Sunday, August 24, 2008

 

Foreigh activists detained, by Anne Humphreys

While coming to an end the Olympics, a dozen foreign nationals are still being detained for having publicly criticized the Chinese presence in Tibet.

The U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt Jr. insisted Sunday with Chinese authorities to immediately release these activists, American majorities. He deplored the move that Beijing has failed to benefit from the Games to "show tolerance and openness."


Some fifty foreign activists were arrested in Beijing during the Games as well as in the days preceding the opening, for having deployed banners in support of Tibet. It also found among them a number of bloggers.

Soon arrested by Chinese authorities, most were simply expelled from the country. But those apprehended during the last week of the Games have been imprisoned under a law which allows detention without charge individuals for a maximum period of 14 days.

The latest arrests occurred on Thursday. The authorities say they intend to release them at the end of August.

A freedom in brackets

The hiccups made by Beijing to its own commitments to respect a certain freedom of expression, in the wake of obtaining Games in 2001, were numerous.

China had said it would allow particular events during the Olympics in three locations, provided that the demonstrators are seeking permits.

However, none of the requests made by citizens has been approved. Moreover, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 15 Chinese citizens were arrested for having requested the right to demonstrate.

RSF also reported Friday that at least "50 activists of human rights Beijing have been placed under house arrest, harassed or forced to leave the capital during the Games." Twenty foreign journalists have also been "hampered" attacked "or" challenged "in their work.

According to RSF, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has a share of responsibility in this situation and must take steps to ensure that this does not happen again at other Games. Its president Robert Menard urged the IOC to now make respect for freedom of expression an explicit criterion for the award of the Olympics.

IOC President Jacques Rogge, took to defend its record to a few hours of the closing ceremony.

"The IOC and the Olympic Games can not impose changes to sovereign nations or solve all the ills of the world [...] We are first and foremost an organization dedicated to sport," said Jacques Rogge, who 'says otherwise is satisfied with the conduct of the Games.

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# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 11:06 AM 0 Comments

Saturday, August 23, 2008

 

Ángel Matos

His story his here.









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# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 8:23 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

 

Surprise in Beijing, by Noémie Cournoyer

The Olympic flame finally arrived in Beijing Wednesday, under high surveillance, just two days before the opening of the Games.


This event has been overshadowed by action by a group of four foreigners. Two Britons and two Americans have foiled security in place banners on utility poles before the Olympic stadium. They called in particular the "free Tibet." The demonstrators were arrested by police 12 minutes after the first deployed a banner near the bird nest, "said agency official New China.
Members of the Chinese security tried to remove the banner of pro-Tibet demonstrators.





According to Students for a Free Tibet, the messages were visible for an hour.

The incident recalls several stages of the torch relay in the spring, including London, Paris and San Francisco, where protibétains demonstrators protested against the Chinese repression in Tibet.

Several thousand soldiers and policemen were deployed in the Chinese capital, where the Olympic flame must move for three days before lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony.

Wednesday, the first torchbearer in the capital since the Tiananmen Square was the Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei. The basketball player Yao Ming followed shortly thereafter.

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# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 11:45 AM 0 Comments

Saturday, July 26, 2008

 

Beijing 2008, by Francis Chartrand

Well, let aside a few such events, as some demonstrations, which I supported myself somewhat, and spend the greatest dignities of Olympus. Anyway, it was 3 months to challenge the decision by the IOC on July 13, 2001. Beijing had 56 votes, Toronto 22 votes, Paris 18 votes and 9 votes for Istanbul. And what did we do? We were all sitting on our butt!

Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, they were always there from the beginning. Them, they can yell! They were sceptical about the issue of human rights. For myself, I was surprised at the time because I was believing to see Paris or Toronto winning in the third round of voting, and I knew that China had a hard truncheon. I've paid my scepticism about the rights issue, I have my t-shirt Beijing 2008 RSF with handcuffs instead of the Olympic rings.
We can condemn what the Chinese government repression face as its population, and it should be done, but too late to withdraw our athletes, if he had to be done after Athens 2004.
Now, we go to the best Olympic moments (bishop of the Olympics that I am) on showing you some pictures I found. I'll comment on the politico later this weekend.
Canadian Donovan Bailey explodes with joy by winning the 100m gold in men in a record time of 9.84 sec. aux Jeux Olympiques d'été à Atlanta en 1996. the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in 1996. Saturday, July 27, 1996. (credit: AP Photo / Denis Paquin)

The American Florence Griffith Joyner, celebrates his victory after establishing a new Olympic record of 10.54 sec. the 100m for women and wins at the same time the gold medal in the Olympic Games in Seoul. On 25 September 1988. (credit: Photo RON KUNTZ / AFP / Getty Images) Morocco's Said Aouita begins to greet the crowd before crossing the finish line and won the 5000 metres final at the 1984 Olympics at the Coliseum Stadium in Los Angeles, California, USA. Aouita won the gold medal and sets a new Olympic record of 13:26.44 minutes. (credit: Photo David Cannon / Allsport) The Romanian Gabriela Szabo celebrates after winning gold in the 5000m final at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 at Olympic Stadium. Szabo sets new Olympic record of 14'40 "79. (Credit: Photo Darren England / REUTERS) During the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, American Bob Beamon won the gold medal in long jump by effecting a break 8m90 and is part of the Olympic record books. (credit: Photo Tony Duffy / Allsport)

The Russian Yelena Isinbayeva celebrates his victory after performing a pole vault at 4.91 meters and establishes a new Olympic record on August 24, 2004 at Olympic Stadium in Athens. (credit: Photo AXEL SCHMIDT / AFP / Getty Images)

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# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 7:49 PM 0 Comments

Monday, May 12, 2008

 

How to advocate "Made in China"

By Jeremiah Carvalro
"Let us act quickly, Tibet is dying" scandent they say. Advocacy has become a real way since the beginning of the trail of the "torch" Olympic. Even the organization Reporters Without Borders has gone from denouncing passive activism. All these banners, flags and banners have been in the shadow of the struggle of human rights much more than they have sustained.
This is the ridiculous 100% cotton "Made in China" this mode which is sinking the credibility of this cause. The citizen who fate in the streets full of good intentions, inflated by media coverage and slogans that are raining everywhere should realize that even if brandished posters "Free Tibet" or the Tibetan flag, his clothes bear probably oppressor country to which he must oppose.
Advocacy becomes a naive opposition, which can not be taken seriously and which retains only the clumsiness and misbehaviour of a major speech yet. It is still not an easy task to be aware when we faced the silence of our big men policy. If these details elude us, the economy is largely taken into account in such political contradictions.
This is what I affectionately hypocrisy market, shouted by a silence political than ever before. It will be used to criticize and punish the Russian government, African, or all of these bloody regimes such as Zimbabwe, but face the economic power of the People's Republic of China, major politicians seem to forget human rights, freedom expression and these values which they both boast of being the defence.
When one takes into account the heavy past Olympics, it is ridiculous that some claim loud and clear that sport should not be politicized. Stop lying to you, it always has been. The best example is the Games of Moscow that a fifty countries had boycotted to denounce the invasion of Afghanistan. But South Africa is the economic boycott which was less grand, or our political beliefs of the time who were stronger?
This silence political replongera Games in the dark days of the Games of 1936. Do you remember? The nations were paraded one after the other to cover prestigious Berlin and the now famous Adolf Hitler.
Nicolas Sarkozy is the only head of state to consider a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Games. Its participation will depend on the attitude of the Chinese government faces a dialogue with the Tibetan spiritual leader.
Yet the primary issue was freedom of expression and human rights in China that the organization Reporters Without Borders denounced the past few years. But the Tibetan cause, rather than become a symbol, has rather overshadowed. No wonder that Western society, plunged into materialism up to the neck, taken in an existential vacuum in search of a god feel more concerned by the repression that live the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people. Meanwhile, the Chinese live the same repression but are not entitled to the same cries nor the same banners.
If not able to reverse the repression, we should first be honest. It's been seven years since we know the choice of the International Olympic Committee to name China as the host of 2008 Olympic Games. It's been decades that we know the repressive system that prevails on the People's Republic, but it is at midnight least one that we insurgeons as if it were a new one. But it's too little too late. Assume it, we are the oppressor!

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