Olympic rant

 These anti-China protesters are annoying. Agreed, China does have a dodgy [to put it mildly] human rights record, they're evasive, controlling, and the poor Tibetans are being treated terribly etc etc. Yes, just before the Olympics is a good public moment to air all those issues, thumbs up for free speech!

However, to seriously suggest that entire countries should not take part is unfair on many levels, but most importantly on the athletes who've been training for literally four years with 2008 in mind. This isn't an event that happens every year, a delay of 12 months would be bad enough, 48 months is a very long time. 

The protests should have taken place seven years ago when the Olympic committee was choosing the country in 2001. Now, it is only a question of airing opinions. The violence that has surrounded the Olympic relay puts the world to shame, with people in the 'developed' countries proving to be unable to respect boundaries. Having processions I can totally understand, there are some serious human rights issues going on, but to go to the extent of disrupting the relay, requiring the flame to be put out, is really a bit much. 

The Flame has a symbolism beyond that of just the Beijing games. It doesn't belong to any one country, and is supposed to represent Olympic values, like friendship, solidarity and fair play to name a few. Seems like there isn't much of that going around. 

If you really truely feel strongly that something should be done, boycott all Chinese products, not the Olympics. The world happily exploits the ultra cheap goods that come out of China without a second  thought, but have a huge moral dilemma with China holding a sports event? Rubbish.  Hypocrites.