Merkel says she will not attend opening of Beijing Olympics

[robcon]

Source: Guardian (UK)

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, yesterday became the first world leader to decide not to attend the Olympics in Beijing.

As pressure built for concerted western protests to China over the crackdown in Tibet, EU leaders prepared to discuss the crisis for the first time today, amid a rift over whether to boycott the Olympics.

The disclosure that Germany is to stay away from the games' opening ceremonies in August could encourage President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to join in a gesture of defiance and complicate Gordon Brown's determination to attend the Olympics.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/29/germany.olympicgames2008

---

I suspect the list of world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies will grow.

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. Empty gesture. The athletes are going and the games will go on. The Chinese won't care.

[JerseygirlCT]

6. I think you're wrong about that. I think the Chinese will care

very, very much.

The thought of being publicly rebuked like that will make them very upset. The idea of "face" is important to the Chinese. They are desperate to appear a fully accepted member of the world community - legit in every way. This shows that they are not that, regardless of the number of athletes competing.

Symbols can be very important.

[wpelb]

9. Asians and "face"

I have to agree with Jerseygirl. In some parts of the world, "face" might not matter too much. For example, if the Olympics were in the U.S. and some prominent world leaders refused to attend the opening ceremonies to protest the war in Iraq, neither the Bush administration nor most Americans would even notice, let alone care. However, in China and other Asian nations, a political leader who deliberately refuses to attend a major international event, such as the Olympics, may be seen as making a strong negative statement. It's hard to tell whether this will affect any Chinese government policies in Tibet, however.

[JerseygirlCT]

11. Yes, I don't hold much hope that it will actually affect

the situation in Tibet, either. The Chinese will be insulted and rebuked. But if that was enough to change their behavior, that behavior would have changed long ago.

Doesn't mean it's not a good idea to do the right thing and make a stand on it, anyway.

[magellan]

14. Hear, hear!

"Doesn't mean it's not a good idea to do the right thing and make a stand on it, anyway."

:applause:

Indeed. Stand on principle or sleep with the enemy.

[ncteechur]

2. On who, then, will * practice his shoulder massage technique??

[zonkers]

8. Bwahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. What a psycho dipshit move that was.

[rocktivity]

19. I think I still have those pics on my server

:headbang:
rocknation

[saigon68]

20. She loves the USA

[DeepModem Mom]

3. K&R

[hisownpetard]

4. Well, then, neither will I.

[JerseygirlCT]

5. Good for her!

Now let's see who else joins her.

[tbyg52]

7. Good. I hope more follow her.

And the Chinese *will* care.

[goodgd_yall]

12. Indeed n/t

[hyphenate]

10. I've been saying for the past 8 years

that we needed to boycott the Olympics in China, but I was never taken really seriously. The thing is, China has been violating human rights for many, many years, in one fashion or another, and if the fucking politicians in the world don't get that, it means they're silently assenting to those practices.

Here in the states we didn't care--it was "over there" and had "nothing to do with us." Tiananmen Square was no "beginning" to the human rights violations, it was merely a peak in the activities going on there. If we condone violence and oppression in our own country, it's difficult to get people to show anything but apathy to the plight of others.

We know the Olympic selection committee had been bribed in the past, so it's nothing new to believe that China probably bribed members of the committee to bring the Olympics to them.

Let's face it: we owe tons of money to them, half--if not more--of our goods are manufactured in China by workers who would be classified as slave labor almost anywhere else in the world, and so the companies which sell those goods are making money hand over fist. They don't want to rock the boat, and so we need to walk softly on subjects relating to the country. How many times in the past year and a half have we been subjected to concerns about food and goods made there? Our pets have died, several people have died as a result of food and drugs made there, and we're not even talking about the many other defective products made, or poisons being made in the same place as food products.

I don't want to talk kindly about China. And I don't think we should at all. Because of this presidency, we have shaken hands with China as we would our allies, and China could never be classified as an ally. If we made the goods in our own county, if we spoke up against the violation of rights in China, if we protested the slayings of both animals and humans there, and if we got the fuck out of there monetarily, perhaps the country would eventually die away as the Soviet Union did. And we'd be all better off: more jobs for Americans here at home, a better economy as a result, the restoration of the middle class here in the U.S. and somehow we would be able to hold our head up a little higher knowing that we've done something right for a change.

It's not easy to boycott though, and nevertheless, people there would suffer regardless what we did. But the economic situation in China would certainly turn the citizens against their own government more, and perhaps they would develop the will to fight their oppressors. Whether it worked or not is irrelevant--but it certainly would be better than letting them control us to some degree as well, and making us look like we support their totalitarianism.

[fujiyama]

13. This is good news

I hope more European leaders join them. this could turn out to be even more embarrassing for the Chinese government.

[Vidar]

15. Bravo, Ms. Merkel, Bravo!

[ckramer]

16. Angela Merkel is a fool

What economic gains will Germany gain by boycotting Beijing Olympics?

Zero.

It's just a game. LOL.

How much loss will Germany suffer in the future? A lot.

Beijing has "bell-curve" memories. He does not forget.



Hello Angela, recession is coming, we are talking about your international inexperience.

Not only Obama should go to Beijing. Hillary should go there too.

What a great opportunity to suck it up.

Do not offend our future employer!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

17. *

[MilesColtrane]

18. Bush is just going to pick up some extra tips on how to destroy environmental laws,

...worker's rights, and strategies for firing on peaceful protesters.

[minnesota_liberal]

21. Were I an athlete, I'd attend ... and unfurl a Tibetian flag at every opportunity

Opening and closing ceremonies, award presentations, crossing the finish line and in the middle of the damn marathon.

[MaineDem]

22. And our dim-son said it was all about the athletes, not politics, and that he'd be going

Huh?

I think the athletes should go if they want but the heads of state should not. Going does make it political.

[Better Believe It]

23. The Hypocrisy Of Western Government Boycotters

CounterPunch
Weekend Edition
March 29 / 30, 2008

China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
By WILLIAM BLUM

-William Blum is the author of Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, Rogue State: a guide to the World's Only Super Power. and West-Bloc Dissident: a Cold War Political Memoir.-

The Washington Post recently ran a story about how the Chinese people largely support the government suppression of the Tibetan protesters. The heading was: "Beijing's Crackdown Gets Strong Domestic Support. Ethnic Pride Stoked by Government Propaganda." The article spoke of how Beijing officials have "educated" the public about Tibet "through propaganda".

That's a rather interesting concept. Imagine the Post or any other American mainstream media saying that those Americans who support the war in Iraq do so because they've been educated by government propaganda. ... Ditto those who support the war in Afghanistan. ... Ditto those who supported the bombing of Yugoslavia. ... Ditto scores of other US invasions, bombings, overthrows, and miscellaneous war crimes spanning more than half a century.

Now Germany's foreign minister has warned China that its response to the crisis in Tibet may jeopardize the Summer Olympics in Beijing. "The German federal government is saying to the Chinese government: be transparent! We want to know exactly what is going on in Tibet." He also warned China to avoid any violent measures in its standoff with Tibetan protesters. Human rights organizations have demanded that Coca-Cola, Visa, General Electric, and other international companies explain their dealings with the Chinese government as it prepares to host the Summer Games. The French Foreign Minister floated the prospect of boycotting the Games' opening ceremony because of China's response to the protests. And the president of the European Parliament said European countries should not rule out threatening China with a boycott if violence continued in Tibet.

It's nice to see the West's conscience stirred up. They're real good about such things, when the target is not one of their own, particularly against a communist country. In 1980, 62 nations -- including the United States, Canada, West Germany, Japan, and Israel -- boycotted the Olympics in Moscow because the previous year the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan. Four years later, the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Not a single member of "The Free World" boycotted it, even though the previous year the United States had invaded Grenada and overthrown the government, with a lot less political justification than the Russians had for invading Afghanistan. The Grenada invasion was as much lacking in legality and morality as the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

http://www.counterpunch.org/blum03292008.html