EU parliament Pres. says Olympics boycott should be considered

[Mugu]

By DPA and Haaretz Service

A boycott of this summer's Beijing Olympic Games should be considered if China does not re-evaluate its actions in Tibet, the president of the European Parliament said in an interview to be published in a German newspaper on Sunday.

"Beijing must decide. It must negotiate with the Dalai Lama immediately," Hans-Gert Poettering told the mass circulation Bild newspaper. Poettering added that boycott measures were justified, if there was no attempt at reconciling the differences.

"We should not exclude the possibility of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. We want a successful Games, but not at the price of the cultural genocide of the Tibetans," he said.

Poettering, a member of the conservative Christian bloc in the parliament, said the European Parliament would discuss the situation in Tibet on Wednesday.


Read complete article at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/967066.html

[chelsea0011]

1. Considered? There should already be a boycott. Besides Tibet,

China is cracking down on medai coverage by the networks doing Olympic coverage.

[malaise]

2. What are they saying about the war criminals in London hosting

the 2012 games?

[SoCalDem]

3. Might as well.. who can afford to go there anyway? or even wants to?

Some of the primo athletes are boycotting because of the pollution..who on earth would want to go there and breathe in all that crap for a week or two?
http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/10/25/beijing_narrowweb__300x375,0.jpg

[Zynx]

5. I have a friend who goes here to Madison who is from LA and they said that

the pollution in Tianjin makes LA look like, and I quote, "The fucking Garden of Eden".

[SpiralHawk]

4. If a boycott, Chinese shrifgrethor* (pride) will be indelibly wounded...

Of course they are bringing this on themselves with their heinous actions, repressions, massacres, pollution, etc., but still - Losing Face on the global stage is something China will not take lightly or ever forget.


* 'Shrifgrethor' is a term from Ursala Le Guin's novel, The Left Hand of Darkness. Gethenians in Karhide possess an elaborate system of social prestige called shifgrethor, in which individuals jockey for position by subtle maneuvering — the exact kind of social conflict seen in homogeneous groups (compare office politics).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_Hand_of_Darkness

[Zynx]

6. The government of China has consistently been an opponent of basic human rights.

This transcends decades, presidents, etc. We in America have occasionally awful presidents, but our government is not so consistently a staunch opponent of human rights across the board as is China.