Spielberg snubs Chinese Olympics

Good on ya Steve!!

Spielberg snubs China over Darfur

Hopefully this will have a domino effect, other 'contributors' will follow suite, and we will perhaps see China being forced to acknowledge its terrible Human Rights record.

Apparently Mia Farrow had pressed Mr. Spielberg to end his involvement as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympics.

Farrows response.

Just the fact that probably the most famous person (with the most media wattage) involved in the 2008 Olympics, has taken this stand and finally shone a light on that niggling question mark over the moral integrity of these forthcoming games, surely means that others will follow suit?

Thoughts??

I'm not sure Mr. Speilberg will be a major factor in Chinese political manoeuvring right now. If they did publicly acknowledge their record, they would lose face and of course that's going to happen - especially over a stand by a US movie mogul given the current low ebb in the tide of US-Sino relations.

Nevertheless, I applaud the stand and hope others follow - starting with those athletes under threat of exclusion if they don't sign gag orders.

The pursuit of Oil is the root of all evil.

So it would seem.

A lot of innocent people have lost thier home becuase of the olympics,

the sports people should refuse to go over and we should all refuse to watch

Chinese military ascendancy! japanese funding banana republics' dolphin kills & whaling! Canadian seal hunts to sell seal fur & body parts to asians!

Globalism at its best!

BEIJING (Reuters) - China voiced its disappointment on Thursday over movie director Steven Spielberg's decision to quit his Beijing Olympics role because of China's policies in Sudan and said the Games would be a success regardless.

"We express regret," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference. "All preparation work for the Beijing Olympics is proceeding smoothly. The Chinese people are willing to work with artists from around the world with wisdom and talent and the Olympic Games will be a success."

...

"Western exploitation of the Olympics to pressure China immediately provoked much disgust among ordinary Chinese people," said the Global Times, a current affairs tabloid run by the Communist Party's People's Daily.
"The vast majority of Chinese people have expressed bafflement and outrage at the Western pressure. In their view, it's absolutely absurd to place the Darfur issue, so many thousands of miles away, on the head of China."

"NOT IN OLYMPIC SPIRIT"

Liu said Chinese companies operating in Sudan were playing a constructive role, making donations to help reconstruction and engaging in development work such as digging wells.

Beijing's Olympic organising committee said the government was making "unremitting efforts" to resolve the Darfur crisis.

"Linking the Darfur issue to the Olympic Games will not help to resolve this issue and is not in line with the Olympic spirit that separates sports from politics," the committee said in a statement.

I think that's code for, "We couldn't care less what you say or do..."

China "regrets" Spielberg's Darfur decision - Yahoo! News UK

Spielberg always has been a crusader for human rights- I think it reached it's fruition right after Schindler's List.
And he's justified in his actions if he chooses to do so.

I still can't believe that China was chosen to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Who did the Chinese (government) pay or who did they sleep with to get them? Forget Darfur, Burma, Tibet, Falun Gong, Tinnamen, etc. The Chinese way: smile, pretend all is well and act outraged or baffled when reminded that all is not well. Enough with the theatrics!

I for one will boycott those games and the sponsors (even the Canadian ones). I applaud Spielberg for snubbing them.

In the spirit of even handedness, if they were being held in the US, I would encourage boycotting to protest Bush's illegal war.

no comparison

Also, in order to compete in Beijing all contestants must agree to not complain about anything they see in China to the outside world while they are at the games.

So, the Chinese autocracy gets to rule over all participants in the Olympic Games.

Personally, I think that we Americans should pull out of the Beijing Olympics because they want to violate our freedom of speech. We should do it out of principal.

Screw the Chinese Government!

The Chinese people are nice but their government is evil.

At least we'll restore our government once the Shrub is gone...

Do you have any clean Athletes left?

Really, how so?

do you see George Bush censoring this forum?

do you see the rest of the internet being censored?

compare and contrast Tibet and Iraq!

do you see/hear Chinese discussing exit strategies from Tibet?

do you see Americans being chased around and having their organs surgically removed to be sold?

do you see Americans being shot for their loud mouths?

do you see Americans being surrounded by tanks as in Tianeman Square?