Should we boycott the Bejing Olympics?

For fifty-five years the People’s Republic of China as trampled on the rights of sovereignty of the people of Tibet.

The Chinese Government is building a dam on the Yangtze River that has flooded and wiped-out villages that have history going back two thousand years.

The Chinese Government continues to arm and aid North Korea.

The Chinese Government trampled the rights of the demonstrators at Tiananmen Square (how quickly we all forget)

The Panchen Lama was 6 years old when he and his parents were kidnapped from their home in Tibet by the Chinese government. He is the world's youngest political prisoner and he has been missing for over 6 years. Panchen Lama is a title like Vice-President or Prime Minister that Tibetans give to the second greatest leader of Tibet. Panchen means "Great Scholar" and Lama is a word Tibetans use for a religious teacher. Tibetians believe that the Panchen Lama is the protector of all the world's living beings. Yet the Government of the People’s Republic of China was so threatened by a SIX YEAR OLD BOY that they kidnapped and have PROBABBLY KILLED his entire family.

Yet we continue to have free trade with them (brought to you by the Clinton Administration)

Yet we are planning on attending their Olympics.

For the record I have nothing against the People of China. I'm currently dating a Chinese national.

Updated On: 9/21/04 at 11:23 AM

Almost time to order in from China Fun! Yum!

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I think we should boycott televising them.

Because I don't like watching them, thus they must be gone.

If China is such a terrible place why didn't we invade it instead of Iraq...?

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Is that the best retort you can come up with?

The Dali Lama wants a non-violent resolution of the conflict over Tibet. I'm afraid that attitude will lead to the end of his country just like political correctness will lead to the end of ours.

War with China? It's coming. I estimate it will happen about fifty years from now. It's inevitable. I also think we're gonna lose.

No war with China, they don't have oil.

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"the liberals": sounds like someone inhuman. Thanks for the label. I think labels are alwasy important to encourage mutual understanding.

This liberal doesn't own an SUV. This liberal writes letters at least once a week encouraging decreasing foreign dependance on oil.

We don't need to own the oil in the middle east to help the children there. I think we do a good enough job exporting our factories there, and making the kids work at a low wage. Could it be possible that there is a way to let them have their finite oil, and teach them new ways to survive...hey, maybe we'll learn humanity in the course of it, so we don't call each other dehumanizing/delegitimizing/deindividualizing names like "the liberals". Maybe it's possible. Maybe.

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I think we should boycott. All the hot athletes (divers, gymnasts, wrestlers, water polo boys and swimmers) should come to New York. We can set up pools and mats in Times Square and let them compete here. It would be hot.

A total win-win situation.

The bonus is: some much needed consistency to our foreign policy agenda.

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The beauty of the olympics is how hundreds of nations can put aside differences and compete in a somwhat harmonious fashion. While yes, this sounds like rhetoric, the fact of the matter is that these games allow countries to symbolically ignore political dissagreements etc. in order to comete.

Aside from this, I'm sure dozens of countries could have justified a boycott of the 1996 games held here.

Damn. I go to lunch and I miss so many posts it will take me ten minutes to retort.

touchmeinthemorning, I'm sorry you were offended by the label, "the liberals" if "the conservatives" was the worst thing I was ever called in this forum, I'd be doing OK.

Save energy: I'm for it. I suggest you visit www.TheDetroitProject.org they are group that want the big three automakers to make hybrids, fuel cell, etc. vehicles. I'm for it.

One problem I have is the fact that while we (Westerners) go to great length and expense to make our vehicles more planet friendly (emissions tests, etc) large countries like India, Mexico, and ... China do nothing.


I'm actually kind of liberal about some things: I'm in favor of saving evergy. I'm in favor of legal abortion (personally I think it's wrong, but making it illegal is not realistic). I think if two (enter the currently appropriate word for people who like to mate with people who have the same sex organs) want to get married, what do I care?


By the way, I don't own a car at all.
I thought about getting one of those Segway things, but I figure it would be useless in the winter.

Last time I checked, Mexico was in the Western Hemisphere as well.

Who knew Easter had its own Hemisphere?

England is where the Meridian starts. Hence, the beginning and the end of the Eastern/Western hemisphere. France crosses that longitude as well...

You know you've won an argument when the only thing your opponent can critique is a typo.

Arguing on the internet is like running the special olympics: even if you win you're still retarded.