One of the things wrong with history…
The American iconoclastic lawyer Clarence Darrow resigned himself to history’s repetitive nature, but never stopped challenging the powers to which most of us abandon control.
The British Olympic Team at The 1936 Berlin Olympics
Athletes have long been surrogates for our personal, school, community, and national wishes lies and dreams. We foist on them the responsibility of atoning for our own failures as sportsmen, parents and citizens. And visited on some are the the sins of governments who draft them as unwitting soldiers in wars of propaganda and ideology.
Section 51 of the International Olympic Committee charter, “provides for no kind of demonstration, or political, religious or racial propaganda in the Olympic sites, venues or other area.” That does not stop dozens of groups from calling on he most physically gifted and dedicated among us to end the bloodshed in Africa, restore the Dali Lama to sovereignty, or enforce Chinese intervention in Burma amid a long list of religious, humanitarian and political causes.
Many organizations are calling for a boycott of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing to further their agendas. Many decry China’s denial of human rights while remaining silent as, paradoxically, some governments, namely New Zealand, Belgium and Great Britain are forbidding their team members to speak their minds before, or during the contest, or face immediate expulsion from the games. It is the western pot calling the tea kettle black.
As a former athlete and coach I might bow to tradtion and refuse to dip the flag for the Olympic reviewing stand, but I could never in good conscience sign any document that demanded surrender of a basic human right.
The web’s most articulate journalist-blogger, Rebecca McKinnon, writes with moving precision about the house arrest of Chinese human rights blogger Hu Jia , his wife Zeng Jinyang and the world’s “youngest political prisoner” their 2-month old daughter Hu Qianci. In the article, Rebecca clearly articulates Beijing’s poorly staged suppression of dissent during the dress rehearsal phase of its first leading role on the world stage. It is exactly this kind of scrutiny of the aging, fumbling power-elite that we might lose by disengagement.
To boycott the Olympics, an arguable failure of policy in Moscow and Los Angeles, moves the spotlight off China, punishes athletes in lieu of policies and leaves the average Chinese citizen, denied full access to information, angered and dazed by a seemingly xenophobic west. To even call for a boycott of the Olympics is to give spin doctors an award- winning script full of perfect, indignant replies to what we can only imagine to be true. Engagement in lieu of boycott will enlighten and inform us all. As the chinese proverb states, 拔苗助长 , you cannot help sprouts to grow by pulling them up.
I am hoping that history repeats only by way of expose made possible by athletic achievements–think Jesse Owens in Berlin– and not because of “free world” demands for the conscription of players into a silent Nazi salute to the abolition of free speech.
Posted 11 February, 2008 in Chinese Media, Censorship, Human Rights, 中文, Human Rights China, Beijing Olympics, 中国, In the news, Intercultural Issues, War, China Editorials, China Sports, Tibet, China Olympics, Asia
11 comments to “One of the things wrong with history…”
Chris Carr, February 12th, 2008 at 5:40 am:
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Good post. This is an interesting topic that I have been thinking about now and again. I can’t imagine how the pros of a boycott would outweigh the cons. I am most perhaps the most interested in seeing how/if all of this can be controlled and orchestrated by all parties and on all sides during the games, versus something organically taking place that we don’t see coming that leaves us speechless, in awe, angry, embarrassed or other.
Bob, February 13th, 2008 at 1:45 pm:
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Thanks for including my blog, Bob McCarty Writes in your blogroll. Please update the URL for my blog, Bob McCarty Writes, which appears in your blogroll. The new address is www.BobMcCarty.com.
+ mOdOk +, February 14th, 2008 at 3:44 am:
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Great post, Lon! I’m am absolutely of the same view that engagement and dialog are the best tools of diplomacy, especially when the finger pointers have their own brand of human rights violations they ignore or seek to downplay by such antics. The Olympics are supposed to be an event in which all countries can come together to compete peacefully through athletics, putting aside political differences for the duration. Of course, in reality, it often falls short of that ideal.
Rosemary's Thoughts, February 17th, 2008 at 10:40 pm:
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Videos from Berkeley…
Thanks to Leaning Straight Up, I have some links to share with you from the city council, the mayor, and some of the good people who were/are involved in this debacle at Berkeley. It took him hours to put this together, and there should be more to co…..
Guqin, March 1st, 2008 at 8:24 am:
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Amazing…! Can China be worse than the west? USA? Historically or even now? Ask the natives in Americas or Australia, or Iraqis. You are like a murderer accusing someone else for not respecting life, or a rapist accusing someone else for not respecting women. What did your Jesus Christ tell you when the mob was about to stone that woman?
I think you westerners are just hypocrites.
Guqin, March 1st, 2008 at 9:18 am:
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Half hearted, two-faced, this is the honest impression I got, forgive me.
Since you are free people from a supposely free country, so I guess expressing my true feeling here is OK.
The Professor, March 2nd, 2008 at 2:32 pm:
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I think you need to re-read the blog article and the rest of this blog as you missed the point entirely.
Best,
Lonnie B Hodge
Guqin, March 3rd, 2008 at 9:15 am:
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I don’t think I have the mood and the patience to read the whole thing again or the rest of the blog. Anyone can cite facts, but facts are not neccessarily the truth. I may have misunderstood some particular points, but you may have misunderstood yourself too, just like President Bush, he really thinks Christ is with him.
However, thanks for allowing my last comments. That I am honestly quite impressed.
Take Note . . . « Mao’s back yard, March 5th, 2008 at 12:11 pm:
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[…] about this issue, and far more convincingly I might add, here are a few Silicon Hutong Image Thief One Man Bandwidth - Mutant Palm - what Spielberg should have said Global Voices - includes translated comments from a […]
John, March 6th, 2008 at 1:55 am:
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Dear “The Professor”
I read as far as … “We foist on them the responsibility of atoning for our own failures as sportsmen, parents and citizens.”
And I realized the there is a problem with the writer…
A perspective problem…
And I do not know what to say to him…
maybe I can wish him better luck in the future and hope for his emergence into a - “less extreme
world view..Regards
John
The Professor, March 9th, 2008 at 3:11 am:
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Well, if that is all the farther you read then I wish for you a longer attention span.
It might have been better to have added the word “sometimes” …But, the statement has a great deal of truth in it. I am a die-hard Cubs fan not to place and I can’t wait to see how Tiger Woods has done in his most current tournament. I too am guilty of elevating them to an other than athletic status–one they may not want. I try not to place unrealistic expectations on them–they are, after all, just ordinary people with extraordinary gifts. To expect them or movie celebrities to be models of morality, activism, virtue or anything past being expert in their chosen field is unrealistic. We can ask them to choose social commentary over fame, but it is ultimately their choice, not ours. We can look to them to be exemplars of patriotism or respectability, but nature, nurture and free-will in the end will rule the day.
Jim Brown recently assailed Tiger Woods for not taking a more militant stand on racial issues in response to a racial reference made by a reporter. Woods, an amazing and caring human being, takes a different tack: he leads by charity and example and few have done more for sports and underprivileged youngsters than he or Michael Jordan. But, to ask them to give up anything toward a political agenda they do not ascribe to is selfish and irresponsible.