i am officially boycotting the olympics. Now, this is not a huge step seeing as i would hardly watch any of them anyway but as they say in "The Last Time I Commited Suicide"... a man's got his reasons.
First and foremost is China's continued abuse of Tibet. Tibet doesn't supply us with oil and they don't make cheap toys, shoes, and clothing for us either so the US has done absolutely nothing in regards to helping in Tibet's struggle with China. The Irish are quite prone to fighting and look how long they have had "troubles" with occupation. Even with their long tradition of peaceful Buddhism, Tibet can only go on for so long without outside pressure and help before desperation brings about a response to China's violence with aggression. That inevitable violence may be even more damaging to the Tibetan culture than China's occupation and murder.
Bush #1 said this aggression will not stand and Bush #2 constantly talks of preemptive attacks but apparently it only applies to areas they wish to control. Maybe i'll boycott american politics as well.
Second, China and the US seem to be waging yet another war, this time as allies. The two countries just can't seem to stop themselves. This long war has been against the environment. Australia used to have the highest per person carbon footprint in the world (even though the US has always been the biggest polluter, even for it's relatively small population). Those from the land down-under, however, have had a very telling set of elections and are now taking political action to address climate change. Much of this also has to do with how drastically they are already being impacted by these climate changes.
The US and China keep up-ing our pollution. We get to use them as an excuse by trying to claim that any improvements we make will be offset by their increase in pollution while we also don't want them to address the issue for fear that prices may go up on all the labor camps with nearly non-existent wages that our economy relies so heavily upon. We wouldn't want to have to pay a reasonable wage for all that disposable shit we so love to consume (like Apple computers with A-keys that don't work... check your Apple gear kids, it's all made in China).
Should we get into China's human rights atrocities which include those sweat-shops? Add it to the list. Also add air quality issues that span both human rights and environmental problems. In order to meet the Olympics minimal air quality standards for the games they have shut down many of their factories in the area until the olympics are over. Now there is some air i'd want to be heavily breathing in if i were an athlete.
At this point i will now become more ludicrous (don't worry i won't start rapping or anything) because the internet does not need any more overly pretentious blogs. The olympics suck my left dick anyway. They've let so many pro athletes into various competitions the whole idea has become compromised. Even those who aren't pros are usually using just as many chemicals to enhance their performance as the pros are. At a certain point it seems that races to find out the fastest man alive are no longer being raced by mere men.
The other day a cohort of mine said "It's just a game, politics should be kept out of it" to which i replied that it has nothing to do with a game. The olympics are just an enormous money maker that countries vie to hold within their borders. It stopped being 'just a game' a very long time ago, even before they decided to stagger the summer/winter years. The countries make their money, the TV stations make their money, and the athletes that actually win get to make some money before they are completely forgotten or later stripped of their medals.
For all of the above reasons i am boycotting something i probably would not have watched anyway. It's much like a vegetarian giving up meat on fridays during lent. Maybe i'll boycott capitalization as well. this was a good head start towards that end. olympics. china. i.
No comments:
Post a Comment