City Council member and probable 2009 mayoral candidate, Tony Avella, is the latest politician to ask for America's withdrawl from the Beijing Olympics if China will not grant Tibet independence. Under China's rule for over 50 years, Tibet has made no headway, even with the support of human rights groups, activists...and Richard Gere. When we interviewed Robert Thurman, co-founder of the Tibet House, earlier this year he touched on the Olympics, saying:
The thinking is that if you give them a big P.R. thing to do like the Olympics, they won’t want people to see how they’re beating up the Falun Gong or whatever it is they’re doing lately. This is a fallacious concept but within that it’s true that the Chinese are trying to clean up their act so they won’t be embarrassed during the Olympics. Unfortunately, what the Chinese consider ‘cleaning up their act’ is to wipe out people who might do human rights protests; they don’t mean stopping the human rights violations.
Today a rally in Manhattan is taking place commemorating the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against China. Avella is in attendance and will most likely use this event to introduce his resolution, which demands New York City-based corporate sponsors boycott the 2008 Olympics, and that the International Olympic Committee move the games from Beijing. He stated, "That's the only thing that will make them do anything — international pressure."
If it sounds improbable, this wouldn't be the first Olympics the U.S. has boycotted; in 1980 the Moscow Olympics were boycotted in protest of their invasion of Afghanistan. There have also already been many prominent names dropping their support of the games. The NY Sun reports that last month "film director Steven Spielberg left his position as a consultant for the games in response to the country's ties to the Sudanese government, and in January, Charles, Prince of Wales, said he would not attend the Olympics as a protest against China's treatment of Tibet." Björk has also been making some noise lately; and even Paul McCartney is boycotting, though over the country's use of dogs and cats for fur.
However, President Bush, not to be swayed by private citizen Spielberg, has already ruled out the boycott possibility this year, and says he simply views it "as a sporting event."
Photo via the AP
