Boycotting the Beijing Olympics (alone, seemingly)

It is apparently not as popular a stand as I'd hoped. And for whatever reason, most people just stare at me blankly when I relay this fact.

**(Except for my family, who not only didn't need to ask why, but willingly turned off the TV, changed the channel, or waited until I was asleep to watch. I sometimes forget what a great bunch of people they are.)**

Don't misunderstand; I don't bring it up. It is my standard response to the good-natured and excited chattering about the Olympics, the fan-fare and pageantry, the great feats and prowess of the athletes, etc.

My "that sounds lovely, but I'm not watching the Olympics this year" response is usually met with an uncomfortable and stony silence. No one has even dared to ask why, but I relay it anyway. I figure if I have to excuse myself from a conversation or a room where it's being shown, I might as well explain.

China is one of the scariest regimes in the world to me. Not because they are the worst, but because they are the most powerful and accepted despite their grave record of human and social injustice. Pun appropriate, but not intended.

The very hypocrisy of their hosting the Olympics, arguably the best collective effort of both dignity and humanity, is more than I can bear. They have a government that controls and micromanages the lives of everyone in the country. (Think forced abortions and population control). They control everything seen and heard within their demesne. They control the media, press, Internet...all communications are monitored. The poverty rate is staggering, despite their rising economy and having plenty of work. A country full of the working poor.

China is one of the biggest polluters on the planet. The air quality is beyond poor; they're having to monitor it daily during the Olympics to see if it is harmful to human life! Can you imagine?

There is video on YouTube of Chinese soldiers with sniper rifles randomly killing Tibetan monks during a mountain crossing. They have imprisoned and killed any activist opposed to them "moving" the residents along the Yangtze, anyone opposing the giant dam project that will alter the face of the land and sea, in addition to displacing hundreds of thousands of people from their ancestral homes.

China, along with their buddy Russia, has blocked nearly every resolution by the UN to assist in halting the genocide in the Sudan, and the murderous assaults of Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe. They are also aiding this directly by sending arms to Mugabe's thugs. (Last I checked, no port in Africa would accept this shipment, so it eventually went back to China. It's only a matter of time before it gets through, though.)

There's just too much more to write here..it would take me hours.

Let's just say it's about unchecked power and greed, corruption and arrogance on a level that the US has no authority, little power and even less morally correct standing to even address. If we hadn't made such a mockery of our own Constitutional rights (goodbye habeus corpus and the Geneva Convention, hello congressionally sanctioned spying on Americans and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay) then our President making a bold statement to the Chinese rulers about their deplorable human rights record may have meant more than just the empty and laughable gesture than it was.

So, it's not just about the Olympics, it's about human life, personal dignity, social justice and integrity. Every time I think about China, the faces of those affected by their evil (yes, I did just say that) deeds rise up in my vision.

And I just can't bring myself to watch it.

Oh, and one final thought-

Do you have any idea how difficult it is to go shopping and not buy something made in China?

________________________

"There is no salvation in becoming

adapted to a world which is crazy."

--Henry Miller