No Show @ Big Show
UPDATE: I spoke too soon. French doing what French do best. Retreating.
The French, (who had appeared to be) slowly emerging as responsible foreign policy players, actually have a pretty good idea: Show up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Not our fault or the athletes’ fault the IOC hopped in bed with a(nother) wretched dictatorship. Just shun the PRC’s big showcase commie extravaganza opening ceremony. They’d hate that. Big loss of face.
Being there will provide plenty of opportunities for conscientious athletes, off the field, to sound off, while beating PRC athletes on the field. Meanwhile, how could the Chinese possibly weed out the thousands of foreign protestors who might show up as Olympic sports enthusiasts and commit their own acts of protest all over the place? Could be good.
Sample speech/talking points for conscientious athletes:
We are pleased to be here in Beijing in support of freedom-loving Chinese people and in support of a free Tibet. We find the policies and practices of the corrupt dictatorship that hijacked China and Tibet six decades ago to be reprehensible. As China attempts to demonstrate it is a modern nation, entering the 21t century, it is time to throw the decrepit remnants of discredited 20th-century communism and authoritarianism on the junkpile of history, open the gates of the slave labor camps, and allow free speech and free elections.
Free Tibet. Free China. And while you’re at it, howzabout doing something about all the toxic junk, sweatshop conditions, and predatory marketing practices. You backward money-grubbing monk-beating athiests.
I’m making that speech available free to any concerned athlete. The argument could be made that the world should thank the lickspittles of the IOC for putting China in the hot seat. Given the fact that the United States and the rest of the world have been kowtowing to the most corrupt regime on Earth for decades, this situation has the potential to make a lot of people squirm.
Times: China tries to make it all about the DL. DL turns the other cheek:
The 72-year-old monk, the 14th reincarnation known as the Ocean of Wisdom, told a news conference in Dharamsala yesterday: “Whether we like it or not, we have to live together side by side.”
He issued his strongest statement against the frenzy of racist violence that rocked Lhasa on Friday. “We must oppose Chinese policy but not the Chinese. Not on a racist basis.”
He denied the Chinese charges against him and invited the Chinese to check his person, saying: “If things become completely out of control then my only option is to resign.”
Technically, the Dalai Lama cannot resign because he is revered as the reincarnation of his predecessor but he has often suggested that he will not return again. His comments appeared to be designed to reassert his moral authority and to quell the unrest.
IHT: “Splittists” respond to bad Chinese policy. Not to be a hair-splittist, but I’m pretty sure it was their country before he commie troops showed up in 1951.
Al Jazeera: Tibetan protest in Beijing.
WPost: Torch will still go through Tibet. I bet it will go through a lot of other places where the PRC will have opportunities to lose face. It may even be carried by people who will seek to express their abhorrence.
Topics: China, France, commies
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:11 am on Wednesday, March 19, 2008
4 Responses to “No Show @ Big Show”
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March 19th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Web Reconnaissance for 03/19/2008
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:40 am
[...] Crittenden agrees: Show up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Not our fault or the athletes’ fault the IOC hopped in [...]
March 19th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Sounds to me like a plan.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Quasi-Boycott Beijing?
With the recent violence and Chinese crackdown in Tibet, thoughts inevitably turned to the Beijing Olympics. Some would argue that a full boycott should occur, yet the example from Moscow in 1980 hardly gives a successful precedent.&l …