12 Apr 2008
The title for this is – let me grab a torch (搶火炬) – for all the wrong reasons.
Friends over the internet/ blogosphere had started a movement to “pass the Olympic Torch” over the virtual space, I feel kind of obliged to grab their flames away.
To be honest, I like watching the Olympic Games, because I get to watch people competing for some nice looking medals, and watching world records getting broken. Which was all nice until activists had thought up the big idea of sabotaging the torch passing exercise, which is an essential feature of the pre-Olympic rituals.
So, I’m not here to praise the Olympics, but like them I’m here to voice out my discontent (some say you have to lower yourself to their level to argue with them, so be it), primarily towards the people who are using the Olympic as an excuse to force-feed something that is totally irrelevant to the Olympic games.
Yes, I’M TALKING ABOUT THE TIBET/ HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUE.
I’m not going into great details here, for details please go to Wikipedia; I simply don’t want to think that people should politicize the Olympic Games, whether by China or by the free-Tibetan activists.
Of course these things have always existed, it’s stupid to think that China had not abused any human rights at all – the guy holding a plastic bag who stopped in front of a tank at Tianmen Square, BJ, PRC, on 4 Jun 1989, where is he now?
As a friend, Chainsaw Chan, had well noted, “Fight AIDS, not AIDS activists.” For the free-Tibetan and other activists, if human rights abuse or blah blah blah by China is such a big issue, I’m not against voicing out the issue to alert the world, but does it have to be the Olympics? Their rationale for their argument is based on the lines of, “if China is abusing human rights blah blah blah in the own country, that is totally against the Olympic spirit and they have no right to host the games which preaches world peace and one love.” But that’s bullshit if you think about it. The IOC initiated the bidding, China won, as simple as that. On the top level, morality has nothing much to do with it; it never was part of the IOC mandate anyway.
On this part, I support the IOC’s view that politics and Olympics shouldn’t mix.
One indeed has many media to voice out any of their concerns, including using their government, but if I were them, I would intend to choose a way that is most pacifistic and causes inconvenience to the least amount of people. Yes, that’s the Martin Luther King/ Gandhi/ Nelson Mandela way, but unfortunately what we are seeing on TV is much more of a Malcolm X “Black Power” strategy aiming at sabotaging the Olympic rituals.
So these activists or shall I call them TERRORISTS? They simply have to realize that this world doesn’t consist of just them, China and human rights / the Dalai Lama, other people on this planet (like me) just wants some fucking games and sweaty chicks being watched on TV (yes I am heterosexual), and none of that sabotage shit.
Let’s think about the alternative, let’s give Tibet independence for example, what good would it do to them? Can their government (the one in India) run the country? What macroeconomic, domestic, foreign, immigration, military, fiscal, and welfare policies does it have? Had they got them ready? Do they know what they’re up against in the cruel world? Who, what and why their economies are currently being driven this way? Any threats and opportunities that they’ve realized that could potential drive their country to prosperity or completely destroy them? Well, let’s see what the exile government has….nothing much?
The orange revolution in Ukraine certainly looked good on TV, but that was all that was – a show. Look at it now, so the people had chosen a pro-Western government, but their necks are still being held by Russia, in the form of natural gas pipelines, and the economy sucks big time still, not much different or even worse than before. Tibet is economically controlled by China, no doubt about it, especially with the recent opening of the Qinghai – Lhasa railway, their economic prosperity in recent times was all being driven by injections given by, surprise surprise, their nemesis, China. You can certainly say that China had deliberately used economic policies to manipulate and control Tibet, but hey, they’re implementing it, and what can you do about it? Cut all the ties? Then let’s see how long before Lhasa ends up like Pyongyang.
Of course, friends of mine will definitely know that I’m not all 100% nationalist; in fact, I like the PRC as a country, but definitely not the system. President Hu and premier Wan certainly did good jobs so far, but lots remained to be done.
What I failed to understand, on the other hand, is that why the Chinese government still has the same mentalities as their ancestors, namely the Qing government? The old gits are still behaving as if they’re running a country full of peasants and low-intellect earthlings. They simply have to realize that it’s the 21st century now and also that they aren’t the backward-Maoist country that they once were. They are the 4th largest economy in the world now, one of the superpowers, and they should simply start behaving like one. They want independence? Let them have it all, and see how long they will last. It simply doesn’t justify retaliations by making some high-profile arrests in the midst of it all, that’s so just immature of them.
All in all, both sides are using the Olympic as an excuse, one as a spear and one as a shield. JUST LEAVE IT ALONE BOTH OF YOU!
After all these sabotage attempts, countries like the EU (especially France) and US are urging their heads of state to boycott the opening ceremony; Gordon Brown and Ban Ki-Moon had already said that they’re not going. Such a shame because they will certainly miss the chance to a good party – ok so partying with Putin, Medvedev, Lee Myung Bak, Hu Jintao and George W Bush (if he goes) are not exactly what one would call a “good party”, but still, if being a world leader has privileges, that’s the sort of privileges that you actually get – splashing out on public funds legally. Well never mind Sarkozy, that short-ass is a bore anyway.
Well, there’s still the closing ceremony, but the end of a party is nearly not as exciting as the opening of one.