China, Olympics, Boycott?

[oracleslave]

Even if the boycott went ahead I'm not sure that it would be enough to pressure the chinese.

Everyone thought that the pictures of the Tianenmen Square protest in 1989 would put pressure on the chinese Govt. to change things - and did they?

They don't respond to the same "triggers" that the rest of the international community does which is why it's so hard to persuade them to do things they don't want to do.
Plus the fact that the west is so dependent on chinese manufacturing that they don't really want to do anything to restrict the flow of goods from China into the rest of the world and you get a situation where nothing will be done on a national level.
Any sort of protest will have to come from individuals and that is easily ignored.

You mean to tell me that if I sign an on-line petition it will have no relevance or meaning at all? You cynic!

[KathyWoolfe]

You mean to tell me that if I sign an on-line petition it will have no relevance or meaning at all? You cynic!

All signing the petition does is to make you feel better that you have actually bothered to react to something you feel sonething about.

Cynic,,,moi?...NON!!!

[rootsnall]

I think;

Whilst a precedent for using sport to a political end was set in the 80's, we should be above it now.

The Olympics is more about politics and money than about sport and was that way long before the 80s boycotts. What is going on in Tibet is a disgrace and I think it would be one of the more effective boycotts. Little or no chance of it happening.

[NotAllThere]

All signing the petition does is to make you feel better that you have actually bothered to react to something you feel sonething about.

Cynic,,,moi?...NON!!!

Close. All signing a petition does is make you feel like you've done something positive, without actually doing anything.

[TheFaQQer]

The cheese-eating surrender monkeys have got as far as saying that their president might not attend the opening ceremony if it continues.

That will have them quaking.

[KathyWoolfe]

Close. All signing a petition does is make you feel like you've done something positive, without actually doing anything.

Yes, exactly what I would have said if I had the extra brain cell I'm entitled to.

[threaded]

Colonies are the outhouses of the European soul, where a fellow can let his pants down and relax, enjoy the smell of his own tulip. Where he can fall on his slender prey roaring as loud as he feels like, and guzzle her blood with open joy. Eh? Where he can just wallow and rut and let himself go in a softness, a receptive darkness of limbs, of hair as woolly as the hair on his own forbidden genitals. ... Out and down in the colonies, life can be indulged, life and sensuality in all its forms, with no harm done to the Metropolis, nothing to soil those cathedrals, white marble statues, noble thoughts... Tibet is a special case. Tibet was deliberately set aside by the Empire as free and neutral territory, a Switzerland for the spirit where there is no extradition, and Alp-Himalayas to draw the soul upward, and danger rare enough to tolerate...