Off-off topic, but of concern...

Though I realize the focus of this blog is arts and music, the only thing on my mind this week is China. And to be fair, this issue hits on something extremely important to any form of art: freedom of expression.

When the Olympics kicked off last week in Beijing, over 840 million Chinese tuned in to watch the opening ceremonies on CCTV. Compare that with 34 million in the U.S.—still the largest audience of any non-U.S. held Olympics opening ceremony. Global viewership was estimated to be in the billions. Yet, while the world watched the now infamous 9-year-old Lin Miaoke lip sync the “Ode to the Motherland,” there were many people who either chose to boycott the ceremony (me included), or were unable to watch because they sat in a Chinese prison, jailed for their attempt to protest the games or speak out for Tibet.

Since Beijing was granted the Olympics in 2001, China has spent billions to make the 2008 Olympics spectacular. The Birds Nest – their Olympic stadium – is a magnificent piece of architecture to be sure. But at whose expense has the massive redevelopment of Beijing taken place? Earlier this week, two elderly women who were relocated as part of the redeveloped filed for a permit to protest at the games because they assert that they were never compensated--as promised by the Chinese government--for their relocation. Instead of being granted the right to protest in one of the pre-designated protest areas set up by the government to limit disruption during the games, however, the women were sentenced to a year in a Chinese labor camp for “disturbing public order,” according to the South African Times.

Since the Olympics began on August 8, over 70 applications for protest permits have been reviewed by the Chinese government, but not one had been approved. To the impartial observer it seems that this application process is a convenient way for the government to know who is planning to speak out, and to quickly arrest them before they can tarnish the image of Big Mother China. Applying to protest seems like walking into a lion’s den if you ask me. Just in trying to co-operate with the police and following all procedures required to protest peacefully, protesters are arrested. You can imagine what happens to them when they speak out without prior permission.

One disturbing example is the Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng. According to the International Herald Tribune, Gao disappeared a year ago after speaking out against harsh treatment of Falon Gung practitioners, who have been routinely oppressed and persecuted by the Chinese government. Reports of Gao’s subsequent torture have been documented by the Tribune, which writes that according to the Sound of Hope Radio, Chinese authorities stripped Gao naked, "threw him to the ground and attacked him with electric batons."

Meanwhile, the Detroit Free Press wrote this week that 6 Americans were arrested Tuesday for holding up a “Free Tibet” sign and waving a Tibetan flag (which are banned in China) outside the Birds Nest stadium. The Americans were members of Students for a Free Tibet which has staged many small similar small demonstrations throughout the games, most ending with protesters being arrested and subsequently deported. This time, however, the Americans are reportedly being held on 10-day detention, perhaps a sign that the government is trying to crack down on these demonstrations in advance of Sunday’s big closing ceremonies.

Among others recently detained are a number of Associated Press photographers who were simply trying to do their jobs and take pictures of the protests. They were released after being “roughed up” and having their camera’s memory cards forcibly confiscated.

It’s extremely sad to me that the unity and competitive spirit that the Olympics typically represents has been tarnished by its being held in such an oppressive country. Even those athletes who tried to silently protest the games while competing by downloading an album of Tibetan protest songs from Apple’s iTunes were awarded with the subsequent ban of iTunes in China.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government is reaping great rewards from the newfound media exposure, and the boon of advertising dollars flooding into the state-run broadcasting system CCTV. “That was part of the idea of having the Games in China - opening new markets for the Olympics," Ben Seeley—a spokesman for the International Olympic Committee—admitted to the International Herald Tribune. Of course, Seeley likely meant exposing the Olympics to new faces in China, but in reality, this Olympics has been all about exposing news faces to advertising from the West.

To all of those who take comfort in the idea that the Olympics are not political, and thus are worth watching despite the political controversy surrounding it: The Olympics are profiting China. China is host to a number of political atrocities and crimes against humanity. The Olympics are profiting crimes against humanity.

I know that my boycott of the games has no effect on the pockets of advertisers, of the minds of politicians, and doesn’t directly help those jailed for expressing their beliefs. But I can’t bring myself to cheer for a competition that is taking place on the backs of the repressed. Especially since the list of those repressed by China has grown substantially in recent years: journalists, students, Tibetans, human rights lawyers, the poor, the elderly, the list goes on and on and on.

My only hope is that once the flame is extinguished on Sunday, the plight of those negatively affected by the games and by the Chinese government will remain in the minds of the one billion plus viewers who have tuned in for the past few weeks. We shall see.

For a list of articles cited... go to: My Delicious Page.

Alright Eric, feel free to revoke my admin priveleges. I probably just got your blog banned forever in China.