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news report
 Saturday August 16, 2008 16:55 by nickleberry
 A Mock Olympics was held today on College Green. The aim of the event was to remind people, amidst the hype of the Beijing olympics, of the Chinese government's sordid record when it comes to relations with Tibet, and with its own population.
A sizeable group of Bristolians assembled on College Green today to stage a Mock Olympics. Amidst all the flag-waving and jingoism of the Beijing Olympics, daily tragedies are unfolding in China and Tibet; and the Mock Olympics were staged to remind us of this fact. Bristol's Tibetan community was well-represented on College Green. I talked to one man who has family back in Tibet, and also in India where they have fled from Chinese repression. He told me a little about the Chinese authorities' lack of respect for human rights, and the struggle of his people to be free. It was noticeable that he showed no antipathy to the Chinese people as a whole: I asked him about the new railway from Beijing to Lhasa which the Chinese have built to allow more Chinese settlers into Tibet. He expressed his opposition to the railway in the current political climate but he went on to say that, if his people are allowed their full human rights and freedoms, then Chinese people are welcome to come and live in his country. I also asked him about the Dalai Lama for whom he expressed a great respect and admiration. The Dalai Lama's stated goal of world peace was something that he whole-heartedly stood behind; on the other hand, in the world of real-politik and considering the Chinese disregard for the Dalai Lama's peaceful approach, perhaps a more hard-headed position needs to be taken? And the Olympics have only made this situation worse: in the lead-up to the Beijing games, 216 Tibetans have been killed and more than 5000 detained. Don't forget what is really going on in Tibet! [Free Tibet 2008 | Tibet Society | Tibetan Youth UK |Tibetan Community UK | Students for a Free Tibet |Free Tibet] In addition to the issue of Tibet, China's attitude to the human rights of its own population also warrants careful examination. Bristol activists from Amnesty International were in attendance on College Green today to call people's attention to China's awful record on the death penalty (the worst in the world). Estimates of the number of executions in China vary, but the figure could be as high as 8000. As part of its bid for the 2008 Olympic Games, China pledged to improve its human rights record but there is scant evidence of any significant change... [ Amnesty International in Bristol | China's human rights (Amnesty UK) | China's Olympic Legacy (Amnesty USA) | China & the death penalty (.pdf)]
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Comments (8 of 8)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8You run the risk of just being puppets of an aggressive U.S foreign policy, which spans both Republican and Democrat agendas. Most of China's rivers orginate in Tibet, and there's nothing the U.S would like more than to see Tibet partitioned, and those rivers cut off, crippling China.
Partitioning Tibet is a far easier and more effective way of reinstating U.S global dominance, than a direct war with China, and those neo-cons aren't averse to pulling on your all too pullable anarchist strings to achieve that ultimate goal.
http://ollysonions.blogspot.com/2008/08/western-imperia....html
Like the blog link. Meh to the er demo.
...but does the so much worse plight of the people of Palestine ever impinge on these good people's acute social conscience?
Not too much protest is evident for those victims of another brutal regime, and this is something our own MP's could actually do something about.
Yeah, cause Bristol Indymedia hardly EVAR has articles about Palestine. Actvists naver go around all the shops taking all them evil Jewish goods out or welcome Hezbollah thugs to our town do they?
People have to remember that there is only room for one hate figure in today's hectic world - and that's teh J00000z! The Chinese don't get a look in, anyway, they make nice laptops and it's all real cheap because of the near-slave labour conditions that obtain in Chines factories. But they're still not as bad as EEEEEEEEEEEEZRAAAAELL111!!!1!1
....and to our Corporate Media for such extensive coverage of this humanitarian crisis.
@Student, I'm pretty unimpressed by the idea that a protest highlighting the struggles of people in Tibet must inevitably detract from the struggles of the people of Palestine. I, for one, have a great deal of sympathy for both peoples, and I see no reason why I can't express my solidarity for both groups.
And this is also why I disagree with @puppet watch. If I was operating in the ten-second sound-byte landscape of the corporate media, then you may well have a point. The corporate media is not (generally) interested in any in-depth analysis of a political situation, hence the equation
criticism of china = support of america
has some currency.
But surely on IndyMedia we're allowed to go a little deeper? Try this for size: I think both the Chinese government and the US government have a hell of a lot of blood on their hands. I don't think we do ourselves any favours by restricting all critical comments to be focussed on the US government; indeed I think that invites the criticism that we're obsessed and just hate the US (exactly the point that The Bristol Blogger makes above). I'm all for calling it as we see it.
I think this protest was entirely positive and I think @Student betrays a lack of understanding with this comment: [Palestine] is something our own MP's could actually do something about. I think this is flawed for a number of reasons: firstly, because protest is not (to my mind) about influencing MPs; secondly, because I'm not sure our MPs could do anything about Palestine; thirdly, because I'm certain that most of them don't want to do anything about Palestine; and, fourthly, because you've missed the whole point of why this Tibet protest is happening. The period of the Beijing Olympics is the one time when international action is likely to have any significant impact on the Tibet situation; if people don't protest now, then they might as well not protest at all.
And great pictures, thanks for putting it on Bindymedia.