Calling all athletes: go to China!

I have thought about it: why not boycott the 2008 summer Olympics and show China we're fed up with their government executing and torturing more people than any country in the world. Or because they're destroying the environment at an unbelievable rate, the fact that the Chinese have no free press, half the Internet is inaccessible, or beacuse of all that lead paint on toys and stuff. But the Olympics are a sports event people. So there you go. Sports. Not politics.

We have talked about it. Boycotting the Olympics. Especially here in Thailand after monks, journalists and unarmed civilians got shot, detained and disappeared in Burma. A despicable regime backed up in force by the Chinese rulers because of the oil and jade trade. But truth be told: athletes have been training to go for gold since long before they knew where the 2008 Olympics would be held. If an athlete decides not to go he or she will not only throw away years of training; someone else will go and win the gold medal that could have been theirs. What good could possibly come form that?

China & Tibet

Now everybody is again chanting: boycott the Olympics! This time it's because of Tibet. A repressed region annexed in 1959 (!) by the Peoples Republic of China that immediately began systematic eradication of every bit of its original culture. Temple by temple, door to door, song by song, word for word, hope against hope, piece by piece. Just a few days ago a hundred protesters got killed partly because the Chinese government is turning the Tibetan capital Lhasa into a Tibetan Disneyland for huge profits. Or maybe they just a little cross with the army that has occupied their country for -count them- 49 years.

Real sportsmanship

Now here's why all athletes should definitely go to Beijing: not for politics. But to champion real sportsmanship and fair play. Compete and win your medals before the eyes of the world. Go for gold. We want to see records shattered. Epic matches. Glorious winners. Gracious losers. Men and women being the best they can be. And then when it is time to get on the stage to accept the medal: refuse before the eyes of the world. Don't even show up for the ceremony. Empty platforms. Awkward deafening silences. The only appropriate way to get the Chinese government where it hurts.