Turning our blind eyes

Amnesty International has released a report which claims that Human Rights in China have not been furthered by the oncoming Olympic Games but have actually worsened as dissidents and activists face severe repression in an attempt by the Chinese Authorities to present a united and harmonious front for their games.
The organisation has called for the IOC and World Leaders to speak out against the abuses as well as the handling of protests within Tibet.
And where are our leaders in all of this? Doing their absolute best to ignore the issue entirely. In this weeks PMQ’s the subject of the Beijing Olympics was not even voiced let alone discussed but I’d like to raise the question myself ‘How can the Prime Minister and this Government seriously justify their current appeasement of the Human Rights situation in China?” additionally “How does this Government imagine supporting the Chinese Administration through the Olympics makes them look as regards the issue of Human Rights?”
It seems to me to be nothing more than a quid pro quo in the run up for the 2012 Olympics in London and a committment to nothing more than financial prudence rather than principle.
This is the same government that repeatedly attempts to justify its decision to send soldiers into Iraq because of the Human Rights abuses committed by the regime of Saddam Hussein (or was it because of those weapons of mass devastruction?) and yet shrinks from the slightly lesser task of condemning the Chinese over their repeated and documented repression of their own citizens.
It is, I think, clear where this government stands on this issue and it is no principled stance but one that originates from a pragmatic and coldly logical position and so in the light of the failure of our representatives to do anything about the situation it falls down to the individuals involved to try making the difference themselves.
I mean by that that we here in this country should boycott the Olympic games ourselves and by that I mean refusing to buy any related merchandise, affiliated products, sponser products and to boycott coverage of the event even to the extent of not buying newspapers that decide to report coverage of the sporting events (so…all of them I guess) Athletes who are involved in the games should withdraw voluntarily, to be honest an Olympic medal that was stained with the blood of Tibetan exiles would not be what I would want to seek to attain were I gifted enough to be an athlete.
Those Athletes who do decide to go should use the platform granted to them to criticise China’s record of Human Rights and to highlight the injustices that are taking place there.
Whilst our government does seem to be playing some kind of mass game of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil it is not a waste of time in writing to individual MP’s and requesting that they speak on behalf of a national boycott, click here to find your MP and send them an email.
The Olympic games are an international celebration of human physical and mental endeavour, they are concentrated on what people can do when they put their minds and bodies to a task that seems unachievable to most, they are about the testing of endurance and highlight the ability of the spirit to overcome the physical.
In light of such concepts I feel that citizens of a liberal democracy can make the small sacrifice of boycotting the Olympics in order to put a pointed message across to China that we will not accept that it has a right to savage the rights and freedoms of its citizens, that is has no right at all to occupy and repress Tibet and that it cannot expect us to fall for it’s pathetic attempts to present itself as a victim of false propaganda.