The Only Winner In Beijing Will Be Tyranny
Nick Cohen on the Beijing Olympics:
"The only justification for the Beijing games is that they will allow connoisseurs of the grotesque to inspect this ghoulish hybrid of the worst of capitalism and the worst of socialism close up. The march of China’s bloodstained allies round the stadium will merely be the beginning. The International Olympic Committee and all the national sports bureaucracies will follow up by instructing athletes not to say a word out of place.
". . .The free-market CEOs of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, General Electric and all the other sponsors who have made money out of China will join the communists in insisting that outsiders have no right to criticise. Any Chinese dissident who hasn’t been picked up before the world’s journalists arrive will face terrifying punishments if he speaks to them."
All that needs to be said, here.
"The only justification for the Beijing games is that they will allow connoisseurs of the grotesque to inspect this ghoulish hybrid of the worst of capitalism and the worst of socialism close up. The march of China’s bloodstained allies round the stadium will merely be the beginning. The International Olympic Committee and all the national sports bureaucracies will follow up by instructing athletes not to say a word out of place.
". . .The free-market CEOs of Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, General Electric and all the other sponsors who have made money out of China will join the communists in insisting that outsiders have no right to criticise. Any Chinese dissident who hasn’t been picked up before the world’s journalists arrive will face terrifying punishments if he speaks to them."
All that needs to be said, here.
posted by Terry Glavin at 10:27 PM
3 Comments:
Being a Diet Coke addict, I cannot let anything to harm these people. Sorry, Terry, include me out ;-)
Anyhow, until China makes Coca Cola obsolete, forcing upon the world some ancient Chinese drink. And yuan, of course...
I think we all really know that China's Olympics are going to "light the world".
Right?
I have to say, though, that I do have some hope that there will be enough brave activists out there to use the spotlight on China to embarrass it as much as possible. While I agree with Nick, it's also true that having the world's eyes on China makes it much harder for them to lock such people up.
Example.
My package from PEN Canada arrived today -- postcards, pictures, petitions, and a mashed-up signboard (thanks Canada Post!). We're going to be organizing a little write-in on campus in March. Anybody who wants in can get me at matt.hayles atatatatat gmail.com
My understanding is that at this exact moment there are at least 38 recognized writers and journalists in prison. That number was 40, jumped to 42, and has gone down slightly in time for Valentine's Day.
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