Olympic excitement and human misery
by Jura Watchmaker, 3 April 2008
Here are a couple of images that celebrities Tim Henman, Kelly Holmes and Kevin Pietersen might like to consider this Sunday as they carry the Olympic torch through London.
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The man is Hu Jia, a Chinese democracy activist who has just been jailed for three and a half years for “inciting subversion of state power”. The woman is his spouse and fellow dissident Zeng Jinyan, who along with their baby daughter remains under house arrest in Beijing’s “Freedom City”.
A clearer case of political persecution would be hard to find, and the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network has warned that the International Olympic Committee’s moral integrity will be compromised if it continues to claim that Beijing is handling the games in a non-political manner:
“For the Chinese authorities, the Olympics is a political game – if you criticise violations committed in the name of the game, then you are an enemy of the state,”
said Renee Xia, the group’s international director. And according to Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch:
“The timing of the announcement of the verdict - right when the IOC is meeting in Beijing - highlights how complacent the IOC has been in disregarding human rights violations generated by the preparation of the games.
“The truth is that the moral void in which the IOC operates is harming the protection of human rights in China and elsewhere.”
A moral void for moral pygmies.
Update
I’ve just seen former Olympic swimmer and current bimbo Sharron Davies, and gorgeous and hugely talented comedian/actor/writer Francesca Martinez, interviewed on Channel 4 News about the Olympic flame coming to London.
Davies went on about the supposed futility of boycotts, but it then slipped out that what she is most concerned about is lost opportunities for athletes.
A moral pygmy.
Martinez then declared that she had been invited to carry the torch, but had now decided to do her bit for human decency and turn down the offer.
A true hero.
