Should China Be Allowed To Host Olympics?

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

Who had heard of Tibet before the Olympics?

Not me thats for sure.

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I don't see a smilie. Is it a joke? Are people really that ignorant of the world? Don't take this the wrong way TC - it's not aimed at you. I keep hearing this comment that people hadn't heard of it, and it shocks me to a similar extent that hearing that some stupid bint on Big Brother thought buffalos have wings. Could we get a poll? I'm really curious about this.

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Originally Posted by John83

some stupid bint on Big Brother thought buffalos have wings.

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Never mind Tibet, that's freaking hilarious :D:D.

Just as a side note to the debate, and maybe it's not entirely relevent as I know it's all about the publicity, but the Olympics themselves are entirely devalued at this stage.

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Originally Posted by BohsPartisan

I think there is a lot of ignorance on the Tibet situation. Obviously the Tibetan people are oppressed by the Chinese but the Free Tibet movement is directed not at achieving democracy for them but subjecting them once again to the yoke of Lamaism where they were ruled by priests and warlords. It would be like in the 80's going to a USSR out of Afghanistan protest that supported the Taliban.

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Def agree here.
For all the talk about the Dala lama, the monks etc treated their own people like ****e for years before the chinese stepped in.
But then having said that Tibet should have some sort of self rule.

This seems to have dropped won the media radar.

Aside from Chinese protesting about Westerners protesting I can't remember much news on in the last couple of weeks.

Free Tibet flags made in China

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Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say

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I guess no boycott of Chinese products. :D

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Originally Posted by pete

Free Tibet flags made in China

I guess no boycott of Chinese products. :D

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Outstanding :D

Had an interesting conversation about Tibet with Chinese guy living here.

He said he was no fan of Chinese government but human rights no better or worse in Tibet than mainland China. Since human rights have improved in China same could be said of Tibet. He believed (I have not checked but possibly true) that Tibet has never been independent so if China had not taken over then someone else would have. As seen by anti-France protests (when Olympic flame intercepted) criticism of China is actually fueling support nationalistic support for the Chinese communist party government.

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Originally Posted by pete

Had an interesting conversation about Tibet with Chinese guy living here.

He said he was no fan of Chinese government but human rights no better or worse in Tibet than mainland China. Since human rights have improved in China same could be said of Tibet. He believed (I have not checked but possibly true) that Tibet has never been independent so if China had not taken over then someone else would have. As seen by anti-France protests (when Olympic flame intercepted) criticism of China is actually fueling support nationalistic support for the Chinese communist party government.

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yeah thats the thing, the Chinese treat their own people with contempt so they are hardly about to treat Tibetans with care
And you can kind of see the Chinese way of thinking whne you consider that the USa and Uk and france hardly have the moral high ground. I mean shouldnt te Usa and Uk be really banned from the olympics considering they are in two different countries at the moment?

But then on the other hand, millions protested against this ...while in china they keep silent

The Dalai Lama and Co had personal ownership of thousands of Tibetans, yes slaves. Tibet was no utopia before the Chinese stepped in, in fact it was a throw back to feudal times.

But to ban China would be ridiculous.
If thats the case well then obviously ban America and Britain.
Not to mention Turkey because of the Kurds.
Russia because of Chechnya (which seems to have completely dissapeared off the western media agenda since Putin is now one of us).
Israel.
Sudan.
South Africa because of the way the cape coloureds are treated.
Zimbabwae.
Burma.
Spain.
Saudi Arabia.

oooh the list goes on.