French suggest boycott of Olympic opening ceremonies

[MadRat]

I detect yet another battle the French will surrender.

 

[Lt 486]

I think if France will boycott the Beijing Olympic Games, then the following will happen:

1. Chinese will rename french fries into olympic fries
2. Chinese TV will show chinese politicians pouring french wine into the ground
3. Chinese internet sites will redicule France as surrender monkey, lots of jokes about french army surrendering to germans.

By the way, I am really dissapointed the way chinese goverment handles the tibet militant combatants. USA should hold China up to the standards of modern civilized country: waterboarding and Guantanomo-Bay-like camps. Chinese have much to learn about human rights, aren't they?

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: Lt 486
By the way, I am really dissapointed the way chinese goverment handles the tibet militant combatants. USA should hold China up to the standards of modern civilized country: waterboarding and Guantanomo-Bay-like camps. Chinese have much to learn about human rights, aren't they?

More like the left needs to learn the difference between a few people acting badly and an oppressive regime.

Most of our scandals involve a few bad apples breaking the rules and eventually paying the price for their actions.

What we are seeing in China is a governmental policy of oppression.

 

[ProfJohn]

I think France is on to something.

To China the Olympics are a way to show the world how great they are, in the same way Hitler used the 36 games to showcase his Nazi regime.

A boycott of the opening ceremonies will turn the attention away from the games and instead turn it on China?s human rights issues.

 

[Nitemare]

Originally posted by: freegeeks

Originally posted by: CanOWorms
They should use the Tibet flag instead of the French flag in the ceremony.

holy crap, for once I agree with you

The US should use this as well. It is after all red, white and blue

 

[Lt 486]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Lt 486
By the way, I am really dissapointed the way chinese goverment handles the tibet militant combatants. USA should hold China up to the standards of modern civilized country: waterboarding and Guantanomo-Bay-like camps. Chinese have much to learn about human rights, aren't they?

More like the left needs to learn the difference between a few people acting badly and an oppressive regime.

Most of our scandals involve a few bad apples breaking the rules and eventually paying the price for their actions.

What we are seeing in China is a governmental policy of oppression.

Last time I checked both waterboarding and Gitmo camp were official policies of USA, not some rogue general.

Wait a second...

Oh, I have never thought of American Goverment as a bad apple... How could you? You, people on the right should stop America-bashing. Calling US Goverment a bad apple is unpatriotic and unamerican. Shame on you.

 

[jonks]

Originally posted by: Lt 486

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Lt 486
By the way, I am really dissapointed the way chinese goverment handles the tibet militant combatants. USA should hold China up to the standards of modern civilized country: waterboarding and Guantanomo-Bay-like camps. Chinese have much to learn about human rights, aren't they?

More like the left needs to learn the difference between a few people acting badly and an oppressive regime.

Most of our scandals involve a few bad apples breaking the rules and eventually paying the price for their actions.

What we are seeing in China is a governmental policy of oppression.

Last time I checked both waterboarding and Gitmo camp were official policies of USA, not some rogue general.

Wait a second...

Oh, I have never thought of American Goverment as a bad apple... How could you? You, people on the right should stop America-bashing. Calling US Goverment a bad apple is unpatriotic and unamerican. Shame on you.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Inte...tory?id=4468783&page=1

China is shooting protestors. Guantanamo is a disgrace, but if you'd like to compare abuses, I think you better pick a better example.

China is also attempting to shut down and censor access to all blogs and internet sites discussing or showing the violence, so that they can kill civilians with impunity. And they've been pretty successful at it too: http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3721

Baidu, China?s largest search engine, turns up no news in a search for ?Tibet? (the fifth most popular search term on Baidu Monday), while searches for ?Tibet riot? produce hits to pages that have been removed.

 

[Lt 486]

"China is also attempting to shut down and censor access to all blogs and internet sites discussing or showing the violence, so that they can kill civilians with impunity."

Like military contractors in Iraq? Or worse?

Do chinese "embed" journalists yet?

 

[BoomerD]

I've never been one of the "Free Tibet" hippies, but with the current situation in Tibet and the rapidly escalating violence, I think it's time for George to pull a Jimmy, and have the US teams boycott the entire Olympics. NO one competes.

Yeah, it sux for the athletes, but not nearly as bad as it does for the Tibetans...

 

[LongCoolMother]

i posted this in the other thread, but still no one has been able to explain this to me:

i don't see why all the western countries are on China's case in this recent riot. All the videos I've seen showed violent local Tibetans beating civilians, looting and vandalizing property, throwing rocks and other dangerous materials at police vehicles and police. EDIT: including the NEW video just surfaced today, from an australian tourist And then the rest of the world jumps on the bandwagon and claims 'cultural genocide.' Well, if there is violent civil unrest, then wtf is the government supposed to do? What do these idiots mean when they "urge restraint?" If they don't send in police forces, shops are going to be looted, people killed, and the entire city is going up in flames. If they do send in police, they violate human rights.

Its like if people criticized the government's actions in the LA riots of '92. Darn those oppresive cops. They really should have respected the rioter's rights to riot. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the use of force (which at this moment are unconfirmed anyway) against the rioters-- especially in this recent episode in Tibet. And I don't claim to know the whole story, if this is not it. But how can we all seemingly automatically assume what we have? Unless I'm missing out on some secret news source...

EDIT: So much for 'peaceful' tibetans...?

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
i posted this in the other thread, but still no one has been able to explain this to me:

i don't see why all the western countries are on China's case in this recent riot. All the videos I've seen showed violent local Tibetans beating civilians, looting and vandalizing property, throwing rocks and other dangerous materials at police vehicles and police. EDIT: including the NEW video just surfaced today, from an australian tourist And then the rest of the world jumps on the bandwagon and claims 'cultural genocide.' Well, if there is violent civil unrest, then wtf is the government supposed to do? What do these idiots mean when they "urge restraint?" If they don't send in police forces, shops are going to be looted, people killed, and the entire city is going up in flames. If they do send in police, they violate human rights.

Its like if people criticized the government's actions in the LA riots of '92. Darn those oppresive cops. They really should have respected the rioter's rights to riot. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the use of force (which at this moment are unconfirmed anyway) against the rioters-- especially in this recent episode in Tibet.

Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot of the violence were from young Tibetans beating up ethnic Han Chinese and looting and vandalizing their stores over there and all the videos I've seen seem to support that.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never been one of the "Free Tibet" hippies, but with the current situation in Tibet and the rapidly escalating violence, I think it's time for George to pull a Jimmy, and have the US teams boycott the entire Olympics. NO one competes.

Yeah, it sux for the athletes, but not nearly as bad as it does for the Tibetans...

And what will that do, exactly?

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never been one of the "Free Tibet" hippies, but with the current situation in Tibet and the rapidly escalating violence, I think it's time for George to pull a Jimmy, and have the US teams boycott the entire Olympics. NO one competes.

Yeah, it sux for the athletes, but not nearly as bad as it does for the Tibetans...

And what will that do, exactly?

Not a dammed thing...and it didn't do a dammed thing when Carter kept the Olympic teams from competing in Moscow either...but it DOES send a message.

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
i posted this in the other thread, but still no one has been able to explain this to me:

i don't see why all the western countries are on China's case in this recent riot. All the videos I've seen showed violent local Tibetans beating civilians, looting and vandalizing property, throwing rocks and other dangerous materials at police vehicles and police. EDIT: including the NEW video just surfaced today, from an australian tourist And then the rest of the world jumps on the bandwagon and claims 'cultural genocide.' Well, if there is violent civil unrest, then wtf is the government supposed to do? What do these idiots mean when they "urge restraint?" If they don't send in police forces, shops are going to be looted, people killed, and the entire city is going up in flames. If they do send in police, they violate human rights.

Its like if people criticized the government's actions in the LA riots of '92. Darn those oppresive cops. They really should have respected the rioter's rights to riot. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the use of force (which at this moment are unconfirmed anyway) against the rioters-- especially in this recent episode in Tibet. And I don't claim to know the whole story, if this is not it. But how can we all seemingly automatically assume what we have? Unless I'm missing out on some secret news source...

From what I've read, the violence is a caused by the Tibetan people who are tired of living under the thumbs of Bejing. As far as most Tibetans are concerned, they are Tibetans, NOT Chinese...and much like many other peoples in the world, they want their freedom, something that we here in the USA are supposed to support. After all, isn't that one of the excuses that Georgie-Boy is using as a reason for being in Iraq?
If the Chinese would get the hell out of Tibet and let them live their own lives, the violence would go away. (right or wrong)

 

[glutenberg]

Originally posted by: sirjonk

Originally posted by: Lt 486

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: Lt 486
By the way, I am really dissapointed the way chinese goverment handles the tibet militant combatants. USA should hold China up to the standards of modern civilized country: waterboarding and Guantanomo-Bay-like camps. Chinese have much to learn about human rights, aren't they?

More like the left needs to learn the difference between a few people acting badly and an oppressive regime.

Most of our scandals involve a few bad apples breaking the rules and eventually paying the price for their actions.

What we are seeing in China is a governmental policy of oppression.

Last time I checked both waterboarding and Gitmo camp were official policies of USA, not some rogue general.

Wait a second...

Oh, I have never thought of American Goverment as a bad apple... How could you? You, people on the right should stop America-bashing. Calling US Goverment a bad apple is unpatriotic and unamerican. Shame on you.

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Inte...tory?id=4468783&page=1

China is shooting protestors. Guantanamo is a disgrace, but if you'd like to compare abuses, I think you better pick a better example.

China is also attempting to shut down and censor access to all blogs and internet sites discussing or showing the violence, so that they can kill civilians with impunity. And they've been pretty successful at it too: http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3721

Baidu, China?s largest search engine, turns up no news in a search for ?Tibet? (the fifth most popular search term on Baidu Monday), while searches for ?Tibet riot? produce hits to pages that have been removed.

It's not a matter of comparisons. It's merely a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Varying degrees of disgrace and violations does not dismiss the fact that the US has its own set of problems and the hypocrisy in focusing abroad when the problem isn't even fixed within.

 

[glutenberg]

Originally posted by: BoomerD

From what I've read, the violence is a caused by the Tibetan people who are tired of living under the thumbs of Bejing. As far as most Tibetans are concerned, they are Tibetans, NOT Chinese...and much like many other peoples in the world, they want their freedom, something that we here in the USA are supposed to support. After all, isn't that one of the excuses that Georgie-Boy is using as a reason for being in Iraq?
If the Chinese would get the hell out of Tibet and let them live their own lives, the violence would go away. (right or wrong)

If this rule was applied more universally, we'd have a northern and a southern United States, we wouldn't have Israel, Serbia wouldn't be complaining about Kosovo, etc. Obviously no one wants to be ruled by another group but it's not like this is some new phenomenon in human history.

 

[StormRider]

Originally posted by: BoomerD

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: BoomerD
I've never been one of the "Free Tibet" hippies, but with the current situation in Tibet and the rapidly escalating violence, I think it's time for George to pull a Jimmy, and have the US teams boycott the entire Olympics. NO one competes.

Yeah, it sux for the athletes, but not nearly as bad as it does for the Tibetans...

And what will that do, exactly?

Not a dammed thing...and it didn't do a dammed thing when Carter kept the Olympic teams from competing in Moscow either...but it DOES send a message.

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother
i posted this in the other thread, but still no one has been able to explain this to me:

i don't see why all the western countries are on China's case in this recent riot. All the videos I've seen showed violent local Tibetans beating civilians, looting and vandalizing property, throwing rocks and other dangerous materials at police vehicles and police. EDIT: including the NEW video just surfaced today, from an australian tourist And then the rest of the world jumps on the bandwagon and claims 'cultural genocide.' Well, if there is violent civil unrest, then wtf is the government supposed to do? What do these idiots mean when they "urge restraint?" If they don't send in police forces, shops are going to be looted, people killed, and the entire city is going up in flames. If they do send in police, they violate human rights.

Its like if people criticized the government's actions in the LA riots of '92. Darn those oppresive cops. They really should have respected the rioter's rights to riot. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the use of force (which at this moment are unconfirmed anyway) against the rioters-- especially in this recent episode in Tibet. And I don't claim to know the whole story, if this is not it. But how can we all seemingly automatically assume what we have? Unless I'm missing out on some secret news source...

From what I've read, the violence is a caused by the Tibetan people who are tired of living under the thumbs of Bejing. As far as most Tibetans are concerned, they are Tibetans, NOT Chinese...and much like many other peoples in the world, they want their freedom, something that we here in the USA are supposed to support. After all, isn't that one of the excuses that Georgie-Boy is using as a reason for being in Iraq?
If the Chinese would get the hell out of Tibet and let them live their own lives, the violence would go away. (right or wrong)

The thing that bothers a lot of nations is our hypocrisy. There is a small minority of us that wants to live their own separate lives too. The following is from the New Black Panthers. Should we get out of their lives and create a separate country for them too?

The NBPP lists on its Web site a 10-point plan for full employment for black Americans as well as housing, education, free health care and an end to the death penalty.

In addition, it demands slavery reparations, the release of all black prisoners from American jails, trials of blacks only by all-black juries, an end to all black cooperation with police departments, exemption for blacks from the all-volunteer U.S. military and a separate country for African-Americans.

?We believe that Black People should not be forced to fight in the military service to defend a racist government that holds us captive and does not protect us. We will not fight and kill other people of color in the world who, like Black People, are being victimized by the white racist government of America,? the Web site reads.

I have a hopeful "Star Trek" view of the future where I hope we will all one day think of ourselves as one. All current nations and cultures have gotten to where they are now through conquest and assimilation. I don't think there is any culture or nation that hasn't conquered someone in the past.

I think it's a dangerous precedent to break apart nations because a group of people wants independence. To support this means that someday our country might be broken apart or we will be the biggest hypocrite for disallowing it. Because populations are always changing -- groups of minorities will alway grow until they achieve enough mass to feel like they want to be separate from the larger group. So, our future will always consist of conflict.

I personally don't know what to think of Tibet. From what I understand their past form of government was like a theocratic serfdom -- where all the monasteries and monks owned all the land and the peasants were kind of like slaves who worked the land. The cynic in me wonders if this is one of the reasons why the monks wants independence to rule again -- they were in positions of power back then and resisted land reform.

It would be nice if China just grants Tibet independence but from what I understand, a lot of Chinese consider Tibet to have been historically been a part of China and would not like this. Personally, I think the best solution is to have Tibet have autonomy but still considered to be a part of China.

Also, I consider the use of the term "Cultural Genocide" to be a phrase meant to inflame. I've never been a fan of people who want to preserve their culture because I think it's been used as a mask for racism. I've seen this used when there is a large number of recent immigrants to an area and all the old people are complaining about walking the streets and hearing Spanish or Vietnamese and saying things like "This is America! Speak English!". I think culture is naturally always changing and it's weird to want to preserve everything exactly like it was in the past.

 

[ranmaniac]

Originally posted by: sandorski
China is in an impossible situation here. Tibetans and others know that China's only choices are to give in to Demands or face International Embarrassment. Of course how bad that embarrassment will be is in China's hands, but I suspect they'll be willing to go quite far to not give into Demands.

The French idea sounds like a good one as it is doubtful anyone will come up with a better idea.

That's true, cause if they give Tibet independence, then Taiwan would want the same respect.

 

[miketheidiot]

Originally posted by: glutenberg

Originally posted by: miketheidiot

Originally posted by: glutenberg

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
I hope there will be various independent groups doing air quality testing, and first sign of hazardous air quality a alert be made so countries can pull their athletes from the sporting events or at least have them delayed until it is safe.

I can see China trying to suppress/keep out any such groups, but i can see that ending very badly (worst case is they succeed and a athlete dies from smog).

Die from smog? Are you joking?

the sad thing is that thats a legitimate concern.

I spend quite a bit of time in China and I have yet to die. I'm curious as to why they think a short exposure to China would lead to that conclusion.

how often to you run marathons in beijing?