Thursday, March 20, 2008

Tibet, South Africa and Sport

As Tibet, or the Chinese brutality in Tibet, continues to make the news here is a link to the history of the conflict according to the National Democratic Party of Tibet. Although they obviously have their own 'spin' on events, I suspect it is more objective than the Chinese version and probably the BBC's.

Having said that here is also a link to a BBC broadcast of the demo, and attack by Chinese soldiers, that probably sparked the riots and growing unrest.

The problem for Tibet is that vested interests makes a boycott of the Chinese Olympics highly unlikely. The last serious boycott was of the Moscow games in 1980 over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Americans were forbidden from competing while our government 'advised' athletes not to compete.

Similarly, despite serious security concerns, and even doubts about the supply of electricity to the event, the South Africa Football World Cup in 2010 will go ahead, because it would be politically incorrect not to. Would the Euro Championships in 2008, in Austria and Switzerland, go ahead if they couldn't guarantee the power supply?

Sport is about money and power these days unfortunately, principle went out of the window a long time ago.

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