I know that I've been in Mexico, so maybe I've missed something, but has
anybody seen any criticism whatsoever from the European Union, a European
Head of State, or important members of a European Parliament on awarding
the Olympics to China?
I just read today that China has already executed 1700 people *this year*.
According to Amnesty International, China executed 1,077 in all of 1999 (I
didn't see the 2000 numbers.) The rest of the world in 1999 executed only
736 people (98 in the USA.)
In other words China has more than *tripled* its execution rate during the
lead-up to the Olympics vote. It doesn't take an international relations
degree to see the connection. China made sure that there were no
complications with the vote by executing common criminals and political
dissidents as quickly as possible.
I think that even those people who favor the death penalty agree that its
implementation must not be in the arbitrary and capricious manner that the
Chinese have currently exhibited.
Nevertheless, it is embarassing that the world could reward a country that
engages in the mass execution of its own citizens to secure a sporting
event. Never mind, of course, all the other basic freedoms denied to
Chinese citizens by their oppressive regime. After all, is there any doubt
that if the Europeans and the United States had presented a united front on
the matter of China's inelgibility to carry the Olympic Flame, that Beijing
would not have won the games?
Instead, the PRC's capital city has been awarded one of the highest honors
in the international community, the right to showcase itself on the Olympic
Stage.
About the only bright spot in this entire travesty is that no that China
has taken full advantage of one of the rights of civilized nations, it just
may be that the international community is prepared to hold China to the
responsibilities of civilized nations. China now must act responsibly for
the next seven years, for if it does not, it risks a boycott, and having
the Beijing Games rank right alongside Moscow in 1980 in the ashheap of
Olympic History.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
We are products of the same history, reaching from Jerusalem and
Athens to Warsaw and Washington. We share more than an alliance.
We share a civilization. - George W. Bush, Warsaw, 06/15/01
