<p>
[Merkel</a> says she will not attend opening of Beijing Olympics | World news | The Guardian](<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/29/germany.olympicgames2008]Merkel”>Merkel says she will not attend opening of Beijing Olympics | Germany | The Guardian)</p>
<p>Who else should boycott the olympics?</p>
<p>Lots, hopefully. I’ve been critical of the IOC’s decision for a long time. Their desire to bring China into the fold of the world through a symbolic gesture like having them host the Olympics is laudable, but they’re not ready in many different ways for this, not the least their major human-rights issues.</p>
<p>Who cares if she boycotts? Who cares if even the entire U.S. boycotts? Only more easy to score some medals. The Olympics will go on. I agree the human rights issue in China is a disgrace, but let’s face it, in today’s society, no other country will care unless its own personal interests are at stake.</p>
<p>I live in SF- and the torch is going through my town…I will protest it and not watch any of the events- nada…and I will be sending letters to the sponsoring companies…not much maybe, but its something, and I know I am not alone</p>
<p>Does anyone know if those t-shirts with the handcuffs as the Olympics rings are for sale? I saw a shirt on sale at a generic t-shirt site, but I’d like to purchase one from a worthy organization.</p>
<p>^^ But the T-Shirts are probably made in China. :)</p>
<p>Insist on American Apparel! 
D goes to a lot of indie artists’ concerts & they all use AA t’s now. Made in America.</p>
<p>wonder how the german athletes feel.</p>
<p>Enderkin, I’d show them footage of Tiananmen Square & give them a lesson on Chinese Government abuses. I think they’d get it.</p>
<p>I think the participants should all boycott the opening ceremony. Steven Spielberg finally felt the international pressure and pulled out of the opening ceremonies. Also, the sponsors of the Olympics should feel the heat. China wants to have it both ways. They want to build a world power economically while still not providing basic human rights to its population. China has the most advanced firewall placed on the people’s ability to search the internet. Until they are willing to provide its people with basic unalienable rights, China is no better than Burma, Saudi Arabia, or North Korea. The IOC should be ashamed of the way it sidesteps and accepts China’s tyranny. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.stuff.co.nz/4457337a2201.html[/url]”>http://www.stuff.co.nz/4457337a2201.html</a></p>
<p>When I think of Tibet, I can not help but draw a parallel between Tibetans and Palestinians. Am I alone here?</p>
<p>Germany is a medal powerhouse and a major trading partner of China, so this is big news.</p>
<p>No, you’re not alone. There’s a double standard, because China’s “omg!evil!” and the West is “omg!good!” </p>
<p>Who cares if Merkel boycotts? Just bells and sparkles. Millions of patronizing voices rise to protest the cultural genocide of these poor little backward people, but no one seems to care about the threat of US economic imperialism if the Tibetans somehow manage to “free” themselves from the Chinese.</p>
<p>No, China’s not “omg!evil”, China’s ruthless oppression of its minorities is “omg!evil”, in just the same way that America’s past history of slavery and oppression of its native people was “omg!evil”.</p>
<p>See the distinction?</p>
<p>More double standards. If Germany is concerned about human rights abuses, they should stop backing Israel. If the US really wants to help prevent or blunt the effects of genocide, why are we not giving visas to Iraqi refugees?</p>
<p>subsidycorp: The comparison between the Palestine-Israel conflict and the ongoing oppression of Tibet is tenuous, at best. I’d love to see you explain exactly how the two are analogous, without using blatantly false hyperbole or misinformation. Go.</p>
<p>Lived through the US boycotting 1980 Olympics in USSR. Then the Russians didn’t come to the 1984 Olympics in LA. Didn’t accomplish a darn thing but screwed over a bunch of athletes who had prepared for years for their chance at participating in the Olympics…I say leave the Olympics alone.</p>
<p>There’s a difference between a chancellor boycotting the olypmics, and withdrawing the nation’s athletes from competing. Merkel’s stand is of course purely symbolic and says that she, as head of the German GOVERMENT cannot condone the Chinese GOVERNMENT’s civil rights abuses. She’s still letting the athletes compete, and therefore making a distinction between Olympics as an athletic event and Olympics as a political event. </p>
<p>Of course, whether it does any tangible good is questionable. Personally, I doubt anything will change China’s politics in Tibet and elsewhere, and that includes a world-wide Olympic boycott.</p>
<p>That’s OK, then. Just don’t mess with the athletes and the athletic competition.</p>
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Oh please. The Chinese Communist Party may be corrupt, authoritarian and just generally ridiculous, but China has actually made a concerted, genuine efort in terms of integrating their 50+ ethnic minorities into the country, and this includes both ethnic Tibetans in Tibet, Yunnan, Sichuan, etc. and Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Their proportion relative to the Han majority has grown consistently over the years, from ~6% in 1950 to 10% in 2005 of China’s total population. Likewise, one of China’s prominent domestic agendas is to actively facilitate ethnic diversity: minority groups are usually not subject to the one child policy, and thus their population growth rate is about 7 times greater than that of the Han Chinese. In fact, when I went to Yunnan and Tibet two summers ago, many Han Chinese college students and shopkeepers said that they felt they themselves were the victims of racism in that the universities often gave preferential spots to ethnic Hui and Tai individuals and the local governments would have more lenient taxation policies .</p>
<p>I’m by no means a fan of the Chinese government. But just thought there should be some more perspective, coming from someone who was born there and lived there. That is not to say there aren’t racial or ethnic issues, but I mean, just from personal experience my aunt is an ethnic Hui Chinese, and my uncle on the other side of the family is an ethnic Nahki(Naxi) Chinese. If you asked them, they would tell you that they have never felt they were being persecuted or mistreated and discriminated because of their ethnicity in a Han plurality.</p>