There has been a lot of talk of boycotting the China Olympics due to the Tibet Protests and other issues. If the Olympics were in the US this year, would you think there would just be as much talks of boycotting the US Olympics due to the Iraq War? Discuss.
All these talk about boycotting the China Olympics
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Brigandier
Diamond Member
- Feb 12, 2008
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i'm not exactly and america fanboy, but comparing the current state of china and the us is ridiculous.
The Tibetans aren't protesting, they are rioting and looting. Boycotting these Olympics for this reason would be like boycotting the US Olympics because of the Los Angeles riots of 1992 (I know it was in Barcelona, but let's say it was going to be hosted in New York).
1.3 billion people in China breathe their air without masks just fine. Their life expectancy is 73 years, ours is 78 years, I doubt that difference is entirely due to or even significantly affected by air quality considering the average income and quality of medical care there compared to here.
Yeah, alot is made out of the bad air in China, but its not THAT much worse than some places in the USA. Also of note is that probably 30+ years ago before the modern enviromental movement the air in the USA was just as bad as it is in China today. There are some great coparissons where I live (Chattanooga) between the 60s and 70s and today and its incredible how much the air has changed. When my parents moved to Chattanogga in the 70s you couldn't even see the mountains because the smog was so bad (from heavy industry), these days you can see them perfectly. I know China isn't as good as the USA in terms of eviromentalism, but the USA was just as crappy when it was in the same level of development industrially as China is today. Not really fair to get on their case about dirty coal plants when we had just as many back in the day.
Brigandier
Diamond Member
- Feb 12, 2008
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I was using hyperbole, comrades. When the Olympic okays the use for rescue inhalers and a Kenyan endurance runner is just not participating due to air quality issues, I can comment. Plus, rewarding China for being China is also not kosher
BoomerD
No Lifer
- Feb 26, 2006
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Actually no. The USA had its share of pollution problems, but not to the levels that China does, nor affecting the numbers of people that China's pollution is.
Here's some info from Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/manufact...1129pollute_slide.html
(with the accompanying story)
http://www.forbes.com/manufact...cx_db_1129pollute.html
http://www.forbes.com/personal...12etfbriefing_inl.html
There will always be people who will try to find reasons boycott the Olympics-- be it in China or the US. Don't believe me? Check the World's opinion on the US right now. That being said, boycotting is petty and in bad taste, in my opinion.
dennilfloss
Past Lifer 1957-2014 In Memoriam
Wikipedia reminds us that US olympics have been boycotted before (and that led to a grossly inflated medal count for the USA contingent).
Putin having a Russian boycott implemented in the near future would not surprise me in the least.
dennilfloss
Past Lifer 1957-2014 In Memoriam
wrong. The US has the highest per capita imprisonment rate in the world (roughly 3x that of china). Most people in US prisons have never been convicted of a violent crime. The prison industry is a highly profitable privatized industry with an enormous fiscal cost to taxpayers, exceeding that of what they said the Iraq war would cost.
BoomerD
No Lifer
- Feb 26, 2006
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Unfortunately, yes the US does have a large prison population, but that's due to a high crime rate in many places. That does NOT equal repression of the population.
Non-violent offenders are still criminals and should be locked up.
I can't imagine allowing burglars, heroin dealers, white-collar criminals, or other ""non-violent" criminals to roam the streets just because they are "non-violent."
ZzZGuy
Golden Member
- Nov 15, 2006
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My concern over air quality is that you will have athletes pushing themselves to the limits. I hear of smog alerts in Toronto (canada) advising the old and people with respiratory problems to stay indoors, i hate to imagine what would happen to athletes with China's smog.
You can tell me all you want about how people live in this smog and how you walked around in it with no ill effect, it is irrelevant. These athletes will be sucking in huge volumes of air and push themselves to their physical limit, and I don't know what effect the smog will have but it will not be good. Show me the tests done to disprove my fears before saying there is nothing to worry about.
China will have to shut down every factory and every road to public traffic upwind of the events long enough for the smog to dissipate, it's that or multiple delays with bad smog days and possible heath problems cropping up (god forbid deaths) which will make China look like crap. But this is China, they might do just that.
You can tell me all you want about how people live in this smog and how you walked around in it with no ill effect, it is irrelevant. These athletes will be sucking in huge volumes of air and push themselves to their physical limit, and I don't know what effect the smog will have but it will not be good. Show me the tests done to disprove my fears before saying there is nothing to worry about.
China will have to shut down every factory and every road to public traffic upwind of the events long enough for the smog to dissipate, it's that or multiple delays with bad smog days and possible heath problems cropping up (god forbid deaths) which will make China look like crap. But this is China, they might do just that.
StinkyPinky
Diamond Member
- Jul 6, 2002
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The New Zealand rugby team toured apartheid South AFrica the same year so most of AFrica boycotted the Olympics.
Strange but true.
Throckmorton
Lifer
- Aug 23, 2007
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I don't understand this logic. If the runners were that adversely affected by the pollution, wouldn't that mean the Chinese athletes are all basically going to lose because they are all dying after one event? Do the Chinese representatives only train indoors and thus hurt their chances of winning in an outdoor event? I have a hard time believing that these athletes are going to be that adversely affected by the pollution from spending such a short period of time in China. I've spent time in Shanghai and Beijing recently and although the pollution is bad, it's not like it caused me to wheeze. It didn't look much worse than LA 10 years ago.
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