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According to Pub edict, Politics and eh…… fashion should never be brought up in conversation during a heavy night drinking, least of all combined with Sport. Fuelled by alcohol, it’s surely the most lethal, potent cocktail ever known to man. Hailing from a small town that resembles the wild west on a Saturday night, I try to stay comfortably ignorant to all other surroundings by remaining in the same position propping up the same bar that I have done so since I was thirteen eighteen. Invariably, the conversation slips to sport and, unfortunately, sometimes politics. Last weekend, the two met, not for the first time. It all ended in tears, with my best mate and I having to be separated on the saw-dusted floor because he thought Ireland should boycott Beijing 2008 as, either way, we’ll win f*ck all. I disagreed, and rather than converse with him to make a coherent point, Little Big Man/I’m-right-you’re-wrong syndrome kicked-in. Ten minutes later, feeling slightly dirtier, we were expressing our drunken love for each other over a Kebab. Something I hope we’ll both conveniently forget.
As we have seen in London, Paris and San Francisco, politics and sport should never enter each other’s realm. Granted, Tibet’s situation is one for concern, and has been for a number of years, however I’m not here to discuss China’s human rights abuses, we already knew about their record before the Olympic torch began its journey. It is the Olympics and sport as a whole that is suffering from the opportunistic protesting. Boycotting this historic event, as is the protestors’ objective (apart from highlighting the obvious issues!), would cause major embarrassment for the Chinese Government, but whether it would force their hands to address their ‘problems’ is doubtful, at best. They might make some gesture, but inaction would follow. Clearly from the official Chinese Olympic website, they are blissfully ignorant to the protests. Their Citizens don’t even know what goes on in the outside world. Only political pressure from western governments will force them to act. A few hundred activists, as courageous and committed as they are, won’t make a difference to anyone, least of all China.
Although, due to some high profile drug cases, the Olympics may not be the prestigious event it once was, it is still a celebration of sport and that is being lost amidst the ongoing demonstrations. While we shouldn’t mix sport and politics, it is being forced upon us. Should Ireland and the UK, or anyone else for that matter, boycott the games? Should sport be used as a political tool to serve other agendas? Do you even care about the Olympics? Where’s China?
April 9th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Boycotting the Olympics might not force the Chinese into action but I would gladly settle for embarrassing them! Their bully boy behaviour over so many issues has been ignored by the so-called (and self-titled) great liberators that are the Americans and British so someone has to take action - however small it is to be encouraged and applauded!!
April 9th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
1) make the killing in darfur stop
2) release the panchen lama
3) start talks with the dalai lama about autonomy for tibet
4) release the large number of political prisoners in china
then and ONLY then will i get back in training for this year’s olympics. until then i’m going to keep slobbing out.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
The protestations are a good thing, China has a hugely objectionable human rights record, is currently engaged in the colonisation of Tibetan lands(when there’s a huge uproar at Israel doing the same with Palenstinian lands), support the most oppressive regime in the world in Burma, fund the murder of innocent men, women and children in Darfur and brutally crack down on dissent in China. Their actions go directly against the ideals of the Olympic games.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Before you support boycotting of Olympics, you should consider who you want to embrrass. You may not know that in China, for whatever reasons, Chinese people would really really love to present a great Olympics to the world. They have done whatever they can even since 1993 when they failed to win the 2000 Olympics. Since 2001, many people in Beijing and even in other part of China, sacrifice a lot for the Games. Some people have moved out from their houses for building Olympic stadiums without any complains, some people in their ages of 70s, have learned English very hard. They do not know much about politics but try their best to show hospitalities to their counterparts around the world. If you want to embrrass Chinese government, you made the wrong appeal; if you want to embrrass Chinese people, you really rack their hearts. Ask Chinese students in the UK or in other countries, most of them will tell you that they may not like their government, but they love their own country, they love Olympics.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I found this thread after googling “kebab+drunken+love” but while I’m here, I’ll say this: no-one should boycott the games. Perhaps all those protestors deeming the carrying of the torch as a pro-China gesture should think about the cheap produce they buy from China, the fuel that fills their cars which comes from countries which they would deem to have brutal regimes, the fact that they stand proud protesting in countries which inflicted hideous things on others in the past and still do today, the fact that their “lands” are used for rendition flights and holding people with no recourse to the justice they say they believe in. The China and Tibet issue will not be solved by athletes not turning up for the Games nor will it be solved by not running with the olympic flame… people should be complaining that the relay element of the torch is something invented by the Nazis.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:47 am
people moved out of their homes without any complaints?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
what would have happened if they’d complained?
April 10th, 2008 at 11:32 am
They did not move out without complaints, they were forcibly moved, and if they stayed they’d get a bulldozer coming in their front door.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
So its ok to murder people at will, once you put on a great spectacle that is the olympics, the chinese goverment have carried out terrible deeds against the tibetians and in particiluar the monks over the past number of decades not to mention their treatment of their own people, sorry but sport and policitics do mix when you have an oppressive goverment like china, maybe they should line up a thousand protesting students in Tinammen square and give a gold medal to the soldier who can run over the most, or what about a baton weilding competition where we place red robed monks at different angles and award medals to the police who crack the most skulls, BOYCOTT NOW..
April 10th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
“Autonomy for Tibet”? Just put a roof over it and you have a giant monastery! if not the Chinese they would have some other “protector”, probably India. Leave the Chinese alone; this is a hornet’s nest and in the next 50 years they are likely to dominate world trade and, possibly, “swarm” all over the rest of Asia. It is only a matter of time and prodding them with a stick now ( in the form of these facile “bleeding heart protests”) will only expedite the inevitable.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
you should boycott the Beijing Games
April 10th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
What I will say is that Beijin Olympics game should not be boycotted because it unite people around the world.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
You guys know nothing about China, thus keep your stupid mouth closed.
Can you people check Tibet’s history before talk about Tibet? Tibet is part of China for several hundred years, before Chinese Communism Party send it troop into Tibet in 1950s, Chinese Communism Party had agreement with Tibet, we grant them self governance, but Tibet have to stay in China’s territory, and carry on land and social reform, which is the most important thing make turmoil, because land reform will benefit poor class farmer, social reform will liberate slaves from rich classes, therefore, independence is the best way to get upper classes back on power again, but they fail to do so, because Chinese Communism Party send it troop into Tibet. Unfortunately, Dalai Lama was escaped to India.
I think Olympic is the best channel to let the people, who still has cold war thinking deeply in their mind, to really see the progress of China. I think most of you have not being China
before, but how do you know China are violating human right?
April 11th, 2008 at 12:09 am
As Fr. Ted said- “The chinese- a great bunch of lads”
April 11th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I think the current protests aimed at diosrupting the Torch relay are well-chosen, justified actions, and I say this as someone who has nothing to do with the lefty/peacenick element of society (to use a cliche, at the end of the day).
Firstly, China should never have been given the games. The rationale was that changes could be forced upon the PRC in order to facilitate them hold the games, or that the games would somehow ‘change’ China.
This was incredibly naive thinking. China has undergone enormous differences since Tianamin Square, but it has merely adapted, rather than changed. It has embraced quasi-Capitalism in order to feed the beast, as opposed to Socialism/Communism/Maoism/whatever you’re having yourself.
The torch relay and the games are nothing but a PR and propoganda show of Chinese superiority.
Thus, anything which disrupts this PR exercise is welcome in my book.
I dont believe in boycotting Chinese Goods (no point making the working man in China poor, or our own working man depending on Chinese trade) nor in boycotting the games (that only punishes the athletes) but targeting the torch relay is spot on.
As for China’s national guard above, and his question about human rights violations - I missed the results of the last free and fair Chinese democratic elections (must have been in the garden)- could you post them up? Cheers.
April 11th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
The Chinese bombed pearl harbour and blamed the Japanese why do you think they look like there always laughing.The Pharmacutical Games are a joke as it is without sum scruffy work idle protestors using it as a political football .I agree with Spud with regards the American and British reaction to the Tibet issue but with a booming economy in China to tap into and millions of consumers for there products they wont want to be seen as upsetting the applecart will they
April 11th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
the olympic committee should stand up and be counted the chinese are bullies who are obviously after the reserves tibet has and will stop at nothing to keep these simple people down.
sport needs to stand up to these nation of bullies.
how can you put on a show of such arrogance when people are being killed for the love of their country.
beggars belief!!!
April 12th, 2008 at 7:34 am
we grant them self governance, but Tibet have to stay in China’s territory, and carry on land and social reform, which is the most important thing make turmoil, because land reform will benefit poor class farmer, social reform will liberate slaves from rich classes
>’will benefit’? So after fifty years of occupation, the intended benefits for the tibetans haven’t happened yet?
Are you trying to say it was rich slave drivers rioting in Tibet before the protests?
It’s the chinese communist party who are the slave drivers.
Anything that disrupts their total propaganda machine is fine by me…
April 12th, 2008 at 7:34 am
I think that what is occuring presently in Tibet is an absolute disgrace.
The olympics should be boycotted on these grounds and rightly so.
The complete and utter lack of respect for human rights is appalling.
How can a country that aims to host one of the most symbolically peaceful and unified international games be allowed to carry out these barbaric acts without so much as a whimper from civilised society as a whole?
The problem is based on greed. China will no doubt be a major economic force in years to come and to boycott the olympics would simply mean a reduction in potential future profits for the soulless nations of the west. It will be a sickening spectacle to watch these nations bow forth and pay their dues to this race of animals in the hope of soliciting a few cheap yen in the process. This is blood money and to crave such money is simply a sad reflection of the loose moral codes that now dictate the workings of the world.
I have spoken to several Chnese people with regards to this issue over here in Ireland and their lack of compassion towards the Tibetan crisis infuriates me. They seem to neither care nor understand the misery and suffering that they are inflicting on a peaceful nation.
It is time to stand up to China. Time to reinstate the moral fibre of the western world which has been degraded beyond recognition through the acceptace of the murder if a profit may be potentially made. I for one will have nothing to do with these games and am of te opinion that if these games are to go ahead that the olympics will be forver devalued and the torch, a symbol of peace and unity, will be forever extinguished
April 12th, 2008 at 9:06 am
Well no one has ever proptested over the other countries who’ve held the olympics and had human rights issues…
April 12th, 2008 at 9:22 am
on a personal note, considering the huge ammount of training i have undertaken to bring back gold for eire, i think it would be completely ludicrous to boycott the bayjing olympricks. most of the athletes that are refusing to be part of the events are only doing it so they can avoid the shame of losing and probably know theyll be caught for steroids.as if said in my previous 83 VIP shoots to date, i believe china have done very little wrong. tibet is just like Kerry, full of blokes who think theyre soo great they should have their own little republic.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:48 am
I think the rest of us wouldnt mind getting rid of Kerry though….
April 12th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
i like chinese food. sweet and sour is very tasty. Northern Uganda, Darfur province in Sudan, Gaza Strip, South Lebanon, Jammu & Kashmir (India & Pakistan) . remember they where in the news. i’ll give tibet a few more weeks.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:57 am
The Olympics are an amazing sporting event that brings the world together, do your band wagon protests on your own time.
Can I ask where was the international multi-day protests for the human rights abuses in among a long list of others:
Darfur
Zimbabwae
Guantanamo
Hypocrites the lot of them!
April 13th, 2008 at 11:11 am
What high profile events could be people choose to vent their anger and highlight the abuses listed above? Forgive me if i’m wrong but I cannot remember Zimbabwe or Darfur hosting a major sporting event in recent years?
There are protests about the hypocrital yanks and their their invasion of Afganistan and Iraq and subsequent abuse of human rights that they label a ‘war on terror’ - maybe you missed these as you seem to be fond of turning a blind eye!
April 13th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Saor Tibet Tiocfaidh Tibet Lá. Saor Darfur agus Gaza. I think Its great the protests are takin place. I won medals at d Olympics and its a world scene great place to protest
April 13th, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Just boycott it, if you guys think it works. it has already angered Chinese people around the world. It didn’t change any Chinese government’s policy toward Tibet or any other issues you “cared”. Ironically, it only lead chinese people to support their government more firmly. the Nazi-style BBC and CNN didn’t report this: thousands of chinese people in Canada, UK, US, Australia who watched news on western media gathered on streets to protest against separation of China and unjustice reports of BBC, CNN…. DO NOT pretend that you know more about China than chinese people. that’s ridiculous!
April 14th, 2008 at 8:07 am
It is not just about Chinese people Shuo although you seem to have been taken in by the propaganda of the Chinese authorities - as Flavor Flav once said don’t believe the hype!
April 14th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
What recently happened around the world is just GREAT!!! Political Olympic Games+Media Distortion+Protests+Boycotts+Economic Recessions+Rising Food Prices=??? We are on the way into the THIRD World War! Every human being can boycott the Olympic Games, then,because we will be all DEAD. yeah, DEAD! Nuclear Weapon will be well used on us. No more political issues and let China have a fair Olympic Games.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:31 am
the flame has gone out in paris??
that girl will stick anything up there, she really has no shame
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:48 am
Sport is Sport you wouldn let the government intervene in football rugby watever ur a fan of would you.NO!!!!!!! and at the end of the millions of people shinning the light on china might do the people of the country is good at the end of the sport is sport and these atheletes have trained most their lives to get here
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
this campaign for “independence for tibet” is just part of the drive to force counter revolution in china, like the continued attacks on other deformed workers states like the economic blockade of cuba. the biggest tibet indepence groups are in places that have more to gain from attackin china, like the huge one in washington where it is practically a campaign run by people who have nothing at all to do with tibet……
since the revoltion life in tibet has given greater advantages to women and has got men doin work instead of sitting around with aload of monks thinking…..
the olympics are just being used as a stick to beat china with,why shouldnt they have them………
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:14 pm
seriouly who cares olympics are shit anyway jesus no one likes how america is run but we wouldn block the games there serious have a proper look as china then decide jaysus!!!!!!!!! man u rule ha ha ha ha life isn peachy for everyone o on have a bet pick a winner it will cheer ye up promise
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
opinions are like a shit everyone has one
August 15th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
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June 24th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
butt blaster im not really convinced if i should talk to you with a name like that but there are some weird shaggers on here lately. \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\weirdos
June 24th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
You would wonder how that lot got attracted on here with all the intelligent debate we get between dolly boy and lfc lad!?!?!?
June 24th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
spud dont forget sleeping bag.
June 25th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
three in one , i haven’t had an opinion for about 2 days that means
June 25th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
spud, lets have some of your greater knowledge that has passed by me so far,let it flow brainbox.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
just sitting in the garden with a few bud watchin the world go by and spotted a few swallows flying by. my neighbour races pigeons and i was thinking that swallow is far faster than any pigeon. do you think paddy could organise a swallow v pigeon race ?and i will back the swallow.
June 25th, 2009 at 10:58 pm
yeah Lfc then you can SWALLOW your pride if you have any.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
no im a spitter sorry
June 27th, 2009 at 8:36 am
unheathly obsession you have with me sleeping bag, they say fear can have that effect all right! was wondering how long it would take for you to start mouthing about Dublin and Sam, you went very quiet about that in the middle of last August when the Dubs yet again took a hammering at the hands of a vastly superior team - remind me who are the current champions and favourites for this year??? F E A R!!!
June 27th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Only if it it doesn’t rain though, I remember that excuse getting knocked out. With Jason S still getting a game, they will never win a thing of importance!
June 27th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
sleeping beauty i think your alright you just talk the same crap same time everyyear (get out the same headlines as every other year).
June 27th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
well sleeping beauty ye should play all yere games in Lanzarote. o sorry i for got the dubs dont travel do they.
June 28th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
right im out of here i have enough of that prick with the stammer.LFC,sleeping bag,spud enjoyed the banter good luck from the Dollboy.