|
You would have seen the recent protest following the Olympic torch on its journey to the Beijing Olymipic Games. It's no secret that China has long veen known for its poor human rights record. The protesters seen on TV are passionate about highlighting issues like Tibet and issues like China's military hardware sales to the Sudanese government, only to be used in the Darfur genocide. Issues like funding rogue African nations that have been distances by the United Nations, in exchange for lucrative oil contracts.
It’s no secret political leaders the world around are urging the Chinese Government to clean up its act and urging them at present to act cautiously in Tibet and show restraint.
What perplexes me is that one minute the news broadcasts Chinas poor human rights record and next a beautiful advertisement flashes on the screen, highlighting a wonderful celebration of sporting’s best: The Beijing Olympics .
I get this picture in my mind of an old fashioned kitchen scale with a weight on each end. One weight is the income that is made by the business of the Olympics. The other weight is the weight of Humanity. The scale it would seem is weighed down by the $.
Regardless of the facts, the political will is just not there to make a non compromising stand for Humanity.
Are the Olympics bad? NO Are the people of China bad? NO
What I find wrong is the leadership of a nation who will not change its policies to be for the people, a nation’s leadership who will not listen to the people.
I am personally glad China succeeded in its bid for the Olympics because they are set to be marred by protests and opposition.
There will be little people who want the pendulum, the scale, to swing in favour of humanity at any cost.
Who could forget the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989 where thousands of students who stood for humanity were shot dead. There was one man that we now refer to the world over as Tank Man, one lone individual who ran out in front of the convoy of tanks; he stopped the entire procession in front of the entire world. Each time the tank moved left or right he would reposition himself in front of the tank’s tracks. I write this to say the scale swings, Humanity/Dollars, Humanity/ Dollars. No matter what the cost, no matter how unpopular your stance, we must always stand for Humanity at any cost.
Benj Geerling Director - FreeToBeKids
|
