If you knew me at all, you'd know that I'm not an avid sports fan. At best, I'll sit through a football game for my partner's benefit, but I'm usually asleep by half time. So it probably comes as no surprise that I'm not following the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. However, its not because I'm not interested or because I have better things to do, or any of this guy's reasons .

Let me first say this: the idea of global brother- and sisterhood is beautiful. The notion that we can put aside our differences for "a few shining weeks" and all hold hands and unite under the banner of anything is noble (thanks a lot, Morgan Freeman and Visa ). But there are some things that I don't think can, or should, be tolerated or ignored in the name of athletic tradition. I think that we should use this global forum to call attention to the betterment of mankind instead of turning a blind eye to the obvious human rights abuses that are being committed, not only by China, but by a multitude of nations competing in the Olympics.

To begin with, what about China's involvement in the human rights abuses in Tibet , Darfur , and Burma ? Or how about China's persistent abuse of its own citizens? Check out this report from Amnesty International on the current status of China's death penalty, justice system, use of torture, violence and discrimination against women, repression of spiritual and religious groups, etc. More recently, China has evicted relocated more than 6,000 Beijing households to make room for Olympic traffic, silenced censored Olympic protesters , and told a little girl she was too ugly put their "country's interest first" by selecting a "smiling angel" to lip-sync during the Olympic opening ceremony.

And its not just China. Mahbooba Ahadgar , the third woman from Afghanistan to ever qualify for the Olympics, went missing in July. Although many feared that she had been kidnapped or killed by extremists who had been threatening her and her family for weeks, she fled the country to seek asylum in Norway. The Afghan Olympic Committee first jailed her family for allowing her to complete in the Olympic, and then threatened to jail her family if she didn't compete in the Olympics.

Women are still banned from Olympic teams in Saudi Arabia and Brunei, but these teams are still allowed to compete. This seems to be in direct contradiction to the International Olympic Committee charter, which states that "any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement." Many people are calling for the Olympic Committee follow through on this statement and bar countries than ban women atheletes from participating. However, many Muslim nations do allow women to compete as long as they remain veiled and have developed specially-designed hijabs for women to wear while they compete.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to worry about these issues because they wouldn't exist. In a better world, we would take advantage of this global forum to discuss the issues as they become apparent and hold nations accountable for the way that they treat their citizens. In today's world, the least I can do is turn of my TV, boycott Olympic Sponsors , and share with you the reasons why I'm not watching the Olympics.

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August 20, 2008 6:20 PM

[0+|0-]  ElleStar said:

I think it's admirable that you are so passionate about human rights that you are willing to forgo watching the Olympics and boycott its sponsors because the Olympic committee is making some terrible decisions.

However, I'm going to continue to watch. As much as I'd like the Olympics committee to have made better decisions about China as a host and letting some countries who don't allow women to compete to still send their men to the Games, the politics of the Olympics has little to do with the athletes competing.

I still want to see how the America's women's soccer team does on the world stage. I wanted to know if Shawn Johnson would get the gold on the balance beam competition. I wanted to see the benefits of Title IX in action as women compete in athletics. It helps me know that some of the things that feminists fight for actually have real and tangible results.

It would have been better if the Olympic Committee had made better choices, but I don't want to stop supporting athletics, especially for women.

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August 21, 2008 12:51 AM

[0+|0-]  Lori said:

Thank you, I've had a hard time putting almost your exact thoughts into words. Now I can better explain to others why I refuse to watch the Olympics, and don't even really want to hear about them at this point.

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