ROC doesn’t have a chance to medal in soccor. TKD is an indoor sport which is an individual sport.
Let’s say you were still a soccer player of international calibur, and one day your teammate decides to protest a game due to personal political views, would you side with him and protest an international competition. Let’s say it wasn’t the PRC but the USA your teammate was protesting for the war in Iraq and Gitmo. You would throw away your training to take up a political protest that you might not exactly agree with?[/quote]
If he felt the need to protest, I would respect his right to do so. If the team still went, I would travel with the team. In fact, this DID once come up when I was playing at the junior level when we had a match against then authoritarian Nigeria and one of the members of the team was Nigerian-born. He didn’t play in protest.[/quote]
That’s my point. That individual protested and it did not effect you. His personal view and actions for the most part did not limit your experience. Perhaps reduced your chances at a medal, if he was a key player, or maybe increase your personal playing time if you shared the same spot.
However, if ROC boycotts the game, all ROC athletes would be bar, no matter what that individual althete’s personal belief on the Strait Issue maybe. Which is why this boycott would be unfair to the Olympians on Taiwan. Their personal politics are as varied as Taiwan’s general populace. No need to make them all suffer for the veiws of a few.[/quote]
In my opinion, your position is nonsense. The Olympics is just politics by other means. National governments sponsor athletes for political reasons. If the elected leaders of a nation decide that that nation should not be represented at the Olympics for whatever reason, then the athletes just have to deal with it. If they want to take part in a sport that wouldn’t be so directly affected by politics, then they should just go pro and have their career dominated by monied interests instead of political ones.
[quote]In my opinion, your position is nonsense. The Olympics is just politics by other means. National governments sponsor athletes for political reasons. If the elected leaders of a nation decide that that nation should not be represented at the Olympics for whatever reason, then the athletes just have to deal with it. If they want to take part in a sport that wouldn’t be so directly affected by politics, then they should just go pro and have their career dominated by monied interests instead of political ones[/quote].
Amateur standing is quite convoluted at this point. No point discussing this unless you have a particular sport in mind.
Maybe in some dictatorship this is how things are suppose to work. However, in a democracy like ROC, Taiwan even if it is under the stewardship of “Green Terror,” where the sitting President’s legitimacy in office is still being contested, this is not how things are suppose to work. Especially when over 80% of the people don’t even approve of the President anymore.
If Taiwan wins a medal and the guy/girl shows up with a DPP flag (anything else than the KMT/ROC flag) will it make it political? And what flag/hymn would you hear over there?
It reminds me of my fiancee being asked what country she was while we were in Milano… the guy in the Hotel was confused with a passport with 2 country names - “Madam, are you Chinese or Taiwanese???”…
Not to speak with the fact that goods made in Taiwan shouldn’t be allowed anywhere in the world because that is not a country. I suppose that they should have a “Made in Chinese Taipei”, “Made in the Province of China” or whatever… The funniest fact is that all the world recognizes TW as a country, except the chinese people, taiwanese people and the governments who are blackmailed by China.
I will give a call to my good friend Jaques Rogge, president of the OIC.
Trying to explain him FOR ONCE that sports and politics do not go hand in hand together. For once…
But we do have a lot of arms in Belgium to sell to China you know, as many other countries also have.
And we do have a lot of desires to get a piece of the cake.
Sports? The Olympic Games are NOTHING more than a political masquerade. And the athletes have become the puppets in it.
But how many will refuse to go for ultimate glory thinking of what is happening in China? Not more than 5…
[quote=“ceevee369”]I will give a call to my good friend Jaques Rogge, president of the OIC.
Trying to explain him FOR ONCE that sports and politics do not go hand in hand together. For once…[/quote]
I agree. Sports and politics do not go hand in hand. So TW should not promote politics at such a venue as the Olympics and other sports venues when they themselves submitted the TPE Olympic name, flag, and anthem:
Of course… what is Taiwan and cross-Strait when people are only interested in selling weapons and airplanes to China. Unless TW becomes a big buyer and not a big seller, the other people’s governments will never listen to them.
How much under the table support did China got for buying the Airbus’s from EU?
And it’s not like TI/ers like the ROC, its flag, its anthem, or any of its symbolism.
They are intent on trashing all of that, after all, so why should they care about it at the Olympics.
I voted YES (not because I am a Beijingren myself)
Yes, the Chinese government violates human rights and threatens TW. These are facts. not too much to talk about. For the boycott people, I understand your reasoning, but I am curious where your line of reasoning would stop.
If you think Beijing shouldn’t be allow to host the 2008 Olympics because of the government’s human right records, then wouldn’t it be natural to think that Shanghai shouldn’t be allowed to host the 2010 World Expo; If you think China with its bad human right records should not be allowed to host the game, then wouldn’t it be cosistent to say that China should not be allowed to participate in the game either? How about the Asian Game? Why would it be any different? World Cup? And I dont see any reaosn why this should not go beyond sports. Music festivals, cultural exchange events… this list could go on and on.
China won’t participate on the World Cup by theyr own fault.
However the participation of Iran is still being considered for political reasons.
And don’t forget that Yuguslavia was expelled of the Euro 2002 for political reasons and replaced by Denmark (who later won the competition).
Seems that I have to rephrase my questions for you:
Should the Chinese be barred from participating in Olympics, Asian Games, World Cups, or any sport and non-sport international events because of CCP’s human right records?
Should we boycott anything Chinese? If not, what should we boycott and what shouldn’t we boycott?
Should we stop buying anything made in China for part of the money we pay is directly going to the communist government that has bad human right records?
ofc we should boycott China. The Olympics and everything else are just demonstrations of power of the central government and will only add more reason for them to do what they have been doing.
[quote=“Marvin”]Seems that I have to rephrase my questions for you:
Should the Chinese be allowed to participate in Olympics, Asian Games, World Cups, or any sport and non-sport international events because of CCP’s human right records?
Should we boycott anything Chinese? If not, what should we boycott and what shouldn’t we boycott?[/quote]
The message given to China from those countries who would support the Bejing games would be nothing else than masturbating themselves to get a piece of the cake. “Yes, we promote you, but think of us afterwards”
Yes, I am. But at least I don’t have to read the same thing as everyone else, and I can make my own choices. If I don’t like my government, at least I can protest. If I want to pray to whatever god, I can. It’s a matter of choice, isn’t it…
Congrats. This thread has been chosen as Old Gobbo’s [color=darkred]Thread of the Week[/color]. Within the next half hour, my advanced English class will post their thoughts on The Olympics, Beijing and Taiwan.
We support that politics and sports should be seperated clearly. We don’t care who the host of The Olympics Games is. For athletes, to participate in The Olympics Games is the best honor in their lives, and they don’t care about the human right of freedom. The spirit of Olympics is union not only the competition. So, through this game, we can unite all countries and interact with them. In other words, we can share the Taiwanese culture with others. Also we can learn about other cultures from Asia to America, from Africa to Europe, without any obstacles. This is why we support that politics and sports should be clearly seperated.
The Olympics are not a means of politics; but since they are essentially related, we have to accept what a government decides, whether we are just the citizens or the athletes. For citizens, some may view the Olympics as a very essential event for their own country. On the other hand, for the athletes, losing the opportunity to participate in the Olympics equals an advance failure before the actual event occurs. They have spent a lot of time preparing for the sports they love, and have been hoping one day there would be a place for them to stand out. The international games are a great chance to demonstrate the outcomes of their hard-work. It is unfair to take their chance away only for political reasons. There are too many aspects to consider, and it doesn’t seem fair to any of us anyway when it comes to politics.
