If skateboarding were in the Olympics and if there was a boycott...

[skategeezer]

This is about China...this is about a boycott...this is about to get ugly...

European Parliament president: Don't rule out boycott


Associated Press March 23, 2008 Article


The president of the European Parliament said European countries should not rule out threatening China with an Olympic boycott if violence continues in Tibet.

''Beijing must decide itself, it should immediately negotiate with the Dalai Lama,'' Hans-Gert Poettering said in Saturday editions of Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper. ''If there continue to be no signals of compromise, I see boycott measures as justified.''

Protests started March 10 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule. Events turned violent four days later, touching off demonstrations among Tibetans in three neighboring provinces.






Beijing responded by blanketing Tibetan areas with troops and publishing a ''Most Wanted'' list of 21 protesters, appealing to people to turn them in.

Beijing's official death toll from the rioting is 22, but the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile has said 99 Tibetans have been killed.

Poettering's comments came after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner last week backtracked from his own remarks that suggested he was open to a mini-boycott of the Beijing Olympics by VIPs at the opening ceremony, saying the proposal was ''unrealistic.''

Poettering told Bild that ''we should not rule out a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing.''

The European Union said Thursday that a boycott would be counterproductive to efforts to improve human rights in China.

''A boycott could signify actually losing an opportunity to promote human rights and could, at the same time, cause considerable harm to the population of China as a whole,'' said a statement from Slovenia, which holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Poettering said the European Parliament would be talking over the issue midweek, and said he was pushing for European countries to ''speak with one voice on the defense of human rights in Tibet.''

''China, for Europe, is an important partner -- in climate protection, for example,'' Poettering told Bild. ''Dialogue and cooperation are in the interests of both sides, but the Tibetan people should not be allowed to be made victims for it.''

In other comments to Bild, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier did not rule out a boycott of the opening ceremonies of the games by Western politicians.

''Only Beijing can decide this question,'' he said.

He added he was going to be in touch with his Chinese counterparts to talk about the situation in Tibet this weekend, and he was pushing for Beijing to allow foreign observers.

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[inluvwithsara]

Please boycott it!!!! This never ending of Kissing China's @ss, and overlooking its issues is getting old. I understand the sovereignty of a nation, but I also understand pressureing them them/us to change the things that need to change.

[elementalzoo]

What about the fact the entire world sat around and did nothing while 400,000 Ugandans in the 90's were killed through genocide?

And the legacy of that continues with the Janjaweed ( no jokes please ) in Darfur who have met that number in the last four years and continue on.Where's everyone's rage about that?

Is it because they don't hold the Olympics? Don't have oil? Don't make and ship poisonous, cheap crap to us by the boatloads? Or is it because they're black skinned? Or is it becasue they don't have a fashionable religion to export to coffee house intellectuals?

**** the Olympics in a political context. Way more serious sh*t going on in the world than that to get ticked about.

[RastamanD]

so in these threads we just suspend the politics rule right?

[onthespoke]

I'm fine with a boycott. Most of the olymp events are lame anyways and the ones that aren't get fine coverage all the rest of the year.
And further, if there's a way that masses of people can exert power over a nation as easily as a boycott, I fully support it. If darfur was the world's only producer or rice i'd go without rice and beans easily. As it is i try to consume as little oil as possible, but it still exerts a hold over me. But i'd gladly not watch the olympics and there's little chance i would anyways...

[Wells]

so in these threads we just suspend the politics rule right?

Apparently.

[msk]

The problem with boycotts like these, is that they have little or no effect on the people they're supposed to, while possibly having a negative effect on others. Boycotting the 1980 Olympics didn't get Russia out of Afghanistan, and Russia boycotting the 1984 Olympics didn't stop us from helping the Afghans against Russia. The only people who the boycotts had any impact on were the athletes who didn't get to compete, and those who won without competing against all of the best.

Had the US gone ahead with the proposed boycott in 1936, Jesse Owens never would've had the chance to provide a slap in the face to some of Hitler's ideology regarding race...

Woman Reporter: It's a big day for American cycling, to have two Americans beat an Olympic champ. You must feel some pride.

Jerome: Come on man, walk it off.

Muzzin: No, no, I'm alright. OK. I'm not riding for America, lady. I tried riding for America. I spent four years of my life working shitty jobs so I could train and make the Olympic team and ride for my... LOOK AT ME! And then some fat asses in Washington started having opinions. The Olympic Committee started having opinions. You, you bitch, I know you! You started writing your opinions. So we boycott the Olympics. I was in the best shape of my life in the summer of 1980, and I got beat... by opinions!

[HerBDerb]

Is it because they don't hold the Olympics? Don't have oil? Don't make and ship poisonous, cheap crap to us by the boatloads? Or is it because they're black skinned? Or is it becasue they don't have a fashionable religion to export to coffee house intellectuals?

It's because the mass media doesn't cover it.
And if the mass media doesn't cover it, people don't care.