The olympics are, and have been since winning the bid, a propaganda vehicle for the Chinese government. They are using them in order to showcase and promote their socialist government; and they expect the entire world to turn a blind eye to their serious human rights violations. Allowing the games to proceed normally will not make the world a safer place; calling an evil government by its name is what will ultimately make the world less dangerous.

Furthermore, looking back into history, this is an exact repeat of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler attempted to showcase superiority of the arian race and the Nazi regime. It is impossible to say that the games are not political: they are and have been since their inception indelibly intertwined with politics in someway.

Thanks for your comments!

I am of two minds of this... I mean, the olympics have long been a peace-bringing event. The warring Greek city-states would hold a truce and all participate in the games.

They seem like a natural event to broker peace.

But of course there is politics and propaganda behind it all...

Funny how the biggest human rights violation of them -- selective abortion of femable children -- is the one that gets the least press.

"Nonetheless, in September 1997, the World Health Organization's Regional Committee for the Western Pacific issued a report claiming that "more than 50 million women were estimated to be 'missing' in China because of the institutionalized killing and neglect of girls due to Beijing's population control program that limits parents to one child." (See Joseph Farah, "Cover-up of China's gender-cide", Western Journalism Center/FreeRepublic, September 29, 1997.) Farah referred to the gendercide as "the biggest single holocaust in human history."

http://www.gendercide.org/case_infanticide.html


But surely, open communication is helpful in stopping this.

A good example would be more efficacious.