posted on Apr, 10 2008 @ 06:31 AM
Still considering China a communist nation is a bit off, in my opinion. And It's certainly not relevant. The highly authoritarian governing organs of
China are all remnants, and a direct result of, the communist era, and the ruling party is still the Communist Party of China, but they embraced
economic liberalization long ago. Naturally though, if there exists no individual or collective freedom, as well as no guarantee for a social market
economy, the benefit for the people is close to zero, and the "Communists" still have their right to rule guaranteed by the constitution. It's a
nation where the worst of both capitalism and state-socialism manifest itself. China is dangerous both to it's own people, and to the rest of the
world. And human rights is certainly not something the powers of China have any respect for.
What baffles me is why people first now start to turn on China though. They have #ed over Tibet for a long time, and the common citizen of China have
been suffering under the communists regime for as long as I have been alive. Their latest actions just adds into a long history of wrongdoings.
In my opinion they should maybe never have been allowed to host The Olympics in the first place. The Olympics will never change how the Chinese
relates to governing their nation. If democracy manifested itself in any part of Chinese society, then maybe.. but it doesn't. There are certain
standards a nation should live up to before the whole world turns their eyes to the nation in question, send their athletes there and pump billions of
billions of $ into their economy.
And what is this about not politicizing the Olympics? It is already about politics. Try being a fly on the wall inside any IOC meeting. Hosting the
Olympics is empowering for any nation... I would think it is all about politics for the ruling elite of China at least. Don't blame the protesters of
politicizing the Olympics... you can't deny the political aspects of a nation hosting the Olympics. And don't blame people in democratic nations for
doing anything wrong when they use exercise their right to protest. Disagreeing with the protesters is an entirely different thing of course, and a
protest in itself.
There are positive sides to China hosting the Olympics as well though. While letting them host the Olympics and letting our athletes and onlookers
visit their nation, we are accepting them as a part of the gang, contributing to them not staying alienated.. which again might deter them from
turning even more aggressive. It's all about politics again. I'm sorry, but the Olympics just can't be said to be nothing but fun and games. It's
big business and serious politics as well.
So.. I would agree to the fact that boycotting it now might not be the best solution. I was surprised to learn that Norway will probably not be
boycotting the opening ceremony, but I think it was the correct decision to make.
[edit on 10-4-2008 by me_ofef_seraph]