07 April 2008

Tibet vs. the Olympics, Part II

The Olympic torch has crossed from Britain to France, harassed along the way by sympathizers for Tibetan independence. These zealots have their hearts in the right place, because it'd be an occasion for cheering if the Tibetans were able to throw out the Chinese and keep them out. Moral suasion applied by foreigners against the Chinese government can only go so far. The next stage should rightly take an economic form. Let those who love Tibet boycott every product manufactured in China, and the Chinese might feel it. Instead, the friends of Tibet want to humiliate China by ruining the Olympic Games. Here the harm extends beyond China to the whole world, or at least that part of it dedicated to sport as a venue for peaceful competition between nations and individuals, free from ideology and other furies. Tibetophiles might find this observation frivolous. Who am I, they might ask, to value a sports event over the freedom of an entire people? That's a proper subject for debate, but here's another: what should we call it when any faction shuts down a public festival to make a political point -- when they demand attention to their cause before all else, and strive by all means at their disposal to force our attention their way? Dare I suggest that the word is terrorism?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

They might also try to get their respective countries to boycott selling food to the Chinese. Especially here in the USA. If our government truly supports democracy, we should stop supplying the chinese with cheap wheat, etc. And create a constitutional amendment from allowing any other nation to run/control our seaports.

(ps, in case you aren't aware, Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., a Chinese corporation that has very close connections to the Chinese national army runs many of our West Coast seaports, as well as the port of New Orleans and the Panama Canal. Look it up! - I'm guessing it's part of our government's payment for the multi-trillion dollar national debt run up over the past couple administrations)