The powers that be were so drunk on the possibility of Chinese markets that they just decided to ignore every red flag. This made no sense back in 2001 when the vote was taken. It makes less as it becomes clear that all of China's empty promises of progress aren't just being broken but are being replaced by a frightening totalitarianism.
Not that there will be a full boycott. There is no courage in the West with this much corporate money at stake. In years past the IOC has banned nations from competing in the games due to human rights issues (South Africa) and made incredible threats on host nations (Greece nearly bankrupted itself on security costs), but no one dares ask anything of China. . .
The Chinese even have given up on the bold promises about how there will be no disturbances. They're trying to ban live broadcasts from Tiananmen Square, and they admit suicide squads might be nettlesome.
In less draconian concerns, the pollution is said to be horrific, the food untrustworthy and just recently the Chinese began installing that cutting-edge technology known as the "sit toilet" at some venues after discovering that the rest of the world isn't too keen on squatting over a hole in the ground to do their business.
Apparently, they've replaced the 'journalistic integrity' portion of the curriculum with Racism and Douchbaggery at whatever uncredited clown college this moron attended. I'm not generally one to get up-in-arms about these sorts of things. Two confessions to drive the point home: 1)I'm unregistered to vote in the States, and 2)the entire motivation behind my applying for Asian Culture housing, was, admittedly, to score a single in the palatial Moore Dormitory sophomore year of college. I've never identified too-too strongly with traditional Asian stereotypes for a number of reasons, ranging from exceptional height to mediocrity at math and music. I'm by no means ashamed of my heritage - I'll just say I generally find flaunting of cultural identity a bit contrived. My views on 'issues' are very middle-of-the-road, frequently fair-weather, and pretty much only expressed for the sake of debate during fits of substance-abuse-fueled-argumentation. So take these disclaimers to heart, and know that when I say 'Dan Wetzel - you're should be fucking fired,' it's with a completely qualified and totally rational voice.Thanks to Jerry, whose YALE PHD CANDIDATE letterhead carries a lot more helluva lot more clout than mine ("WILL EAT ANYTHING FOR MONEY"). Read his complete ownage of Weztel and his exclamatory employer here.
4 comments:
"But since 1959, the Chinese government has developed the economy in Tibet and made long strides to integrate the Tibetan and Han people."
Though Mr. Yang clearly didn't think his article out very well, one would be hard pressed to call China's policy of settling as many Han in disputed areas as is humanly possible a "long stride" towards integration.
Man, China's boring, Liz. Could you start writing about the French Riviera or something like that?
What's the general policy on integration in these types of situations? I don't really know - all the examples of governments 'handling' ethnic minorities (without abdicating the rule) that leap to mind have resulted in genocide. (Or, in the case of America, reservations, which I think we can agree isn't integration either.)
Yeah Liz, Byron's right. Maybe you could write about Saint Tropez. I hear it's really nice there.
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