Comments on: Citizen Journalist Gets Deported from China http://www.kungpowthinking.com/2008/08/11/citizen-journalist-gets-deported-from-china/ Making your brain hurt with every word Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:59:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Francis Hwang http://www.kungpowthinking.com/2008/08/11/citizen-journalist-gets-deported-from-china/comment-page-1/#comment-373 Francis Hwang Tue, 12 Aug 2008 17:43:35 +0000 http://www.kungpowthinking.com/?p=117#comment-373 Yeah, I admire the athletes, and the spirit of athletics, and I can understand how other people are able to be excited about the competition.<br><br>But as for using the Olympics for political means: That's what China's doing too, so it can show the world how modern it is -- all Olympic hosts do that. But there should be a line, right? I don't think it was a good idea to have the Olympics in Nazi Germany, for example. I would've been opposed to having the Olympics in the U.S.S.R. during the Stalinist purges, or in South Africa during apartheid, or in Zimbabwe right now. As for whether China is over that line, hard to say. But I think of Falun Gong and Tiananmen Square and the great firewall of China and Tibet and Taiwan and the one-child policy and the child-slavery factory they uncovered last year, and, yeah, I get depressed about it.<br><br>As for the Korean thing, yeah, it's depressing, but you know, not any more depressing than the entire North Korea situation anyway. Politics is going to intrude on the rest of life, whether or not you want it to. Yeah, I admire the athletes, and the spirit of athletics, and I can understand how other people are able to be excited about the competition.

But as for using the Olympics for political means: That's what China's doing too, so it can show the world how modern it is — all Olympic hosts do that. But there should be a line, right? I don't think it was a good idea to have the Olympics in Nazi Germany, for example. I would've been opposed to having the Olympics in the U.S.S.R. during the Stalinist purges, or in South Africa during apartheid, or in Zimbabwe right now. As for whether China is over that line, hard to say. But I think of Falun Gong and Tiananmen Square and the great firewall of China and Tibet and Taiwan and the one-child policy and the child-slavery factory they uncovered last year, and, yeah, I get depressed about it.

As for the Korean thing, yeah, it's depressing, but you know, not any more depressing than the entire North Korea situation anyway. Politics is going to intrude on the rest of life, whether or not you want it to.

]]> By: fhwang http://www.kungpowthinking.com/2008/08/11/citizen-journalist-gets-deported-from-china/comment-page-1/#comment-335 fhwang Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:43:35 +0000 http://www.kungpowthinking.com/?p=117#comment-335 Yeah, I admire the athletes, and the spirit of athletics, and I can understand how other people are able to be excited about the competition.<br><br>But as for using the Olympics for political means: That's what China's doing too, so it can show the world how modern it is -- all Olympic hosts do that. But there should be a line, right? I don't think it was a good idea to have the Olympics in Nazi Germany, for example. I would've been opposed to having the Olympics in the U.S.S.R. during the Stalinist purges, or in South Africa during apartheid, or in Zimbabwe right now. As for whether China is over that line, hard to say. But I think of Falun Gong and Tiananmen Square and the great firewall of China and Tibet and Taiwan and the one-child policy and the child-slavery factory they uncovered last year, and, yeah, I get depressed about it.<br><br>As for the Korean thing, yeah, it's depressing, but you know, not any more depressing than the entire North Korea situation anyway. Politics is going to intrude on the rest of life, whether or not you want it to. Yeah, I admire the athletes, and the spirit of athletics, and I can understand how other people are able to be excited about the competition.

But as for using the Olympics for political means: That's what China's doing too, so it can show the world how modern it is — all Olympic hosts do that. But there should be a line, right? I don't think it was a good idea to have the Olympics in Nazi Germany, for example. I would've been opposed to having the Olympics in the U.S.S.R. during the Stalinist purges, or in South Africa during apartheid, or in Zimbabwe right now. As for whether China is over that line, hard to say. But I think of Falun Gong and Tiananmen Square and the great firewall of China and Tibet and Taiwan and the one-child policy and the child-slavery factory they uncovered last year, and, yeah, I get depressed about it.

As for the Korean thing, yeah, it's depressing, but you know, not any more depressing than the entire North Korea situation anyway. Politics is going to intrude on the rest of life, whether or not you want it to.

]]> By: joshviney http://www.kungpowthinking.com/2008/08/11/citizen-journalist-gets-deported-from-china/comment-page-1/#comment-334 joshviney Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:16:44 +0000 http://www.kungpowthinking.com/?p=117#comment-334 I love sports, and I guess I'm an idealist when it comes to the Olympics. To me it's all about people coming together from all around the world despite political differences to compete peacefully as human beings. I think it's a travesty for anyone to use the Olympics for political means. This includes boycotts, protests, and Russia using them as a distraction to invade Georgia. I will say it really bothered me that the politicians couldn't get their heads out of their asses long enough to allow the Koreans to march into the opening ceremony together. Now that was depressing. I love sports, and I guess I'm an idealist when it comes to the Olympics. To me it's all about people coming together from all around the world despite political differences to compete peacefully as human beings. I think it's a travesty for anyone to use the Olympics for political means. This includes boycotts, protests, and Russia using them as a distraction to invade Georgia. I will say it really bothered me that the politicians couldn't get their heads out of their asses long enough to allow the Koreans to march into the opening ceremony together. Now that was depressing.

]]> By: fhwang http://www.kungpowthinking.com/2008/08/11/citizen-journalist-gets-deported-from-china/comment-page-1/#comment-333 fhwang Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:47:44 +0000 http://www.kungpowthinking.com/?p=117#comment-333 Yeah, China's made progress in the last few decades, there's no doubt. Still, I'm finding the whole thing about the Olympics too depressing to bear. I'm not much of a sports fan regardless but I don't know if I'll watch any of it at all this year.<br><br>And as for Tibet & the U.S. Civil War -- there's no question that repressing minorities to build a nation was easier a few centuries. Though actually a better analogy would be the way we (as a U.S. citizen I'll say "we" here) committed genocide against Native Americans because they didn't fit into our picture of manifest destiny. The Civil War has the complicating factor of all those slaves. Whether Lincoln got into the war to free the slaves, that was a side-effect at least. Yeah, China's made progress in the last few decades, there's no doubt. Still, I'm finding the whole thing about the Olympics too depressing to bear. I'm not much of a sports fan regardless but I don't know if I'll watch any of it at all this year.

And as for Tibet & the U.S. Civil War — there's no question that repressing minorities to build a nation was easier a few centuries. Though actually a better analogy would be the way we (as a U.S. citizen I'll say “we” here) committed genocide against Native Americans because they didn't fit into our picture of manifest destiny. The Civil War has the complicating factor of all those slaves. Whether Lincoln got into the war to free the slaves, that was a side-effect at least.

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