Becuase Everything Else Sucks

Why America Won’t Boycott the Olympics

By Allison Kilkenny
Published Wednesday, April 9th, 2008, 6:17 pm
Filed under: Human Rights

Horrifically violent and totally chaotic, China has become impossible for the world to ignore. Of course, that won’t stop American athletes and tourists from attending the Olympic games, nor American advertisers from leaching millions of dollars from the international gathering of irregularly muscular pole vaulters and aquatic overachievers.

Americans possess the appropriate amount of outrage for the China crisis, but hoping for immediate results, they turn to the wrong change agents: politicians.

Politicians won’t stop the 2008 Olympics.

Barack Obama has only managed to skillfully avoid mentioning anything regarding the Chinese.

And though she surprisingly called for President Bush to boycott the Olympics, Hillary’s other half privately urged Steven Spielberg not to resign as the “Overseas Artistic Director” only last year. I like to call this kind of “say-one-thing-do-the-opposite” activism the Murdoch Strategy, named after Conservative blood-sucking tycoon Rupert Murdoch, and his daughter Elisabeth, who hosted a fundraiser for Barack Obama at her London home. It’s an easy way to commit to no one, while committing to everyone, and successfully covering all of one’s bases just in case there’s an outbreak of genocide in China, or “that black fellow” becomes President of the United States.

In other politician news, donning a red (for outrage!) neck scarf, Ms. Pelosi encouraged San Francisco residents to protest the torch’s journey through their city.

But the key to successfully boycotting the Olympics doesn’t rest with our ruffled American politicians. The only way to clearly denounce the corrupt behavior of the Chinese government is to withdraw corporate sponsorship from the Olympics.

You see, though American citizens and politicians are dutifully outraged by the Chinese government’s repression and abuse of its own people, corporations can’t commit fast enough to spending millions for advertising in Beijing.

So if you’re interested in really affecting the Olympics, first you have to stop the steady cash flow, and you can stop the cash by asking (pretty, pretty please) corporations to withdraw their ads from the Olympics.

Click here to see the full list of 2008 Beijing corporate sponsors, or simply scroll down.

2008 Beijing Sponsors

The list includes: McDonalds, Coca-Cola, GE, Adidas, Samsung, VISA, UPS, Staples, Johnson & Johnson, Kodak, and Volkswagen.

If you feel morally outraged by the humanitarian crisis in China, contact these corporations and tell them they’ll lose you as a customer if they don’t definitively denounce (and reject) their support of China’s repressive government.

CEOs understand the language of dollars very clearly, and if they begin to lose monetary support from their customers, they’ll do anything to stop the bleeding, up to and including withdrawing their sponsorship of the games.

If you feel outraged enough to frown disapprovingly at politicians when they don’t talk about Tibet enough, but you continue to buy Kodak film, or drink Coke anyway, then don’t be surprised when the 2008 Beijing Olympics goes off without a hitch.

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6 Responses to “Why America Won’t Boycott the Olympics”

  1. The Chinese government has done nothing to compare with the atrocities committed by our own government. Every government in the world has its own terrible deeds and therefore by your logic every Olympic should be boycotted.

    The Olympics should not be politicized. But if they are, then they should at least be politicized consistently and without a double standard.

    In addition, the Chinese people are among the kindest and most generous people you’ll ever meet. To say that China is “horrifically violent and totally chaotic” is a sweeping generalization, condemning a massive nation of mostly innocent people based on the actions of its government.

    Why punish the innocent for the deeds of their government?

    Andy
    04/9/08 at 6:55 pm

  2. So the people are in the streets everywhere. London - stiff upper lip protests and Brown decided not to touch the torch. France - pull off a riot and put out that flame like only the French could. San Francisco - hanging off the bridge to stop the hanging. Maybe we should create a special Oh-Limp-Pics for those not-so-free societies to be paraded every four years. It will give us all a chance to show how we feel about injustice around the world. It is obvious that the media will only report on it if there is a sound-bite and a photo opportunity. Maybe something for tyrant to carry the torch of torture every four years. Mm, I think I have an idea… http://angryafrican.net/2008/04/09/oh-limp-pic-games-celebrating-tyrants-everywhere/

    Angry African
    04/9/08 at 9:06 pm

  3. @Andy
    So where does the Chinese government find its members, Sweden? I’m going to take a wild stab and guess they’re CHINESE!

    But you’re right, it is unfair to place ALL of the blame on China. American Corporations have been salivating over the vast market of billions of potential consumers for at least the last decade. And since Dubya’s administration sees absolutely nothing wrong with the exportation of thousands of living wage jobs to a place where 13 year old workers do the same thing for a dollar an hour, these businesses have pretty much had a free run of the place.

    On the other hand, the atrocities committed to the people of Tibet have nothing to do with any American Interest, and has understandably put many powerful Americans in an interesting spot. My only hope is when China perfects its fusion reactor technology and takes America’s spot as the premier 1st World global power, they let us at least keep our toilets and sewage systems. I don’t think I could handle shit-troughs and squat-holes.

    PapaFigue
    04/11/08 at 8:56 pm

  4. Thank you for the links to Olympic sponsors as I will forward a letter to each attesting to my boycott of their products. I would be highly appreciative of a list of corporations, if one exists, American and or global, that already DO boycott China on every level. Could someone provide that information or link? Lori, California

    Lori
    04/25/08 at 11:24 am

  5. Great Site - really useful information!/

    john
    07/31/08 at 5:34 am

  6. @PapaFigue

    I completely agree with Andy. To think of the entire population of China, 1.3 Billion People, in terms of their government, is not fair. How would you react if people in foreign lands thought of you in terms of President George W. Bush? I lived there 10 months and know them to be a very kind people. P.S- The loss of jobs to globalization began in the Clinton Administration.

    @author of this article:
    In light of your argument, the olympics should not even occur anywhere because no nation on earth is innocent. (not that I agree with communisim, but China has been improving greatly in the area of human rights since the attrocity known as the Cultural Revolution.)

    Richard
    09/27/08 at 3:30 pm

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