*what* progress on human rights?

[realthog]

The big reason why holding the Olympics in China might be a good plan, we were told, despite the Chinese Government's appalling human rights record, was that surely the authorities there would have to start easing the iron fist a little as the daylight of international attention sought out the murkiest corners of their oppression.

Nope.

Read yesterday's press release from Amnesty International and weep:

IOC caves in to China's demands on internet censorship

30 July 2008

The International Olympic Committee has said that there won't be uncensored internet access at Olympic media venues.

In a statement Kevin Gosper, International Olympic Committee (IOC) press commission chair, said: “I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on website access during Games time (…). I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related.”

In reaction to the IOC statement, Mark Allison, East Asia researcher for Amnesty International said: "The International Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympic Games should fulfil their commitment to ‘full media freedom" and provide immediate uncensored internet access at Olympic media venues. Censorship of the internet at the Games is compromising fundamental human rights and betraying the Olympic values.

Foreign journalists working from the Olympics press centre in Beijing are unable to access the Amnesty International website. A number of other websites are also reported to have been blocked.

The IOC has on many occasions highlighted the loosening of restrictions on foreign media in China as an example of the promised improvement in human rights by the Chinese authorities through the hosting of the Olympics. On 1 April, Kevin Gosper said that the continued blocking of some websites would "reflect very poorly" on the hosts. On 17 July Jacques Rogge, IOC President, said "there will be no censorship of the internet."

"This blatant media censorship adds one more broken promise that undermines the claim that the Games would help improve human rights in China," said Mark Allison.

On Monday 29 July, Amnesty International published the report "Olympic Countdown: Broken Promises" which evaluates the performance of the Chinese authorities in four areas related to the core values of the Olympics: persecution of human rights activists, detention without trial, censorship and the death penalty. They all relate to the 'core values' of 'human dignity' and 'respect for universal fundamental ethical principles' in the Olympic Charter. The new report showed there has been little progress towards fulfilling the Chinese authorities' promise to improve human rights, but rather continued deterioration in key areas.

Of course, the US is currently -- thanks to its own repressive regime -- in no good position to issue moral lectures to the Chinese. 

As an aside: In our local health food store today, Pam (pds_lit) and I were talking with one of the managers about which beans we should order through them for sprouting. The manager pointed out that the mung beans I wanted us to buy came from China; she felt impelled to mention this (it was indeed kind of her) because some people were concerned about buying Chinese produce.

I held my silence for a bit while she and Pam sounded off about the evils of the Chinese Government. Other customers floating around the shop seemed approving. Finally I remarked that of course the Chinese regime is rotten and repressive because there is no habeas corpus and they torture people. Pam took my point, and riffed briefly about how we've become another country that lacks habeas corpus and tortures people.

In this staunchly Repugnican area, there was now a sort a gray-faced hush around the rest of the store . . .
 

 

 

Comments

[louismaistros.livejournal.com]

Buckle down for the big bum rush towards rationalizing human rights violations in China so as not to put a damper on the big Olympics party. Just as we do every day, by shopping at Walmart, to rationalize our perceived inalienable right to convenience and low, low prices.

Have you ever noticed how rare it is you see the word "staunch" not being immediately followed by "republican"? The word has been assimilated by the dark side! Fascinating phenomonen. Words really do have personalities.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

We gave up shopping at WalMart some years ago, and have felt better ever since. It's possible we're now paying more for stuff than we used to, but any difference isn't big enough to notice . . . and we're saving money because we're not buying some of the stuff we might have been unable to resist because it was A Bargain.

how rare it is you see the word "staunch" not being immediately followed by "republican"

In fact, I didn't follow the word "staunchly" with "republican" (pleading a technicality here, you see), but I take your point. It's as if the word "staunch" had become synonymous with "obdurately, determinedly knuckleheaded and wilfully ignorant", isn't it?

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Ay-up. The press and media are behaving with China just as the chimp's crime syndicate has taught them to.

Can the rethug party be busted now by RICO for being a crime syndicate?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Can the rethug party be busted now by RICO for being a crime syndicate?"

Oh, you dreamer, you. Considering that this Administration and its acolytes have broken most of the laws in the book, both US laws and international laws, and yet all our bold opposition seems capable of dealing out by way of reprisal is a chummy wristslap, promptly kissed better in case it hurt too much . . .

[eglady.livejournal.com]

Ah, a teaching moment and likely lost on all the ashen-faced ones.

And though I wear my refuse-to-shop-at-Wal-Mart sensibilities quite openly, and use every opportunity to direct people to the light, people will nod dumbly in agreement, then note how they HAD to shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's because that's the best place to pick up a pallet of toilet paper, 1200-cup supplies of styrofoam cups and 500-packs of frozen burger patties for the best deal.

I can't compete with logic like that. And if I point out which items are made in, say China, especially items that are now made there that used to be made here, again with the pause. Again with the repeated mantra that it's the only place they could get deals like that.

Interestingly, a couple of consuming friends were telling me they really just didn't get the heavy handed parts of WALL-E, the parts where the mega-corporation that had taken over everything had made Earth unliveable and turned the people into mindless consumers. Now THAT's Science Fiction, they say. Uh-huh.

--M

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Again with the repeated mantra that it's the only place they could get deals like that.

And in many parts of the country they are of course wrong -- they're selling out their souls for twenty pieces of silver and not even getting the pieces of silver. In most parts, if you look around a little, you can usually find fairly easily better deals than at WalMart . . . only they're not all in the same store.

And, if you really are buying "a pallet of toilet paper, 1200-cup supplies of styrofoam cups and 500-packs of frozen burger patties", you can shop wholesale online and have the stuff delivered -- you don't even have the hassle of packing all the stuff into your jumbo-sized 4mpg high-axled SUV to get it home.

the heavy handed parts of WALL-E, the parts where the mega-corporation that had taken over everything had made Earth unliveable and turned the people into mindless consumers. Now THAT's Science Fiction, they say.

Chuckled. A bitter chuckle, but a chuckle nonetheless.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

The Chinese are beginning to flex the muscles they have been building on their long march, since 1976, towards the position of workshop of the world. The Americans, on the other hand, do not seem to understand that the position of Top Nation is not a divine appointment.

Just over a century ago, the Western powers were united against the Boxer Rebellion. They told the Chinese what to do. The Chinese bowed, and their civilisational collapse in the face of Western and Japanese greed seemed to provide evidence of white racial superiority (except for those troubling Japanese and their ability to teach the undoubtedly white Russians about the limits of power).

Now, the Chinese have come to the point where they can begin to exact their revenge. And they are going to have it. So, too, are the Indians, who have their own history of wrongs they wish to see redressed.

However,I have just heard a BBC correspondent -- on Radio 4 -- say that he accessed the Amnesty International website from his hotel room in Beijing. That is going to be a more complex process than simple vengeance for the imposition of Western imperial power on China in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, for the 'no dogs or Chinese allowed' signs in the park in Shanghai.

[quilterbear.livejournal.com]

I am infinitely jealous of all of you who can do your shopping at places (in person) other than WalMart. It is the only real store here in this area, because all the little guys have been snuffed out. EVERYONE shops at Walmart -- and it is sickening. We do shop at Food Lion as it is local and still around. We shop as much as we can online, paying shipping of course, to avoid spending too much at WM but we do have to go there frequently. We live in podunk appalachia and yet there are two superwalmarts within 15 miles of us (opposite directions). That's progress.

As an aside, it *is* fun to go there and see the "mountain folk" who come out of their isolated mountain homes to shop. They stand out as much as the Amish.