NOW they’re interested in China
They’re late to the Games.
I am amazed at the sudden burst of attention to the abuses the Chinese government has been committing for a long time, long overlooked by world media and govenments and global corporations. Sparked by the protests staged where the Olympic torch was supposed to be run. American presidential candidates are calling for boycotts of the Olympics. It has spread here from France and Britain.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Wednesday that he would not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics this summer.
The prime minister has been under intense political pressure over the issue. Asked about it repeatedly, he has until now refused to rule out going, and even seemed to imply that he did plan to go.
All evening Wednesday on the news shows pressuring was mounting and outrage building against the Chinese government for their treatment of the Tibetan people, their repressive govenment. Flicking around the different news channels I caught the dramatic buildup. “Massive protests are mounting in San Francisco calling for a boycott of the Olympics in China” said one Fox News anchors.
“There’s a growing global concern about China hosting the Games,” Neil Cavuto said on Fox Business news.
“This torch thing give us the occasion to really look at what China is doing with Tibet, at abuses of this government,” states Fox News’ Shepard Smith.
Well it took them long enough. Why didn’t the major media pay any attention to the human rights violations and religious persutions going on in China for a long time now, long before the Olympic Games were awarded to that country. When some of us in the media called for world attention to the repressive regime in China, and pointed out its violations, why didn’t the west pay attention.
We weren’t violent. We didn’t cause trouble.
Chinese authorities, concerned about unrest ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, have tightly restricted access to Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China where protests also broke out. The sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations were the largest among Tibetans in almost two decades.
Hold a violent demonstration….for peace? And get the world’s attention.
Some of us have been calling for that attention for a long time now.
The world just largely ignored the human rights violations occurring in China even during the buildup to the Olympics. But ultimately, the human spirit prevails.
Especially in the spirit of the honorable Cardinal Kung, and his family and followers who continue his courageous witness.
This has been going on for an awfully long time now, the religious persecutions, human rights violations, civic crackdowns, oppression and violence. It took the uprising of Tibetan monks for the world to suddenly erupt with outrage and demand a boycott of the Games.
They’re late to the cause. Where were they when the decision was being made?
