Beijing Olympics 2008

Lee Casey
ÓSF An Lorgain

Baron Pierre de Coubertin

"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

These words, of the Olympic creed, are attributed to Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. They seem all the more ironic when you consider that the 29th Olympic Games are to be held in Beijing, China.

The Olympic Games are traditionally a world celebration of peace and sporting excellence. However just like in the 1936 Berlin Games, when the International Olympic Committee gave the Games to Hitler’s Nazi Germany, we are yet again faced with a dictatorial, imperialist nation being granted the right to host the Olympics.

Human Rights Campaigners depict the Olympic Rings as handcuffs

If there was an Olympic event for authoritarian state brutality then China would almost certainly get the Gold. According to Amnesty International, China uses the death penalty more than any other country in the world, with around sixty-eight crimes being punishable by death; these include non-violent offences like tax fraud, taking bribes and some drug offences.
China also employs such unjust tactics as censorship and a rampant use of unfair trials in their judicial system to suppress the Chinese people. Human rights activists such as Hu Jia, who has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for nothing more than voicing concerns over police brutality in Beijing (or as the Chinese government called it “inciting subversion of state power”), have been put under house arrest and harassed by the state forces.

Then there is the brutal manner with which the Chinese state forces deal with peaceful protests in Tibet. Are these the condonable actions of a reputable nation which is hosting a well respected International sporting event?

China has forfeited its right to host this event by way of their Imperialist treatment of the people of Tibet and the ruthless way they rule the Chinese people. While the international community feels the need to cosy up to China because of its economic prowess, the Chinese people and the people of Tibet are suffering at the rule of an Iron Fist. Hopefully these games can be used as a stage to show the world the wrongs of the Chinese regime and could see the start of a more democratic, equal and just system for the Chinese people and the people of Tibet.