h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The 'Genocide Olympics' (Op-ed by Mia Farrow, Wall Street Journal)

"One World, One Dream" is China's slogan for its 2008 Olympics. But
there is one nightmare that China shouldn't be allowed to sweep under
the rug. That nightmare is Darfur, where more than 400,000 people have
been killed and more than two-and-a-half million driven from flaming
villages by the Chinese-backed government of Sudan.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB117505109799351409.html

That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that
atrocity during the games is bad enough. But equally disappointing is
the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg -- who quietly
visited China this month as he prepares to help stage the Olympic
ceremonies -- to sanitize Beijing's image. Is Mr. Spielberg, who in 1994
founded the Shoah Foundation to record the testimony of survivors of the
holocaust, aware that China is bankrolling Darfur's genocide?

China is pouring billions of dollars into Sudan. Beijing purchases an
overwhelming majority of Sudan's annual oil exports and state-owned
China National Petroleum Corp. -- an official partner of the upcoming
Olympic Games -- owns the largest shares in each of Sudan's two major
oil consortia. The Sudanese government uses as much as 80% of proceeds
from those sales to fund its brutal Janjaweed proxy militia and purchase
their instruments of destruction: bombers, assault helicopters, armored
vehicles and small arms, most of them of Chinese manufacture. Airstrips
constructed and operated by the Chinese have been used to launch bombing
campaigns on villages. And China has used its veto power on the U.N.
Security Council to repeatedly obstruct efforts by the U.S. and the U.K.
to introduce peacekeepers to curtail the slaughter.

As one of the few players whose support is indispensable to Sudan, China
has the power to, at the very least, insist that Khartoum accept a
robust international peacekeeping force to protect defenseless civilians
in Darfur. Beijing is uniquely positioned to put a stop to the
slaughter, yet they have so far been unabashed in their refusal to do
so.

But there is now one thing that China may hold more dear than their
unfettered access to Sudanese oil: their successful staging of the 2008
Summer Olympics. That desire may provide a lone point of leverage with a
country that has otherwise been impervious to all criticism.

Whether that opportunity goes unexploited lies in the hands of the
high-profile supporters of these Olympic Games. Corporate sponsors like
Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, General Electric and McDonalds, and key
collaborators like Mr. Spielberg, should be put on notice. For there is
another slogan afoot, one that is fast becoming viral amongst advocacy
groups; rather than "One World, One Dream," people are beginning to
speak of the coming "Genocide Olympics."

Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni
Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games? Do the various television sponsors
around the world want to share in that shame? Because they will. Unless,
of course, all of them add their singularly well-positioned voices to
the growing calls for Chinese action to end the slaughter in Darfur.

Imagine if such calls were to succeed in pushing the Chinese government
to use its leverage over Sudan to protect civilians in Darfur. The 2008
Beijing Olympics really could become an occasion for pride and
celebration, a truly international honoring of the authentic spirit of
"one world" and "one dream."

I'd no idea that China was behind the government responsible for Darfur, Chai.

Hi Chai,

And perhaps while everyone celebrates the Chinese Olympics they might spare a thought for Tibet...

I, for one, will be boycotting the whole event and encouraging everyone I know to do the same.

I expect that Yahoo and Google will grass me up to the Chinese authorities...

Blessings,
Matholwch .

Hi Math,

Tibet, yes indeed. The Beijing Olympics have been a topic of concern for Tibet Supporters worldwide since the first announcement that Beijing was even being considered for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Spread the word.

C

I am spreading that word far and near. I will do everything I can to oppose these evilly-sited games. Too long have good men done nothing...

Blessings in dark times,
Matholwch .

Hi Math,

The depressing thing is that there is little enough we can do to oppose China's relentless steamrollering of all opposition, but at least we need not remain silent. Of course in China or Tibet, to speak out would cost us our liberty for sure, and possibly our lives. So on behalf of those who do not enjoy our freedom of opposition, we must speak out, even if it feels like whispering into a gale.

Cheers,

Chaiw.

Every little helps, as the old woman said when she pissed in the sea.