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The Games’ Dilemma

While I sit around,wasting away my friday night waiting for the start of the Olympics Games opening ceremony, I can’t help but to ponder upon the issues thats been shrouding this games. For the record, I am not excited about this Olympics. For me its just one of the things that happen once very 4. Its a bland, emotionless thing. (don’t get me wrong, Im still a big fan of Malaysia’s badminton team) However, there are certain quarters who are all excited about it because it’s China who’s hosting it this time. I’m not. I don’t like China.

Now don’t get started with that “but you’re Chinese” argument with me. My ancestors did come from China. But that doesn’t mean that I would naturally get excited about everything Chinese. It would be like saying “Errr, why don’t you like ticks now? Since your monkey-like ancestors used to eat them from each other’s back & seem to enjoy that very much.” 

First it’s the Tibet issue. I supported the call for a boycott. Many people think that it’s China’s internal affair, we should not intervene but I think that is just too unempathetic. It’s like knowing that your neighbour next door has murdered his wife, treated his children like animals, keeping them in cages and still not report it to the authorities. Would you still say, “Well it’s his family’s “internal affair” afterall, we shouldn’t be such a busy body”? If you would, then well done. You’ve just proved to me that the dark prince does exist indeed.

I’ve also heard that people say boycotting the Games would be unfair to the athletes who have trained really hard for it. Well yes, but it would be great if the athletes can just come out and make a statement by boycotting the opening and closing ceremony and still participate in their respective events. By doing so, they won’t waste their hard work, and at the same time do something significant, something humane, sending out a strong message to the communist Chinese government. It’s a win-win situation! However, the boycott call has died off over time, although i still wish that there’s someone who would hoist a flag, flash a poster or anything Tibet-related during the ceremony, for the Tibetians has suffered long enough.

 

Secondly i think China’s being too pretentious. They are officially trying too hard; closing down zillions of factories that are warming up the world for a couple of months to clear the air, trying to impress the world with its still smog-filled skies and after that, I’m sure they will just go back into operation and start polluting the world again. I don’t see any attempt for improvements! To me, its just a show, for the world to see, instead of them grabbing the crux of the issue and dealing with it. I don’t even think they care about the environment. All I know is they are more concerned about their ‘face’ than anything else. 

People always say that the West is trying to bad-mouth China by spreading news of these issues through the media but I think the issues are really relevant here. Most capital punishments in the world (spare our fellow Muslims in Saudi and Iran alright, China holds the record), distortion of truth about the Tiananmen Massacre to its citizens, the Tibet issue, suppression of religious freedom, and etc. All these are issues that need to be addressed, but instead of doing that they are more concerned about ’saving face’ and petty things like setting up idiotic rules like asking their plus-sized citizens to not wear clothes with horizontal stripes when they are out in the streets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*additional read: wikipedia’s - Concerns over the 2008 Summer Olympics, BBC’s - Have the Games changed China?, Times Onlines - You’re telling me to wear what?