarded this quasi sporting event.
The concept of the games has long been forgotten, and we now have incidents such as a professional USA basketball team competing against amateurs – professional athletes being paid small fortunes by sports goods manufacturers set against some poor bugger who has spent everything he has just to buy training equipment and every spare minute when not working trying to train.
This is not to detract from the many men and women who have spent years, and their own money, preparing for it.
What would I do if I were an athlete taking part? So easy to talk when I can remain objective on the subject. Seriously. Yes, I would have to do one hel of a lot of soul searching; but feel sure that in the end I would decide against taking part.
Apart from anything else, there’s the pollution to think of, and that is not to make light of the BIG issue, a “sporting” event in a country that has trampled on human rights for far too long. Yes, there have been a few improvements; but to use a vulgar, if appropriate, expression, China has the West by the short and curlies. Governments may cry “foul” when talking about China’s human rights track record, but, when it comes down to it, business and trade are the name of the game.
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