Nancy Pelosi, you go, girl! And Condoleeza Rice is at least talking about Tibet. Even the Democratic candidates have made a minor stand. But where's George Bush? And before you say that Condi speaks for him, consider the power of his spoken word.
Like a Where's Waldo comic, it's hard to find George in the news. He was happy to meet the Dalai Lama when he was handing out medals...who wouldn't be happy to meet a Nobel Peace Prize winner? But where is George now?
Another small detail in the massive trade imbalance between the US and China is the fact that China has bought massive amounts of US government securities. Did they manage to buy the Office of the President while they were at it?
C'mon, George. Make a stand for human rights...I thought you Texas boys were supposed to
be brave?
Friday, March 21, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Nobody Wins at the Genocide Olympics
Lest those romantics among you, who swoon over Chinese culture and the glories of its past civilization, believe that Tibet is the only human rights issue in China, today let's examine how the Chinese government treats other people, including its own citizens, and how the upcoming Olympics affect that situation.
China is in the midst of a massive rebuilding of Beijing in order to accommodate the Olympians and the audience. The organization Human Rights Watch has recently (March 12th) published a report documenting "the Chinese government’s failure to fulfill long-repeated promises to protect the rights of migrant construction workers, as well as to end deprivations caused by the discriminatory nature of China’s household registration (hukou) system. An estimated 1 million migrant construction workers, hailing from other parts of China, make up nearly 90 percent of Beijing’s construction workforce. These workers are the muscle behind completion of Olympic Games-related infrastructure and sporting venues. The Beijing Olympic Games begin on August 8, 2008."
Examples cited by the Human Rights Watch include failure to pay the workers at all, paying them at a rate far below what was promised, and the absence of any medical insurance. Apparently, the "hukou system of household registration, designed to prevent and control the mass influx of rural inhabitants to China’s cities, bars Beijing’s migrant construction workers from social welfare benefits such as medical care, which are only available to legally registered urban residents." I guess the Chinese government isn't interested in all of its outlying provinces.
The Olympics have always been one of the most-viewed and most-written-about world events. There will be televisions crews and reporters in Beijing from many, many countries. Let's hope that they don't want to always be truthful in their writing! Moving right along to freedom of the press, Reporters Without Borders reports 180 foreign journalists were arrested or harassed in 2007. But it is not just the foreign reporters. There are also reports that the government began rounding up and imprisoning Chinese bloggers and reporters for more liberal Chinese newspapers. Its web site has lists of those Chinese journalists either imprisoned or sent to psychiatric hospitals.
Don't think that any of our journalists will be exempt from this lack of freedom of the press. Again, according to Reporters Without Borders: "Police obstructed the work of correspondents reporting on sensitive subjects throughout the year, arresting a team from the BBC World Service in March in a village in Hunan, where there had just been a riot. “You are not in the United States or Great Britain. This is China”, said one of the officers who interrogated them. One journalist told them that the Beijing government had adopted new rules. “That is only for news linked to the Olympic Games and I don’t think you have come here for the Olympics,” the officer replied."
Of course, some reporters, audience members and even athletes may not want to be there anyway, because, according to Olympic chief Jacques Rogge. The BBC quotes him as saying Chinese air pollution could lead to some events at the 2008 Beijing Games being postponed. He notes that it would depend on the duration of the event....for example, a cycling event would more likely be postponed due to concerns over the quality of the air than the shot-put.
Worldwatch Institute says that: "China’s smog, caused mainly by emissions from power plants, vehicles, and other human activities, is seriously affecting urban air quality. In a 2003 World Bank survey of air pollution in 100 cities worldwide, more than 80 percent of the Chinese cities listed had sulfur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide emissions above the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold, according to the Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs 2005 report. In Beijing, residents are warned to stay indoors during the spring dust storm season, and flight delays from heavy smog are common. In Guangzhou, fine particulate levels are up to five times U.S. safety limits. And in Hong Kong, sulfur dioxide levels rose by 41 percent in 2005 alone, threatening the city’s competitiveness as the free-trade center of Asia. For much of the year, the city is shrouded in smog and people can barely see across the famous Victoria Harbour."
The cost of pollution in China has been estimated at nearly 70 billion dollars. Even if you are reluctant to ask the American Olympic Team to boycott the Genocide Games, you should caution them not to breath too hard while they're there.
China is in the midst of a massive rebuilding of Beijing in order to accommodate the Olympians and the audience. The organization Human Rights Watch has recently (March 12th) published a report documenting "the Chinese government’s failure to fulfill long-repeated promises to protect the rights of migrant construction workers, as well as to end deprivations caused by the discriminatory nature of China’s household registration (hukou) system. An estimated 1 million migrant construction workers, hailing from other parts of China, make up nearly 90 percent of Beijing’s construction workforce. These workers are the muscle behind completion of Olympic Games-related infrastructure and sporting venues. The Beijing Olympic Games begin on August 8, 2008."
Examples cited by the Human Rights Watch include failure to pay the workers at all, paying them at a rate far below what was promised, and the absence of any medical insurance. Apparently, the "hukou system of household registration, designed to prevent and control the mass influx of rural inhabitants to China’s cities, bars Beijing’s migrant construction workers from social welfare benefits such as medical care, which are only available to legally registered urban residents." I guess the Chinese government isn't interested in all of its outlying provinces.
The Olympics have always been one of the most-viewed and most-written-about world events. There will be televisions crews and reporters in Beijing from many, many countries. Let's hope that they don't want to always be truthful in their writing! Moving right along to freedom of the press, Reporters Without Borders reports 180 foreign journalists were arrested or harassed in 2007. But it is not just the foreign reporters. There are also reports that the government began rounding up and imprisoning Chinese bloggers and reporters for more liberal Chinese newspapers. Its web site has lists of those Chinese journalists either imprisoned or sent to psychiatric hospitals.
Don't think that any of our journalists will be exempt from this lack of freedom of the press. Again, according to Reporters Without Borders: "Police obstructed the work of correspondents reporting on sensitive subjects throughout the year, arresting a team from the BBC World Service in March in a village in Hunan, where there had just been a riot. “You are not in the United States or Great Britain. This is China”, said one of the officers who interrogated them. One journalist told them that the Beijing government had adopted new rules. “That is only for news linked to the Olympic Games and I don’t think you have come here for the Olympics,” the officer replied."
Of course, some reporters, audience members and even athletes may not want to be there anyway, because, according to Olympic chief Jacques Rogge. The BBC quotes him as saying Chinese air pollution could lead to some events at the 2008 Beijing Games being postponed. He notes that it would depend on the duration of the event....for example, a cycling event would more likely be postponed due to concerns over the quality of the air than the shot-put.
Worldwatch Institute says that: "China’s smog, caused mainly by emissions from power plants, vehicles, and other human activities, is seriously affecting urban air quality. In a 2003 World Bank survey of air pollution in 100 cities worldwide, more than 80 percent of the Chinese cities listed had sulfur dioxide or nitrogen dioxide emissions above the World Health Organization (WHO) threshold, according to the Worldwatch Institute’s Vital Signs 2005 report. In Beijing, residents are warned to stay indoors during the spring dust storm season, and flight delays from heavy smog are common. In Guangzhou, fine particulate levels are up to five times U.S. safety limits. And in Hong Kong, sulfur dioxide levels rose by 41 percent in 2005 alone, threatening the city’s competitiveness as the free-trade center of Asia. For much of the year, the city is shrouded in smog and people can barely see across the famous Victoria Harbour."
The cost of pollution in China has been estimated at nearly 70 billion dollars. Even if you are reluctant to ask the American Olympic Team to boycott the Genocide Games, you should caution them not to breath too hard while they're there.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
How to Fight Wrongs
Yesterday a colleague of whom I am quite fond asked me "How better to fight wrong than by getting multiple perspectives and primary sources?"*
Getting information and multiple perspectives is just the first step in righting wrong. The Chinese government has made it clear that they believe Tibet to be their possession and the Dalai Lama to be nothing more than a political instigator. Is this also the opinion of China's people? We will never know because free speech is not, shall we say, encouraged in China. This is the country that, as alluded to yesterday, has put their citizens under a news blackout. A friend of a friend, traveling in China and Hong Kong for the past two weeks, has said that there was absolutely no mention of Tibet in any of the mainland news sources. She was only aware of what was happening from the Hong Kong news reports. Now YouTube has been banned, and those pesky Hong Kong reporters have been tossed out.
The Tibetans believe, since they had their own government structure until 1950 when the Chinese took over by force, that they were an independent entity. Tibet was asked to join the UN when it was formed, but the predecessor of the current Dalai Lama didn't foresee the need. This is why the UN didn't come to the Tibetan's aid in 1950. China invaded and the current Dalai Lama was forced to flee for his life in the middle of the night. Monks who remained loyal to him were imprisoned and tortured. The Panchen Lama, the heir apparent, was arrested at the age of 6. No one has heard from or seen him since.
These are the multiple perspectives. Knowing them solves nothing. Knowing does not undo the killings and violence of the past week. Knowing does not improve the life of the Tibetans remaining in their country as they are forced into a second rate citizenry as the Chinese move the ethnic Han into Tibet. Knowing doesn't comfort the Tibetan diaspora in their adopted homelands.
What I propose is doing something. Something nonviolent, surely, as I am a Buddhist. I propose that those of us who object to the systematic violation of human rights, those of us that object to religious persecution, those of us who object to China's political hold over our government...that we patiently work to disentangle our economy from China's to whatever degree we can.
The Olympics are a good place to start, as they are close at hand. For those of you who cry that "The Olympics are above politics!", I would urge you to look to the boycott of 1980, when the US boycotted the Olympics to protest Russia's invasion of Afghanistan. Or the Olympics of 1952 when China themselves boycotted the games because the International Olympic Committee recognized Taiwan.
China's economic gains due to the Olympics are beyond my ability to calculate. Let's start there. A nice, nonviolent polite refusal to fund the Chinese government. Then we'll start looking at the import/export situation. I'm tired of funding China's military. Aren't you?
*This is yesterday's Huffington Post. Read that and tell me you need more primary sources, my friend.
ABC: On Tibet Frontlines, Protesters 'Shot Like Dogs'
- Huffington Post
Yesterday -The Chinese military is shooting Tibetan demonstrators "like dogs," a Tibetan exile group said Monday, firing "indiscriminately" intro groups of people protesting Chinese rule.
The accusation was leveled by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a group run by exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala, India, home to the Dalai Lama. Exile groups in India receive some of the few reports from inside Tibet and have provided some of the only reporting from there since last Monday, when the most significant Tibetan protests in 20 years began.
» Full Story on Huffington Post
Getting information and multiple perspectives is just the first step in righting wrong. The Chinese government has made it clear that they believe Tibet to be their possession and the Dalai Lama to be nothing more than a political instigator. Is this also the opinion of China's people? We will never know because free speech is not, shall we say, encouraged in China. This is the country that, as alluded to yesterday, has put their citizens under a news blackout. A friend of a friend, traveling in China and Hong Kong for the past two weeks, has said that there was absolutely no mention of Tibet in any of the mainland news sources. She was only aware of what was happening from the Hong Kong news reports. Now YouTube has been banned, and those pesky Hong Kong reporters have been tossed out.
The Tibetans believe, since they had their own government structure until 1950 when the Chinese took over by force, that they were an independent entity. Tibet was asked to join the UN when it was formed, but the predecessor of the current Dalai Lama didn't foresee the need. This is why the UN didn't come to the Tibetan's aid in 1950. China invaded and the current Dalai Lama was forced to flee for his life in the middle of the night. Monks who remained loyal to him were imprisoned and tortured. The Panchen Lama, the heir apparent, was arrested at the age of 6. No one has heard from or seen him since.
These are the multiple perspectives. Knowing them solves nothing. Knowing does not undo the killings and violence of the past week. Knowing does not improve the life of the Tibetans remaining in their country as they are forced into a second rate citizenry as the Chinese move the ethnic Han into Tibet. Knowing doesn't comfort the Tibetan diaspora in their adopted homelands.
What I propose is doing something. Something nonviolent, surely, as I am a Buddhist. I propose that those of us who object to the systematic violation of human rights, those of us that object to religious persecution, those of us who object to China's political hold over our government...that we patiently work to disentangle our economy from China's to whatever degree we can.
The Olympics are a good place to start, as they are close at hand. For those of you who cry that "The Olympics are above politics!", I would urge you to look to the boycott of 1980, when the US boycotted the Olympics to protest Russia's invasion of Afghanistan. Or the Olympics of 1952 when China themselves boycotted the games because the International Olympic Committee recognized Taiwan.
China's economic gains due to the Olympics are beyond my ability to calculate. Let's start there. A nice, nonviolent polite refusal to fund the Chinese government. Then we'll start looking at the import/export situation. I'm tired of funding China's military. Aren't you?
*This is yesterday's Huffington Post. Read that and tell me you need more primary sources, my friend.
ABC: On Tibet Frontlines, Protesters 'Shot Like Dogs'
- Huffington Post
Yesterday -The Chinese military is shooting Tibetan demonstrators "like dogs," a Tibetan exile group said Monday, firing "indiscriminately" intro groups of people protesting Chinese rule.
The accusation was leveled by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a group run by exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala, India, home to the Dalai Lama. Exile groups in India receive some of the few reports from inside Tibet and have provided some of the only reporting from there since last Monday, when the most significant Tibetan protests in 20 years began.
» Full Story on Huffington Post
Why Honor China With the Olympics?
According to Sky News, the death toll from China's attacks on peaceful Tibetan protesters, including monks, is now at 99. Those inside China will never obtain this information, as there has been a crackdown on all news entering and exiting China and what was once the independent country of Tibet. Reuters has reported that Chinese authorities "escorted" about a dozen Hong Kong-based reporters out of Tibet yesterday. This clearly violated promises to grant reporters greater freedoms to report and travel in the runup to the Beijing Olympics in August. Today, Reporters Without Borders called for an international boycott of the Opening Ceremonies:
"Reporters Without Borders today urged heads of state, heads of government and members of royal families to boycott the 8 August opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games because of the Chinese government’s mounting human rights violations and the glaring lack of freedom in China." Asia Press Releases 3/18/08
China has good reason to do their dirty deeds in secrecy. The Genocide Olympics, as it is now called in many quarters, is taking place in a country that has no regard for human rights. This is true not just of their relations with Darfur and Tibet, but in their treatment of their own people in sweatshops and in regard to religious freedom. Why would the Olympic Committee honor such a country by making it an Olympic venue? The country that has sent us tainted meat, toys, and pharmaceuticals deserves no honor. In February, the United States Olympic Team decided to bring its own supplies of meat to the Olympic Games because the sources in China were not trustworthy.
What can ordinary people do to express their displeasure with China's behavior? This blog will offer frequent suggestions for making your displeasure with the Chinese government very clear.
Today, begin by contacting the US Olympics Committee at the addresses below. The argument often made is that our athletes have trained for this event their entire lives...but is the glory of an individual athlete worth more than the life of a citizen of Tibet or Darfur? I was always taught that Americans valued human rights and religious freedom. Playing nice with a country that is disdainful of these things does not do us credit. We are better than that. China needs to have pressure placed upon it...it needs to know that the world is watching its behavior.
U.S. Olympic Training Center - Colorado Springs
National Headquarters
1 Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Tel: 719.632.5551
email: General Questions
Media & Public Affairs
"Reporters Without Borders today urged heads of state, heads of government and members of royal families to boycott the 8 August opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games because of the Chinese government’s mounting human rights violations and the glaring lack of freedom in China." Asia Press Releases 3/18/08
China has good reason to do their dirty deeds in secrecy. The Genocide Olympics, as it is now called in many quarters, is taking place in a country that has no regard for human rights. This is true not just of their relations with Darfur and Tibet, but in their treatment of their own people in sweatshops and in regard to religious freedom. Why would the Olympic Committee honor such a country by making it an Olympic venue? The country that has sent us tainted meat, toys, and pharmaceuticals deserves no honor. In February, the United States Olympic Team decided to bring its own supplies of meat to the Olympic Games because the sources in China were not trustworthy.
What can ordinary people do to express their displeasure with China's behavior? This blog will offer frequent suggestions for making your displeasure with the Chinese government very clear.
Today, begin by contacting the US Olympics Committee at the addresses below. The argument often made is that our athletes have trained for this event their entire lives...but is the glory of an individual athlete worth more than the life of a citizen of Tibet or Darfur? I was always taught that Americans valued human rights and religious freedom. Playing nice with a country that is disdainful of these things does not do us credit. We are better than that. China needs to have pressure placed upon it...it needs to know that the world is watching its behavior.
U.S. Olympic Training Center - Colorado Springs
National Headquarters
1 Olympic Plaza
Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Tel: 719.632.5551
email: General Questions
Media & Public Affairs
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