China, Tibet, Olympics boycott: Germany’s Merkel won’t go
- Filed under: Boycott News, Tibet
- Date: Mar 31,2008
There was a time, long, long ago, when athletes from around the ancient world would gather, without clothes and without making political pronouncements, to let it all hang out - their enthusiasm for the spirit of competition, that is - and get on with games in which victories would bring resounding honor to the kingdoms, regions and powerful city-states they represented.
Apparently, times have changed. Today’s Olympic Games have become, at least in part, a high-profile venue for the conveying of implicit or explicit political messages, and a locus for a bevy of overlapping, sometimes competing forces and interests that may be athletic, political, economic or cultural, sometimes all at the same time.
With unrest in Tibet against the central Chinese government in Beijing still simmering, and related protests still unfolding around the world to call attention to China’s human-rights record, the thoughts some critics have voiced about a possible boycott of the Olympics that will begin in Beijing in early August appear to be starting to take concrete form.
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