Jed Pressgrove is a graduate student in sociology. He can be contacted at [email protected].There’s a debate over whether President George W. Bush should attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics hosted in Beijing, China. China has been accused of violating human rights with its treatment of Tibetan monk protestors.
Sen. Hillary Clinton said Bush should boycott the ceremony. Sen. Barack Obama said he’s not sure what should be done because the Olympics is “partly about bringing the world together,” according to CNN.com. On “The View,” Sen. John McCain said he wouldn’t go to the ceremony unless China changed quickly. Clarion-Ledger perspective editor Sid Salter predicted Bush will be there because of money, citing the $256 billion trade deficit America had with China in 2007.
I combed the Internet for evidence of China’s violation of human rights. I found conflicting reports and views in abundance like many mosquitoes all trying to suck my blood at once.
Reports from CNN, the BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, and The Economist say Tibetans have committed violence against Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in China and on the planet. In response to these riots, the Chinese government began cracking down on Tibetan protestors.
According to a March 20 BBC News article, China said only 13 people had been killed during the protests and that these people were innocents killed by protestors. The Tibetan government said 99 people had died and that Chinese police forces have fired on crowds.
Viewpoints vary by world governments. The United States, Canada and Australia, among others, believe China should exercise constraint in dealing with the protestors. Russia and Thailand, among others, believe China has been justifiably responding to illegal actions. According to USA Today, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez believes the U.S. is playing an active part in the Tibetan protests to weaken China as a country.
Many headlines from mainstream media outlets have condemned China for its reaction. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi thinks we will have no moral authority if we don’t speak out against China. Justin Raimondo, writer for ANTIWAR.com, compares the situation to the American Civil War: “If the Chinese are wrong to hold on to their province of Tibet, then Lincoln was wrong to insist that the South stay in the Union.”
Innocent people are in the middle of this conflict, just as many Americans were in the Civil War. Two groups fight over territory (or whatever the hell they’re really fighting for), each side recruits allies, commentators debate over who is right, and innocent people weep with their young and old in terror.
On days of beautiful weather I dream of everyone stopping. Everything everyone is doing would stop. Territory dies and concomitant with its demise is the rightful death of our ethnicities, heritages and traditions. Nothing more to discuss. People wandering varied geologies. Perhaps we would still kill but in tune with nature and not glorified social constructs of egomaniacs.
But instead, there’s a debate over whether President George W. Bush should attend the opening ceremony of the Olympics hosted in Beijing, China.