Olympic Freedom

[Agnes Selby]

Please read:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/07/ ... 31441.html

[Madame]

Everyone has 10 days to decide what they'll do -- wonder if enough (I mean everyone) have the cojones to go home and say fugeddit.

IOC and China seem to have layers of plausible deniability.

Personally, I think the whole thing stinks. I don't buy the IOC's sorry, we misunderstood, can't do anything about it.

[Teresa B]

Such a shame--it seems a contradiction of what the Olympics symbolize.

Teresa

[piston]

Interesting article, Agnes. The regime's authoritarianism is also evident in the case of pollution. Athletes are probably going to approve China's urgent measures to reduce the level of pollution for the games but, in reality, it's the same kind of repression on basic human rights (and of deception): shutting down factories, cutting back automobile transportation by ninety percent, ninety! Of course, "normal" activities will resume after the games.

I heard over the radio that some athletes who have asthma will need to use a cocktail of medication that could place them in jeopardy in terms of "doping" tests. Let's try to look at these 2008 games positively. I'm sure that the memory of selecting China will bear some influence in the choice of future Olympic sites.

[jbuck919]

Does this mean that they won't be able to get through to CMG?

[Agnes Selby]

Interesting article, Agnes. The regime's authoritarianism is also evident in the case of pollution. Athletes are probably going to approve China's urgent measures to reduce the level of pollution for the games but, in reality, it's the same kind of repression on basic human rights (and of deception): shutting down factories, cutting back automobile transportation by ninety percent, ninety! Of course, "normal" activities will resume after the games.

I heard over the radio that some athletes who have asthma will need to use a cocktail of medication that could place them in jeopardy in terms of "doping" tests. Let's try to look at these 2008 games positively. I'm sure that the memory of selecting China will bear some influence in the choice of future Olympic sites.

----------

Piston, don't forget the displacement of thousands of people
whose homes in the slums were levelled to the ground . We saw one man on the news, sitting on a pile of dirt what has once been his home. All around him was total devastation. The slums were cleared in order to impress the visitors and the journalists.The same journalists who are now not permitted to report truthfully.

[Gary]

As a Chinese, I must say that China's behavior on an international stage of this size is a huge embarrassment to Chinese everywhere--major face-losing!

[RebLem]

Of course there are three groups of people who are absolutely delighted:

1. Communist and other totalitarian and authoritarian regimes who do not believe in free presses, or anything so corny as rights to life and liberty,

2. RW free trading economists, and,

3. Rich Americans and others in need of organ transplants who know they can go to China and get a transplant. All the Chinese have to do is find a political prisoner who is a tissue match, kill him to order, and transplant his organs. No muss, no fuss, and oh, so convenient, and often paid for by American insurance companies, of course. So, it works out for just about everybody. Except, of course, if you are a decent person who believes in human freedom and liberty. How quaint.

Posted on August 1st, 2008, the 1,920th day after Shrub announced that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, the 95th day before the November 4th US general election, and the 172nd day before the end of the Cheney Kakistocracy. RebLem

[Corlyss_D]

Of course there are three groups of people who are absolutely delighted:

{snip}

2. RW free trading economists,

3. Rich Americans and others in need of organ transplants who know they can go to China and get a transplant.