Boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics Now!

China has always been a great nation with two major flaws: excess pride and a disdain for human rights.

Pride helped turn the People's Republic of China into a quasi-capitalist powerhouse. Today it is the major manufacturer of deadly kids' toys, toxic toothpaste, and poisoned pet food. In addition, China produces practically all the crap we wear and most of the junk we buy to fill our homes.

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded the XXIX Summer Olympiad to Beijing, China's pride went into overdrive. In order to prove itself worthy of holding such a prestigious event, China started leaning on two of its most vile business partners, Burma and Sudan, to soften their murderous ways. It urged Sudan to decrease the number of rapes and killings in Darfur; it urged the Burmese generals to stop beating Buddhist monks—at least until the Olympic games are over.

Normally, China's leaders don't give a rat's hindquarters what its business partners do, but they don't want everyone waving China's human rights record in their faces just before the 2008 Summer Olympics are held in Beijing.

And what a record it is. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of protesters killed in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners arrested, tortured and killed. Hundreds of Internet dissenters hunted down (with the help of Western service providers), arrested, and imprisoned for decades. Persecution and brutality are meted out to anyone who is considered a threat in China. While the leaders and a handful of industrialists prosper, Chinese cities choke with smog and Chinese factory workers risk life and limb every time they turn on the machines that make our Western goods.

Now there are riots in Tibet. China's leaders were quick to blame the upheaval on the Dalai Lama, which was easier than admitting they treat Tibetans like animals. Somehow, the Chinese government believes it can save face (and pride) by hurling ridiculous accusations at the Nobel Peace prize winner, but they are sorely mistaken.

Whether we are talking about Darfur, Tibet or Burma, China's role is the same: it is directly responsible for the human death and suffering in these regions. That's why anyone with a pulse and a brain has to boycott China's 2008 Olympic games. This event is the only thing that China cares about. It's the only bargaining chip that we will ever have to improve the lives of millions of our fellow human beings.

Unfortunately, we have a tiny window of opportunity to apply pressure to China. The games will be held between August 8-24 of this year. Once the games are over, the Chinese government will return to its old ways, and the people in Darfur, Tibet and Burma will suffer once more.

So, you know what to do. Contact your friends and family, your elected representatives, and your newspapers and radio and TV stations. And complain as loud and as often as you can before the 2008 Summer Olympic Games begin.

Letter to Osama bin Laden

(originally published in Adbusters, Jan/Feb 2007) 

Thanks a lot, Osama. Thanks for turning my wife's birthday into the memory of people leaping out of a pair of ugly burning skyscrapers. Thanks for electing/re-electing Dubbya. Do you really hate us that much? Thanks for Bill C-36 and the PATRIOT Act. Thanks for Afghanistan, the Taliban and women who bump into walls. Crazy, man. Thanks for Iraq. For Zarqawi and his Gang of Beheaders. For Gitmo. For Abu Ghraib. For Lynndie England, the dogs, and naked prisoners stacked in pyramids. Thanks for Roberts, Alito and Anne McClellan. Thanks for the wiretaps. For racial profiling. For stealing our souls. For selling newspapers. For pushy customs agents waving wands between our legs at airports. Thanks for the War on Everything and Nothing in Particular. Thanks for all the dead people. Thanks for the 72 virgins in Paradise. (Who knew?) Thanks for the geography lessons. Thanks for helping us ponder Islam. For the Danish cartoons. For all the IEDs and one-legged soldiers. For Americans yearning for freedom in Canada. For Stephen Harper and the Fraser Institute. For giving Exxon its best year ever. Thanks for 9/11, 24/7, man. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.