So, PM Stevie says ‘no’ to a boycott of the Beijing Olympics for Canada as boycotts are really not that effective. Silly me, I thought the real point of ‘boycotts’ was all about making and taking a principled stand.
The Prime Minister says, a boycott of the Beijing Olympics would not be ‘fair’ to our athletes who have worked so hard…and to hell with the little pissant who created a petition asking for ‘human rights’ rather than the Olympics (and was sentenced to five years hard labor for subverting China’s image)….and to hell the Tiananmen Mothers who still cannot openly mourn for their murdered children or mourn for those children who are still ‘officially’ only missing but not dead… and to hell with Aids activitists who are ‘lawfully’ imprisoned….the list goes on and on (and I am not even mentioning Tibet) but let us stand forever united for the right of Canadian athletes to play games or shot put in Beijing with all the other little despots.
4 comments:
I find his remarks hypocritical. Canada is already taking part in multiple economic boycotts against countries with dismal human rights records. People like Ahmadinejad, Mugabe, and (when he was in power) Hussein are not impacted in the least by them but the poor and the oppressed they rule over certainly are - what is the difference between them and the athletes Harper is so worried about?
Hypocritical? No. I find it appalling and absolutely reprehensive.
The original idea of the Olympics was to put wars and politics aside for the duration of the competition.
Olympics isn't about human rights. The whole thing is about building bridges. If they had Olympics in Iran, Canada should have gone there too - as long as all countries were allowed to participate.
They had this tit for tat boycotting of Olympics with the USSR - it seemed utterly pointless at the time.
In my view - this is a rather poor choice of cause for your indignation.
Simple solution. No olympics for any country that does not hold free and democratic elections.
Why, yes, I am a genius. Thank you.
OC
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