Nothing more clearly demonstrates incongruity than the persistence in finishing the ‘journey of harmony’ even after pro-Tibet protesters blocked paths and attempted to wrestle the Olympic torch away from its bearers. Indeed, that the relay supposedly symbolizing harmony between nations was adamantly pushed through, despite the many times that the flame was extinguished, painfully exhibits the futility of celebrating Olympic aphorisms amidst growing protests and threats of boycott.

Calls by Western nations to boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics, though, are inevitably hypocritical if not condescendingly assumptive of moral authority. Tibet, under Chinese rule, has suffered widespread human rights and religious freedom abuses, and protests and demands for emancipation have been met with violent dispersals and crackdowns. It seems that the surest way for the Tibetans’ pleas and protests to be acted upon is to put pressure on the Chinese government and its economy, and a massive boycott of the Olympics would significantly decrease revenues from tourism and would put its international image even further at stake.

And yet a boycott seems greatly inadequate as a means to threaten the Chinese economy and consequently force its government to address the Tibetan issue. It would be absurd to claim that nonattendance of the Olympics would deprive the Chinese economy of sums of money that tourists would spend, while continuing to rely on cheap, Chinese-made products. It merely becomes the easier option for Western countries to attempt to show their humanitarianism by sympathizing with the plight of the people of Tibet, albeit without having to put their own economies at risk.

Supporters of the Chinese government have argued that Tibet and the Olympics are separate issues; that Tibet is a domestic affair and should therefore be left to the Chinese government to deal with. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry stated that “we must stick to the spirit of the Olympics and not politicize the games.”

But to claim that the Olympics is detached from politics, aside from being the height of absurdity, denies the significance that politics has played in Olympic history. The Berlin Olympics of 1936, for example, was used as Nazi propaganda, promoting the supposed superiority of the Aryan race and of Nazi ideology. Persecution of Jews was continued alongside and despite the event.

It is difficult to believe that China had bid to host the Olympic Games purely for the camaraderie that the competitions afford. Winning the bid to host the Olympics is expected to boost China’s image as a modernized country, and its economic power surely played no small role in securing the majority of votes in the Olympic bid. Staging the Olympic Games in Beijing is in itself a politically-motivated move by the Chinese government, and Tibetans lobbying for independence are simply using the global spotlight on China in order to consequentially increase global attention and interest in their struggle.

Tibet is not merely a domestic issue, for it concerns politically-motivated killings and other violations on human rights. It cannot be insisted that the Olympics must be detached from politics when the president of the Beijing organizing committee had himself assured the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that if they won the bid to host the event, China would ‘make further progress on the promotion of human rights.’

What is most disappointing, thus, is the lack of response and even acknowledgement of the issue by the IOC, which appears steadfast in its resolution not to mix political issues with matters concerning the Olympic Games. This self-blinding obstinacy demonstrated by the IOC, which is currently in the best position to demand that China address the Tibet issue, warrants criticism and condemnation. # Philippine Collegian

<< back to home