In the Goals and Concepts of BOCOG, the Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee, there are three main intentions cited for the upcoming games:
- Green Olympics
- High Tech Olympics
- Peoples' Olympics
Swifter, Higher, Stronger is the Olympics Motto. Does this mean at the cost of human lives, basic human rights, environmental degradation, displacement of people from homes and simple basic livelihoods?
Can anyone watch the Olympics in China without wondering about the continuing human rights violations in Tibet, spoken about so eloquently by the Dalai Lama - an honourary citizen of Canada?
Can anyone watch the Olympics in China without wondering about unregulated sponsorship monies paying for unregulated activities by world-wide companies - advertisers in any venue, especially a newly wrangled opening market of 1.3 billion people would be willing to pay ANY amount of cash gain access to the eyes and ears and opportunities afforded therein.
Can anyone forget the environmental disasters of the Three Rivers Diversion Project ? More than twenty-two billion dollars were spent, over 100,000 lives lost or damaged in disasters during construction. And experts agreed that solutions costing far less could have been implemented locally in the northern provinces with more positive human amd environmenta. impact and better long term legacy on the land.
How can we watch these Games? How can any country participate and support China in the pretense of joining an opening market when at each turn there are mounting worries for people AFTER the Games. What will be the Real legacy? A golden capital? A choked populace? Another revolution in a remote Tiananmen Square that shall never be recorded for broadcast?
China is not a supporter of human rights in the world today: look to what is happening in Darfur, look to Tibet, look at the poor record of peacekeeping contributions. China is not a nation committed to peace and prosperity in the world at large or even at home. And so:
I call for a boycott of the 2008 Beijing Games.
Athletes from all other nations, I urge you to reconsider your duty to Swifter, Higher and Stronger - as a duty to humanity, to the world. Do not let China pretend to be a part of a world which the political, defensive, environmental and economic forces have not yet fully joined.
Consumers from all other nations, I urge you to look at the sponsors of these Games and consider their motives carefully; question the companies, write letters, demand answers and accountability. Ensure that the investments the companies made are fully tallied and invested in people, not products.
Citizens from all other nations, I urge you to write to China, to contact BOCOG, the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Games, and ask specific questions about any concerns leading up to and following these Games. Questions you might want to ask could include:
- What is the daily or weekly salary of the people working at the Games? What does that buy for their family?
- How far away do a person in Beijing working at or near the Games sites live from the Sites and how much time or how much might it cost them to get to the Games site to work?
- How will citizens far away from Beijing benefit from these Games? During the Games? After the Games are over?
- How will citizens of Beijing benefit from these Games after the Games are over?
- There are many new environmental installations and clean air is promised for the Games. What about after the Games? Will such clean air continue? How will you make it so?
I call for this boycott on behalf of:
- the women and children of China
- the land and forests and rivers of China, the Yangtze, Yellow, Hai, and Huai
- the workers who have died making the Games and the works behind the scenes
- the people of Tibet
- the people of Darfur
- the star dust that makes us all swifter, higher, stronger every day, from which we came and from which we will return someday.
Please Consider.
Write The Editor of a Newspaper.
Write Me.
Just Write!
Talk About This Idea.
Spread the Word.
No comments:
Post a Comment