Boycotting the Olympics in China

[Bowwowmeow]

Spielberg Quits As Olympics Adviser


http://my.eimg.net/harvest_xml/NEWS/img/20080212/47b127d0_3ca7_1552720080212-546946541.jpg (http://enews.earthlink.net/article/pho?guid=20080212/47b127d0_3ca7_1552720080212-546946541&article_path=/article/ent&article_guid=20080212/47b127d0_3ca6_1552620080212-1927915107)
Actress and UN Goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow speaks
during a news conference near the Chinese Mission
Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2008 in New York.




By DAVE SKRETTA (AP Sports Writer)
From Associated Press
February 12, 2008 5:38 PM EST

NEW YORK - Steven Spielberg is ending his involvement as an artistic adviser for the Beijing Olympics.

The film director made the decision Tuesday, hours after actress Mia Farrow and several humanitarian groups assailed him for working with the games' Chinese organizers.

At issue for both Farrow and Spielberg is China's close relationship with Sudan, where thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the Darfur region.

China buys two-thirds of Sudan's oil exports. In turn, China sells weapons to the Sudanese government and has defended Khartoum in the U.N. Security Council.

Spielberg had already sent a letter urging President Hu Jintao to use China's influence during the Olympics to help the situation in Darfur.

I hope more people follow suit. :cheer:

[Gliondrach]

I saw a telly programme which showed government thugs guarding a prison for people arrested for complaining about the destruction of their homes. These were destroyed to make way for olympic things. They are being held prisoner in case foreigners see them protesting.

With any luck, the air will be too bad for anyone to compete. It's a pity for the athletes but some things are more important than sport.

[paul]

Good for Steven Spielberg,I've decided not to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

[Phoenix]

... I've decided not to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

:rofl:


The Olympics suck.

When they were held here, (2000) the federal government changed laws regarding the military being used against Australian citizens because they were afraid of potentially embarrassing protests being held. :mad:

[Gliondrach]

Good for Steven Spielberg,I've decided not to compete in the Beijing Olympics.


Good for you.

[Tails4wagging]

I think all atheletes should boycott it as well.

[Bowwowmeow]

Who can blame him?
China: Dalai Lama Wants to Sour Olympics

By AUDRA ANG (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
March 18, 2008 9:24 PM EDT

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused supporters of the Dalai Lama on Tuesday of organizing violent clashes in Tibet in hopes of sabotaging the Beijing Olympics and bolstering their campaign for independence in the Himalayan territory.

The Dalai Lama urged his followers to remain peaceful, saying he would resign as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile if violence got out of control. But he also suggested China may have fomented unrest in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and nearby provinces to discredit him.

In striking an uncompromising line, Wen underscored the communist leadership's determination to restore order in Tibet and Tibetan areas of neighboring provinces.

"There is ample fact - and we also have plenty of evidence - proving that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," he told reporters at his annual news conference at the end of China's national legislative session.

"By staging that incident, they want to undermine the Beijing Olympic Games, and they also try to serve their hidden agenda by inciting such incidents," said Wen.

He said Lhasa was returning to normal and "will be reopened to the rest of the world," but did not specify when.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday that 105 people had turned themselves into police in Lhasa after the violent anti-government protests there last week. The communist government on Sunday had promised leniency for those who handed themselves in, and harsh punishment for those who did not.

Xinhua quoted a government official as saying the people who gave themselves up had been "directly involved in the beating, smashing, looting and arson last Friday."

"Some have turned in the money they looted," Baema Chilain, vice chairman of the regional government, was quoted as saying.

Independent reporting from the region was impossible because of China's tight control over information and a ban on trips to the area by foreign reporters.

John Kenwood, a 19-year-old Canadian tourist who left Lhasa on Tuesday, said he saw street cleaners wearing orange vests emblazoned with the Beijing Olympics symbol.

"When the fighting began, you saw no Chinese," said Kenwood as he arrived in Nepal. "Now you see no Tibetans on the streets. The young Tibetans are probably hiding."

The Lhasa protests, led by Buddhist monks, began peacefully March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet had been effectively independent for decades before Chinese communist troops imposed Beijing's control in 1950.

The demonstrations took a violent turn Friday, leaving 16 people dead and dozens injured, according to the Chinese government. The Dalai Lama's government-in-exile in India contends 80 Tibetans died.

The protests have focused world attention on China's human rights record ahead of the Olympics. The government had hoped the Aug. 8-24 games would burnish its image as a modernizing nation.

The Dalai Lama, speaking in Dharmsala, India, seat of his government-in-exile, urged nonviolence.

"I say to China and the Tibetans: Don't commit violence," he told reporters. He suggested the Chinese themselves may have had a hand in the upheaval to discredit him.

"It's possible some Chinese agents are involved there," he said. "Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate."

If violence spirals out of control, he said his "only option is to completely resign" as head of the government-in-exile. A top aide said later the Dalai Lama would not give up his role as spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhists.

U.S. officials urged China to address Tibetans' grievances and to engage in direct talks with the Dalai Lama.

"I do think that his statements point out the fact that he is not arguing for independence or separation from China. Quite the opposite, he is arguing for dialogue with the Chinese," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

Chinese authorities pressed ahead with efforts to round up protesters in Lhasa. Witnesses said officials had been detaining people since the weekend.

Duoji Zeren, vice governor of Tibet, was quoted on state television as saying authorities "would take determined methods to capture the primary suspects," but no details were given.

Protests spilled over from Tibet into surrounding provinces in recent days, as police and soldiers set up checkpoints across a wide swath of western China. On Tuesday, thousands of Tibetans flooded the streets in Seda, in the southern Chinese province of Sichuan, according to the Tibet Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Activist groups also circulated graphic photographs of protesters who they said were massacred Sunday by Chinese police at Kirti monastery in Sichuan province. The images showed several men who were apparently shot and bodies covered in blood. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the photographs.

[Gliondrach]

Whether or not the Dalai Lama had any hand in the riots, it's a bit rich for the scum in Peking to say so, seeing as how they are mass murderers and torturers.

China is becoming too powerful. If it is allowed to become the strongest ecomony we will all suffer. Everyone should boycott all their goods as much as possible. They might be cheap but when they have a monopoly on all goods they will put the prices up.

[Bowwowmeow]

Protesters Scale Golden Gate Bridge

From Associated Press
April 07, 2008 12:48 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO - Three protesters are climbing up the suspension cables of the Golden Gate Bridge as part of a protest to the coming Olympic torch relay.

The protesters are wearing helmets and one of them is carrying a suitcase with him. All three of the protesters are tethered together.

One of them has pulled out a Tibetan flag.

The torch is due to arrive Wednesday in San Francisco, its only North American stop.
I hope the wind has died down there. We had a terrible windstorm all day and night yesterday.