yes, I understant politics and sport have been intertwined. However, what does the soviets invading afghanistan have to do with how well athletes perform in the olympic games?
what was truly gained from the boycotts?
United States: we don’t agree with your invasion of afghanistan and thus are not coming to your olympics.
Russia: allright, more gold medals for us.
U.S. (and other countries) athletes who didn’t get to compete: thanks for nothing oh government of ours. even if we don’t agree with the invasion of said country why the hell aren’t we going to the olympic games because the politics of countries aren’t seeing eye to eye?
If the United States can separate church and state then the IOC can separate politics and olympics.
My point is this: boycotts serve no purpose when those who are making the sacrifice are martyrs and have the decision taken out of their hands. The olympics are about the games, nothing more. Who is the best? doesn’t matter what race, what country, if you are poor, etc. Aside from judged events and any manipulation of certain testing procedures it is impartial. Line 8 guys up, the gun goes off and the first person to the line wins.
What the hell does that have to do government? Nothing.
Nor had I. Very cool. I must admit that it can be applied to any presidential campaign as well.
As far as countries getting the olympics, a good portion of them need some work. Some more than others.
There was a lady that’s originally from my city that lives in Shanghai 9 months of the year and she says her emails are cencored and her long distance phone calls are listened in on. She said the coughing gave it away. I do believe China is actually trying to make some progress though.
I have close friends in RCMP and when one traveled to China for a business trip they couldn’t even let the Chinese government know who he was for fear he would be taken out. Couldn’t use regular phones or email back home cos the government is corrupt.
The Chinese people are being oppressed, no one deserves to live that way, lets invade their country and give them true “freedom” and “democracy” by overthrowing their evil government, and then everyone will live happily ever after…just like in Iraq… :rolleyes:
And who is oppressing the Iraqis now? OTHER IRAQIS AND TERRORISTS! It is one thing to attack a government/military, it is another to attack citizens and your comparison is ridiculous.
We should look at the great things Saddam and China have done for their people–extreme poverty, religious and ethnic purging, lack of information from the outside world, destruction of innocent families, etc.
It is still an ad-hominem attack, a logically fallacy. Your statement was a valid argument that was stated clearly without resorting to name-calling and one that i agree with.
But these things have been done by practically every culture on every other culture. The middle east is far more complex than both political sides in the US want to admit (both pro and anti-war). I am reading more about the history of the middle east before i make any judgments.
As an aside, since we are discussing morality i figured i should add this quote from a book? to the mix: (i forget it source, but it isn’t mine)
There is the villian on his deathbed. Someone asks him something along the lines of “Why did you do those evil things” or something like that.
His interesting response: “Well in Italy, during the rennaissence, there was war, deception, and oppression, but there was also leonardo, michelangelo [other renaissence artist as well]. Switzerland’s only contribution to the world was the coo-coo clock”
I am curious to what everyone thinks about this. (I am sorry that i couldn’t find the exact quote, it is much better than how i remembered it).
Lol, I thought I could get away with that one, you always have a way of keeping people on their toes Davan :o
I agree it was not a well thought out comparison but concerning your second point, now that Sadam et al have been removed, are the Iraqi people better off?? I know this may sound selfish but if I was America I would just stay out of other countries affairs and try to provide for my people as best as I can.
I tend to agree with what you are saying, but I honestly believe and if you can look past what a lot of the media is saying Iraqis are a lot better off than they were. There are still spots (including Baghdad) where things are not settled and may not be for years to come, but quite a bit of the country is far better off than it was with Saddam.
It’d be nice if America could stay out of other countries, but there is a damned if you do damned if you don’t thing in the world right now.
Sorry doesn’t mae a lot of sense to me But must say personal ethics are an amazingly intersting thing.
strspdpwr, where did However, what does the soviets invading afghanistan have to do with how well athletes perform in the olympic games? come from? I may have missed it but don’t think anyone was discussing performance. The only impact would be less competition. An example being Alan Well’s 100m gold always being deemed inferior.
It could be argued that boycott’s may not achieve anything but the alternative is to simply say Your actions are ok. Perhaps a personal statement is more appropraite I mean who can ever forget the sight of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at Mexico?
I am american, although living in Canada for past 3 years now, and you are not being selfish at all. I was living in Seattle when the invasion of Iraq occurred. I remember a friend of mine who had served some in the Navy saying, “It’s only a couple days since we’ve gone into Iraq and see how far we’ve gone. This thing will be over in a couple weeks…”
I replied with, “Bush doesn’t know what the hell he is doing. These people are still fighting over something that happened 2000 years ago and if he thinks the U.S. can turn this into a saturday night booty call, wham bam thank you mam style he is seriously smoking crack.”
Bush even said in a press conference once that 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq. Ok, so why the hell are you there then if there is no correlation?
Logically speaking it would make much more sense for the U.S. to focus on the U.S. and improving their country to the best it possibly can. However, back door politics and realizing big business runs the world trumps logic.
The question is…what is the U.S./Bush & his cronies/Big Business getting out of this?
Even though I did vote for Bush, he has done a piss poor job and the U.S. is in a worse position now then before he came aboard, IMO.
China calls for end to EU arms embargo
From correspondents in Helsinki
September 10, 2006 12:00
CHINA has renewed pressure on the EU at a summit in Helsinki on Saturday to lift a long-standing ban on arms sales to Beijing.
“The Chinese side reiterated its view that lifting the arms embargo would be conducive to the sound development of the EU-China relations and urged the EU to lift the arms embargo at an early date,” a joint statement released after the summit said.
“The EU side recognized the importance of this issue and confirmed its willingness to carry forward work towards lifting the embargo”, the statement added.
European leaders, in an initiative led by France and Germany, agreed in December 2004 to draft an accord on scrapping the embargo imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy students in Beijing.
But the move lost steam amid fierce opposition from the United States and China’s controversial move to pass a law that could open the way for a military takeover of Taiwan.
Person A: Beer is good because…
Person B: But Hilter/Bush/BAD MAn likes beer, so Beer is bad
This is an ad Hominem attack. This does not address the tenets of the argument itself. As the statment could in fact be true and believed by the nefarious person, it is a logical fallacy.
BEIJING, Sept 12 Reuters - Suicide has become the number one cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 34 in China, where 250,000 people kill themselves a year, state media reported today.
Nearly 685 people commit suicide every day in China and at least two million try to kill themselves every year, Xinhua news agency said, citing a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert.
``The government should enhance education to improve young people’s ability to adapt to a changing society and to deal with frustration,’’ it quoted WHO expert, Michael Philips, as saying.
Disproportionate rates of suicide and depression among young people have appeared along with increasing stress in China’s rapidly changing society.
Chinese media reported earlier this month that nearly a quarter of Beijing’s university students suffer clinical depression, reflecting financial pressures, fierce academic competition and a tight job market.
But must say personal ethics are an amazingly intersting thing.
I mean who can ever forget the sight of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at Mexico?