What do you think of the Olympics being hosted by a country with one of the worst human rights abuse records?

Question

What do you think of the Olympics being hosted by the country with the current worst human rights record of any industrialized nation? Does the Olympics somehow transcend consideration for human rights violations?

I realize the 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin with Hitler, but didn't we learn to be intolerant of human rights abuses? Why do Americans hold ourselves to such higher standards, and continually make exceptions for countries continually engaging in grievous abuses of humans.

I love the Olympics, but I'm not even watching for this reason. Aside from China's shameful oppression of its citizens, its occupation of Tibet, its archaic viewpoints on the environment and greenhouse gas emissions, they have a complete disregard for the safety and security of visitors there, and on top of everything, they cheat like crazy!!! For one, many of their gymnast girls were issued fake passports by the Chinese government because they were too young to compete. And second, could you believe the incredibly biased scoring in last nights women's gymastics final??

In the last week, 17 visitors (8 from the USA) have been ARRESTED, DETAINED and DEPORTED for holding banners saying "Free Tibet" and "Human Rights Now".

And this is just another unrelated issue, but why did they order all restaurants in the Olympic village to pull DOG meat off the menus in the last month? Don't you think on the face of it, considering every point of view on the issue, eating DOGS is kinda savage? Go ahead and make excuses about how we Americans eat cows and how they are considered sacred in some countries, but were talking about DOGS here!! Would you make excuses if they came into your house and skinned your dog alive and ate him in front of you?

Oh, and if you go spouting off about this being racist, back your allegations up with some arguments on anything I've said that isn't dead on true. If you don't, you're just being a racist against me, a white man.

So back to my question, why do Americans bend over backwards and make excuses for all this behavior???

OK, lets here you defend them and say I'm racist. Lol.

Answer 1

They are not being held in Zimbabwe !

Answer 2

dude who cares about the crimes they commited? you think bitching and whining about it like what you are doing is going to stop it all?

get over it.

Answer 3

how boring!

hey!guy.let's talk about sports.

politics are sick in all over the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...  especially in U.S

Answer 4

I've seen this question. Let it go, dude.

Answer 5

You've answered your own question with your rhetoric.

Answer 6

The WORST? Hardly... There are far worse regimes in the world, many of which are staunch US allies, such as Saudi Arabia or Algeria. China isn't a democracy, that's for sure, but they are slowly moving into a more open society and I think they deserve the Olympics.

If you are allowed to compete, you should be allowed to host.

Answer 7

Seriously GET OVER IT!

Answer 8

There's nothing the USA can do about it. Seriously, would you want to make the Chinese mad?

Having the Olympics there can at least open China to the world and lets its people see the cold hard fact that they don't have freedoms and are being controlled and hopefully inspire its people to rise up someday and overthrow the communist government there.

Answer 9

The only reason Westerners keep harping on human rights in China is because it’s the only thing they can still latch onto to make themselves feel superior and smug about their triumph over China.

Westerners see the writing on the wall. Compared to Asia, they’re losing the race in terms of:

- economic growth

- educational quality

- technological innovation

- environmental investment (China invests way more than the U.S. does toward sustainable energy research)

- and hipness (Asia has stopped looking to the U.S. for the next cool trend. Now Asians are increasingly seeing South Korea as the top trendsetter, whether in terms of TV, film, fashion or music.)

China is just a convenient proxy for rising Asian dominance.

If Americans really cared about human rights abroad, they would have started making noise about China 30 years ago. And they’d be making noise about just about most countries in South America, Africa and the Middle East.

But none of those countries are an economic or military rival to the U.S., are they?

Answer 10

I think it sucks and I'm not buying any of what the Chinese or the media are selling.  

Answer 11

Times they are a changing.  

Answer 12

1. "worst human rights record of any industrialized nation"

China is not an industrialized country. They are a developing nation, which also explains their pollution.

2. "Does athletic competitions transcend human rights violations"

Countries with far worse records and far worse situations have hosted the Olympics - Soviet Union, n**i Germany, Mexico in the 70's

And if the Olympics were in 2003 and hosted in the US, I bet a quarter of the world would be protesting it because of the Iraq War.

3. "Is this the most inappropriate Olympics hosting site"

Mainland China has never hosted the Olympics before. China is not the best, nor the worst place the host it. And other nations running for the role of "2008 host" have already hosted it at least once or multiple times. China also has a lot of medal winners anyways, so they got the right to host this international sports competition.

4. "I love the Olympics, but I'm not even watching."

That's a shame. You missed a wonderful opening ceremony and didn't see how Michael Phelps dominated the French in swimming.

5. "Not only that, but there have been constant reports of disgusting smog and pollution, algae blooms in the water from pollution"

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics had just as bad if not worse air quality. As for algae blooms, that comes from farm run off - it happens in every nation. Recently there was an algae bloom causing a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by farm run off from the Mississippi.

6. "It's so bad, they've put up huge partition walls with "scenic" images like forests in the festival site to screen the ugliness of Beijing from the visiting patrons."

Yes it is a shame. But it's similar to how some cities on the east & west coasts arrest homeless people and not allow them to sleep in public parks or benches. Every city has some degree of deception to make themselves look more presentable.

7. "visitors have been ARRESTED, DETAINED and DEPORTED for holding banners saying "Free Tibet" and "Human Rights Now"."

Mainland China is a communist oligarchy, not a democracy - so what did you expect? It could've been worse - if this was Iran, those people would probably be dead. Even if it was, say the UK, the protesters would still be arrested if they caused a commotion.

8. "Aside from that, show me a single Chinese person who can even drive a car"

Mainland China has over 100 million cars, with GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, etc rushing to export cars to China.

9. "I know and work with literally HUNDREDS of Chinese people and can tell you first hand 99 percent of them are programmed,"

And most people around the world think all us Americans are rude, stupid, and obese. Stereotypes are just stereotypes - they don't represent the population.

10. "sports literally have no place in their culture"

If they don't care about sports, then why are they winning so many medals? They currently have the second largest number of medals after the US. They are also crazy over the American NBA and sports stars like Kobe Bryant and Yao Ming.

30 years ago, you would've been right - but China in 2008 is quite different from China in 1978.

11. "Why did they order all restaurants in the Olympic village to pull DOG meat off the menus in the last month? "

Some people there eat dogs, so what? Some Koreans and Vietnamese also eat dogs. People in Japan eat dolphins and whales. People in Europe eat cat brains (yes, cats), horses, sparrows, goose organs, sheep organs, etc. People in the American South and Midwest eat cow brains and pig anuses.

People all around the world eat ridiculous sh*t, not just the Chinese.

Also in regards to the 'worst human rights record.' China has a bad human rights records, but they do not have the worst record by a long shot. They mostly started their oppression in the mid 20th century when communists took over. Countries like Britain, France, Germany, etc have had a history of slavery, colonization, genocide, and oppression of over 200 years. The USSR under Stalin, Germany under Hitler, Japan under Fascism, etc are far worse than China in the worst stages of Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Answer 13

you've asked this dumbass question like 20 times and it's been deleted 20 times already.

Answer 14

Both Politicians and athletes wanted/agreed to keep politics out of the Olympics. If visitors come into the Beijing Olympics just to stir up trouble, no **** they're going get their *** kicked out. And I don't care where they host the Olympics, I care only about the close games and competition.

Answer 15

I have to ask u , do you know anything about China, have you ever talked to a chinese people , get over it ,dude !!!!

Answer 16

i hate it.

the Olympics should not have been in Beijing. it's simply that cut and dry.

Answer 17

you're not racist, you're just stupid

not all people in beijing eat dogs. A lot of them keep them as pets.

Just like how not all Europeans eat cat brains and horses, or not all Americans eat pig a**s chitlins and fried cow brains.

or how not all australians like yourself are dumbasses who eat kangaroos and kowalas and steal land from Australian Aborigenes

Answer 18

What's the difference between dogs and cows or pigs? Just because Western society holds them in high regard doesn't mean other cultures are savage when they act differently. To the owner of a pet pig, you would be considered savage if you ate pork.

You wanna talk about human rights abuse? Look no further then where you live. Just because you are ignorant of human rights violations doesn't mean it is non-existent in the US.

I wouldn't even say that you're racist. You're more ignorant than anything. At least know both sides before you conjure up a flawed argument.