Olympic torch lights up Tibetan cause

Taken by the Dalai Lama

I have been thinking about a comment that Roosevelt the blog-owner of MoThanSkin left on my blog titled Snuff out that Olympic torch already.

“I agree with you, Akin, the Olympics have become much too politicized. But the truth of the matter is no nation is without some degree of human rights violations, America included!

The Dalai Lama and his Tibet government-in-exile is misleading the Free World as to his true objectives, which is to have the Peoples Republic of China give back to him and his fellow monks the centuries old feudalistic rule of the Dalai Lamas over the Tibetan people!

The Dalai Lama is not what he appears to be! To have the Dalai Lama rule over Tibet is not freedom or democracy! China is being unfairly judged by the Free World when it comes to Tibet, in my opinion!”

Somewhere in between

I am not too sure that I subscribe entirely to the view of the Dalai Lama being the covert instigator of unrest in Tibet much I do not believe that China has much to offer Tibet apart from the suppression of their culture and the emasculation of the people.

Probably, the truth is somewhere in between, the fact that Tibetans are religious people who have allegiance towards the Dalai Lama and the other fact that China invaded and forcefully occupied from 1950.

There is no doubt that Tibet has had a vibrant, turbulent and in some ways violent past, but they are still a people with an identity and a yearning for a form of nationhood.

A determined China

An article on Reuters.com opines that China has trouble reading Tibet’s pulse, Tibetans still revere their god-king in the person of the Dalai Lama where the Chinese had expected them to revile their former rulers to whom they were in obeisance in feudal serfdom.

The journey of the Olympic torch around the world has given the focus to human rights issues in China rather than the harmony of global sport in the spirit of the Olympics, once docile administrators and custodians of the tarnished Olympic brand have now had to speak up.

In some cases, the dogged determination of China to continue the torch relay regardless and their forceful desire to defile Mount Everest and run the torch through Tibet almost makes it appear as if they are impervious to any criticism.

Naivety par excellence

In the end, if China really thought they could pull off the Olympics with scant regard to all other issues on the basis of taking politics out of the Olympics and sport in general, they have displayed a level of amazing arrogance and sheer ignorance being propped up by the hubris of might and untrammelled remit to mess people up big-time within China – surely, feelings would have been aroused in an Olympic year and they have not been so politically astute but outrageously naïve to the extreme, it beggars belief.

If at the end of the day the Dalai Lama is the secret puppet master behind all this unrest around aspirations of Tibet, well, there could not have been a better occasion to get maximum publicity for Tibetan issues than at this time, for which I can only commend him for the genius of timing and execution.

As to where I standard on this matter, it would appear the Tibetans need neither a communist state nor a Western democracy over them, rather they want the Dalai Lama as their leader.

Before we get all funny about this, the Vatican is both religious and political with the head of both structures being the Pope – why should Tibet be different, feudal or not?

Snuff out that Olympic torch already

Non-political Olympics

I can only wonder how long we can continue to delude ourselves into thinking the Olympics has no political connotations.

I would acquiesce to that feeling only when representation at the Olympics moves on from geo-political entities called countries or nations and allows for independent participation. Let a world-citizen complete without having to be affiliated to some country and let the best sportsman win regardless.

Press-ganged by China

I have no problems with China hosting the Olympics in Beijing but that honour comes with global scrutiny which cannot be caged in some restraint of protest because of discomfort.

It is amazing that we find European countries being forced into uncomfortable and embarrassing authoritarian police action all to appease China whilst China tries to manage the propaganda at home by demonising any dissent.

Berlin to Beijing

The parallels; the showcasing of the 1936 Berlin Olympics under the Nazis who were announcing the arrival of Germany on the world stage and the 2008 Beijing Olympics announcing the arrival of Communist China on the world stage leaves us without much scope for irony because the reality is as stark as we all can see.

The Chinese have great national pride just as the Germans under Nazi occupation but they have none of the great liberal freedoms that we in the West take for granted and that allows them to condone other unpalatable regimes around the world for the reason that they term certain matters internal even though the issues affect humanity and the human race - global review can no more condone this kind of oppression.

The matter of the Olympic torch relay is interesting because it owes its progeny to the Nazis in 1936, why we need to have the torch tour countries other than the penultimate host, Greece and the host country, escapes me – it is as political as you can make the sport without owning up to the fact that it is political.

Politics in sport in politics

Politicians and sportspersons with political leverage in some ways would handle that dreadful torch and send all sorts of messages to the whole world.

I sympathise with the fact that sportspersons look for the ultimate accolade and challenge at the Olympics, nowhere is national pride so displayed for a global audience as the Olympics, the football World Cup does not come close with just 32 countries.

I am not advocating a boycott, but there has to be a message sent out to all well-meaning people and those who think they can through propaganda silence the yearnings and aspirations of their people need the force of humanity at a gathering such as the Olympics to highlight the plight of the oppressed and have something constructively done about it.

For glory or honour

We should not in the quest for Olympic glory forget that there is an honourable duty to perform on behalf of the oppressed, the suppressed and the disenfranchised.

If we cannot bring into our sportsmanship that quality of moral outrage in support of those who have been so battered by governments they did not chose, who rule over them with an iron fist but have no legitimacy with their constituency – then it is time to snuff out that Olympic flame forthwith and send the wet and watered wick back to Beijing.