/images/9r_leaf.png "9rules Network")
February 11th 2008
(2) Morals or Gold?
/images/feed.png "Comments RSS Feed")
When it was announced that China would be hosting the 2008 Olympic games, I was quite literally disgusted. Since then, China has built (and is still building in some cases) the facilities for the summer event. This has come at a cost to both the population and the government. Hundreds, if not thousands of people have been forced out of their homes. Dogs have been dragged off the streets. Murdered in front of their owners. Homeless people have been kicked out of Beijing. Builders are working under conditions Health and Safety here in the UK would have a field day with. All because the Chinese government want to present an image of Beijing that satisfies western ideals. Just so that we feel comfortable going there.
Today, the Daily Mail and several other papers report that British athletes are being forced to give up their right to freedom of speech in order to compete. It honestly makes me sick. I’ve always said we should boycott these Olympics. I still believe this. Why are we supporting China? They’re still a communist dictatorship.
What are your views?
The last time a government tried to use the Olympics for propaganda they failed miserably:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owens
Interesting that you believe support for China is a negative thing because she’s a “communist dictatorship”. What makes either inherently wrong?
As Britons we are conditioned to believe that a free market democracy is the only ‘true’ system of politics. Why are we so arrogant to believe our system can be successfully exported to other countries?
Iraq and Pakistan are examples of where democracy isn’t necessarily the panacea we all believe it to be. Whilst having many deep-rooted problems including a dodgy human rights record, Cuba is a stable country and arguably has a better human rights record than the US, supposedly the shining light of democracy.
Communism and dictatorships in themselves aren’t the problem, more corruption within them.