Quote: Australian Journalist Hamish McDonald contrasts the outpouring of protest over the Beijing Olympic Games to silence in previous years - such as the 1904 games in St. Louis, Missouri - when other questionable human rights issues were largely ignored by the international community.
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Prince Charles has declined to attend the Beijing games as a protest against perceived human rights abuses. Steven Spielberg heads a list of celebrities urging others to stay away. There has been unprecedented worldwide public protest over China's human rights abuses.
However, are Chinas failings any greater than those of other nations that have hosted the Olympics? What of China's great strengths -- do they count for nothing? Where does the balance lie?
Should sport be 'quarantined' from the politics of such matters? And in any case, who are we to judge such matters when there are so many problems in our own backyard? - Intelligence Squared Australia
Hamish McDonald has spent twenty of his thirty-five years in journalism based in Asia - in Indonesia, Japan, Hong Kong, India, and China, where he was the correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald based in Beijing.
He is currently the Asia-Pacific editor for the Sydney Morning Herald. He has been political editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review. He is the author of several books.
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But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 06 Aug 2008 22:57
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I don't know in a way I think we should fool with the commies, but then on the other hand I think let's whoop the tar out of them and show them what for. __________________
Lucas McCain the Rifleman: A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark...but that doesn't mean you should go running *to* one, either.
Posted: 07 Aug 2008 18:19
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I'm actually with you here. Yay! Let's beat the piss out of them. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 07 Aug 2008 20:43
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I wish I could play on the B ball team. __________________
Lucas McCain the Rifleman: A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark...but that doesn't mean you should go running *to* one, either.
Posted: 07 Aug 2008 20:46
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You're a scrawny white boy, I don't want you even near the olympics. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 07 Aug 2008 20:58
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I am not, I'm short, but I'm not scrawny. I got skillz.
I got to get back to working on some other stuff. I'm all over the place. __________________
Lucas McCain the Rifleman: A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark...but that doesn't mean you should go running *to* one, either.
Posted: 07 Aug 2008 21:06
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Quote: I got skillz.
Using a z instead of an s here says otherwise. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 08 Aug 2008 03:01
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Oh sure, why not give them the Olympics? There only an isolationist repressive regime that kills off dissidents and enslaves their own people. Why a few more panda dances and I'm sure they'll be bosom buddies with everybody else!
OK, quick story. When I was in the Navy a lifetime ago, a chinese ship pulled into Broadway pier in San Diego. In the midst of the media circus some of us were 'volunteered' to go down as act as sideboys for the Chinese officers. This position would have required me to render honors to those commies. I went to the chief and politely asked to be relieved of this detail. He blew me off. I asked again, a little more forcefully, he ignored me. I then informed me that to go down there would be in my opinion in direct violation of the spirit of my oath of enlistment and if ordered I would go, but I was pretty sure my refusal to salute would make the news. I was relieved of that duty. __________________
1 TIMOTHY 1
15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
Posted: 08 Aug 2008 03:22
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I'm gonna take that as a no then. __________________
But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast get eaten by the play, there's a murderer at the matinee, there are dead men in the aisles
And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await their cue, but the frozen mask just smiles
Posted: 08 Aug 2008 15:36 Last Edited By: Tim
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I just think it's a good way to slam the commies and bring to the light the kind of government they are.
Already the world has seen how much pollution they have in a commie country. The human rights violations are top of the news.
The fact they wouldn't allow an olympic guy in to their country the other day because he disagreed with their policies made the news. __________________
Lucas McCain the Rifleman: A man doesn't run from a fight, Mark...but that doesn't mean you should go running *to* one, either.
