Muse of 2008 Olympic torch relay
Updated: 2008-05-06 20:28
Of course, free Tibet activists would get spot light from time to time, just like other anti-Chinese forces, during the time of "when it's Chinese, let's demonize". But God forbid, if Chinese suffer the fate of Jews in World War II, like somebody in the West would have wished, the fate of Tibetans would be like that of other under-privileged ethnic groups such as the Gypsies. When the value of your cause, which is to stir up trouble for China, is diminished, your time will be up. If you don't believe me, read the history of many aboriginal tribes in Europe, Africa, Americas and Australia. It is not difficult to find out what happened after Europeans came.
Looking at the reports of the Olympic torch relay in the West, you would feel like it is a disaster in every stop along the route. But it's really the "Western" countries and cities that were troublesome, aren't they? When the torch ran into out of control mobs and the events were disrupted in Paris, London, San Fransisco, those stories would go to the prime time TV or newspaper front pages. When the torch passed cities without incidents, even the anticipated city like New Delhi where there were supposed to be large Tibetan populations, the Western media just wasn't interested in reporting. When people wrote comments with anti-China stance, the articles would go to the spotlight spaces in self-proclaimed objective web sites such as that of BBC. When writers wrote comments supporting China, those would just be published in the places for the "comments", "replies" or "blogs", along with other "comments", "replies" or "blogs" accusing Chinese government of paying for the online postings.
Well, this post is not paid by Chinese government, and in fact, any body is free to copy and paste portion or entirety of it and put anywhere. I always wish to get paid for my writing as a capitalist, but the therapeutic effect of venting against injustice is rewarding enough. One famous Jewish quote went this way: "when facing injustice, silence is a crime". If you feel an uncontrollable urge to pay me for my copy rights and intellectual properties, and feel bad karma without paying, I suggest that you donate something to a charity group set up by any African nation. But before you donate, make sure you check the human rights records of that African nation, and it could save you quite a few bucks. I am not familiar with Africa and do not understand African people as well as I do Tibetans, therefore should not delve into the discussion of Darfur.
To athletes who pretend to struggle between "conscience" and "chance to compete during one's prime" as phrased by NBC, go ahead and boycott the game if you wish. We don't feel sorry for your decision, but feel sorry for you. Jesus loves you even if you don't. To politicians who want to boycott opening, closing ceremonies, or for audiences who want to boycott part of, or the entirety of the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, please "be my guest" and suite yourself. The Earth still orbits around the Sun whether you participate in the Olympic movement or not, although IOC would like you too.
There are months of time until the 2008 Beijing Olympics. How many other host countries, in the past, had been protested and scrutinized this much by Western media this far away from the opening ceremony? It is unfortunate that the usage of performance enhancing drags is rampant in the sports world these days. But how many country had their Olympic team commented on "drug usage" in the opening ceremony by the TV announcers, when the team marched into the stadium? Because when it is Chinese, let's demonize.
Don Imus used racial slurs on Chinese and African Americans. His rating still held high after offending Chinese, but he got fired after offending Rutgers women's basketball team. Jack Cafferty called Chinese the same bunch of "goons and thugs" for the last 50 years, and he got the official sanction from CNN saying it is OK, that he was against "Chinese government" not "Chinese people", as if insulting Chinese government was absolutely justified. For those in the Western media wondering why Chinese are such a bunch of unenlightened "goons and thugs" that refuse to overthrow their government, that is because you are a bunch of moron who can not read Chinese or many other languages. Majority of the Chinese people support their government. Insulting "Chinese government" is an insult to normal "Chinese". Chinese people used their blood and life to carefully elect their government in 1949. Their revolution was not any less sacred than those ones enshrined in your history. If you believe any instability within China is a chance for you to call upon Chinese to overthrow their government, try overthrow your government when every election season comes around, and see if human rights records will improve dramatically in your country.
Fool me once, shame on you and fool me twice, shame on me. You can fool some of the people all the time… I find myself quoting Lincoln and Washington more than my colleagues in the West these days, because they are more interested in chasing Prince Di, Britney Spears or quoting Paris Hilton, "it's hot" all around. A media without morality and decency, and that's something you can be proud of as much as you wish. One will have to be a big sucker to truly believe this Western media to be "unbiased" and "objective".
Your real religion and treasured cultural heritage is "power" and "profit", isn't it? Have you noticed that all your churches are mega-sized like the size of McDonald's? We are cool with that. We can embrace that idea too, we are Chinese, we are moderate, we believe in force or nature, similar to Thomas Jefferson by the way, and we believe in harmony. For the force of nature is always much more powerful than any weapons of mass destruction.
Among all the foul plays and dirty tricks in the world, I always thought there is a shred of common decency and universal sense of justice somewhere. As a Chinese who watched so many years of professional sports in America, I actually started to feel this Olympic game was a little like a "white man's game", which would have attracted only a little attention from my average working days. What could have "Greek Fire" got to do with an average Chinese? But when I saw the torch lit on TV in the Olympic village with people wearing ancient Greek costume in the background, while the flame flickering on, it did seem like something divine may still exist in this cynical world after all. Prometheus, is a well-known name among people who studied Western philosophy, Renaissance, or people who studied socialism, communism in my generation back in China. There were thousands of years of human history looking down upon that moment when the torch of the ancient Greeks was passed on to the modern Chinese in such a ritual. After all, isn't it always a good idea to lay down weapons once in a while for a clean game of sports? Monotheism, polytheism, capitalism, socialism, human rights, law and order, whatever other ideas in human heads… do we all go from birth to death pretty much along the same roads? Can we forget ideas-and-isms for a while and enjoy the game and just watch various kinds of people running and holding torches and olive branches?
Then the "reporters without borders" showed up, with a Tibetan flag. Is IOC still an international organization that makes rules and regulations for its games and ceremonies? When people fouled in the games or the ceremonies, were there referees and judges to call them foul, and eject them from those events?
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