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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (July 17, 2001)
Tuesday. July 17, 2001 PINION Page 5 THE BATTALION Not Right ELP WANTeI 'China Undeserving of Olympics because of htunan rights EAL ESTATE ast Friday, the Interna tional Olympic Com mittee (IOC) selected Beijing to host the 2008 Mympic Games. While Ehina is the most populous liation in the world and an in tegral part of the global com munity, it does not represent hat the Olympics stand for and should never ave been selected for the 2008 games. China was selected for several reasons that on irst glance may appear great, but not after a loser examination. Juan Antonio Samaranch, outgoing president f the IOC , has stated that “The goal of lympism is to place, everywhere, sport at the China's past is riddled with major events like the Tiananmen Square massacre, where in 1989 a simple rally for democracy turned into a blood bath in the middle of downtown Beijing. DME FOP- neck out?!! Bsttrc r service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to encouraging the establishment of iop Just minutes a peaceful society, concerned with the preserva- ostand ‘Tut)- eel tion of human dignity'.” The expectation by the IOC that China will do a total about face in its national and international )OMMATEE p* policy by awarding them the Olympics is ridicu- rS m lous. China’s past is riddled with major events like the Tiananmen Square massacre, where in 1989 a simple rally for democracy turned into a blood bath in the middle of downtown Beijing. In 1936, the IOC applied similar logic when it brought the Olympic games to Germany. While the world has changed much since that time, it must be said that the Olympics did not herald a windfall in the support of a more open and free Germany in the years that followed. Additional ly, the 1968 Olympics did not bolster the econo my of a desperately poor Mexico. More recently, in 1984 there was not an outgrowth of peace in Sarajevo as a result of the Olympics. The IOC also justifies its vote by hypothesiz ing that if the Olympic torch is burned in China, then perhaps China and other nations will be more willing and open to the free exchange of culture and ideas. It is unlikely that promoting products and facilitating the development of new cultural ideas will soon free those under the brutal oppression of communist China. China is home to 22 percent of the world’s population. That means that more than one- fifth of the world is subject to violations of the most basic human rights and freedoms. It has been estimated, for example, that more than 50,000 people are in jail in China for practicing spiritual movements the government finds to be a potential threat to their power. According to some reports, Beijing already has started their attempts for a more crime-free city. So, in the past three months, it has execut ed 1,500 citizens. Why is the stance of the Unit ed States on the death penalty so heavily criti cized by Europe and other nations, yet when China kills thousands every year, it is rewarded with the Olympic Games? A recent report from Beijing claims that more than 98 percent of die Chinese people support the games being held in China. Perhaps those in the two percent who happen to live in Beijing will be forced out of their own homes into cheap fabricated homes to make room for 23 new Olympic venues. It appears that the IOC is trad ing peace and unity for oppression. There is not just internal turmoil in China — its international policies are not in the same league with the rest of the global community. Notable was the U.S. spy plane that was held by China. Many throughout China still believe that a U.S. airplane was violating Chinese airspace and rammed into a Chinese pilot just minding his own business. The type of critical press to properly look into the incident is impossible in China where the government controls the news. In addition, China is still occupying Tibet, act ing on a state program to assimilate Tibet into the Chinese homeland through mandatory pop ulation transfers from China to Tibet. Taiwan also suffers from attempts by China to take it over. They must rely on the U.S. to protect them from the possibility of hostile Chinese attacks. There is also the motivation for choosing China by the outgoing IOC president. It is said that he is one of the main contenders for the Nobel Peace Prize. Could it be that giving the Olympics to China will serve as another line on his resume for the $1 million prize? There are no single words that accurately de scribe the spirit of the Olympics! Nations com ing together, people exchanging ideas and a hope that during the time of the games everyone can get along. There is not another country in the world that promotes ideals as totally oppo site of these than China. China is an internation al bully that has only one asset, that of being RUBEN DELUNA/Tw Battalion home to almost one-quarter of the earth’s popu lation. This excuse to give the games to China does an injustice to the spirits of hope and faith that are essential to the Olympics. Reid Bader is a junior political science major. seeled to shared- R wood valley. W) ed yard. $305“ ; P- JTORS eded. Call 84^1 ed custom^ customers y to buy. >N 0569 ok t JESSICA CRUTCHER Not so glamourous O ut of boredom, I picked up a copy of this month’s Glamour magazine and began leafing through it. Long* ago, I gave up reading these types of maga zines hoping for any real type of guidance in personal relationships or emotional problems. However, I have clung to the faint hope that I might still be able to glean the occasional fashion tip, since it is a mag azine largely dedicated to fashion. I have been right in that Glamour has some really great advertisements — they are the best part of the magazine. But fashion tips that work here in the real world are few and far between. A case in point is Glamour’s “do’s” and “don’ts” makeovers featured near the back of the magazine. The photographs show the changes from ugly duckling to supermodel made upon some poor, unfortunate girl, complete with a point-by point guide of everything that was wrong with her first out fit. And while there are some fashion trends, like spandex, that really should never resurface, Glamour seems to have forgotten that different people have different tastes in fash ion. Not everyone is able to, or even wants to, wear a ’50s- style skirt with stilettos and a silky tank on a daily basis. In addition, many of the young women targeted for the “don’t” page do not appear to be people with a particularly bad sense of fashion. Instead, they appear to have been engaging in some sort of physical activity. Unlike Romy, Michelle and apparently the Glamour staff, the rest of American women prefer not to move furniture or go running in a Prada shirt and $200 shoes.* However, even more than the snobbish fashion “advice,” one particular section of the “do’s” and “don’ts” section par ticularly annoyed me. It was titled “Never let them see you sweat,” illustrated with photographs of normal-looking women who looked a little overheated. Some sort of anti-perspiration powder was offered as the antidote for unfeminine perspiration. The editors of Glam our obviously have never spent any time in south Texas dur ing July. Unless you never leave the house between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m., you are going to perspire, whether it is ladylike or not. Most women are self conscious enough about this — Glamour just made it worse. Emphasizing all the so-called faults in someone’s outfit, while offering no realistic solutions, is not nice. Providing up to the minute runway coverage is one thing Glamour has perfected, but they obviously need some work in converting these fashions to actual people. Pointing the finger American treatment of other countries should not escape criticism Jessica Crutcher is a junior journalism major. (U-WIRE) — In America, we grow up with tiie “live and let live” motto. We are told this is the right way to live among neighbors and friends. But most of the news we hear contains finger-pointing at other countries for their ways of life. It is upsetting to read articles repeatedly assaulting other countries. The American media constantly point out the way other countries break resolutions or are not civi lized in their way of thinking, because of “appalling” customs that we do not allow in America. We constantly complain about countries that violate human rights laws. Soon, “live and let live” takes on more of a “live and let others follow our way of living” conno tation. The media continually attack Chi na for its bad human rights record, and looks upon India as a corrupt environment for women and children. Our accusations grow against countries for not being civilized, but we can never really understand the truth about any for eign land without living there. In America, we spend so much time CARTOON OF THE DAY looking at countries like China and India that we forget to analyze ourselves. When it comes to rights and foreign policy, I’m not sure if America is the good guy or like everybody else. We have secret evidence laws that defy our “innocent until proven guilty” rights, yet we still read articles criticizing China for putting people in jail for absolutely no reason. Two-thirds of the children of Iraq are born with deformities and malnutrition because of U.S. sanctions. And when the children are Born, their chances to live are slim, considering 5,000 to 7,000 children die each month as a direct consequence of the sanctions the United States is impos ing. Saddam Hussein is viewed as inhu mane, but it is the United States and Britain that do not allow Iraq to import the needed medicines. The cruelty with which the United States treats the Iraqi people seems to go almost unseen by the American media, who appear to be more intent on acting horror-struck at Afghanistan’s and China’s way of living. We are the only country to ever use the atomic bomb, and yet we can easily con demn the brutality of people in other countries after we watch a show about it on television. What right do we have to condemn some countries and subjugate them to un fair sanctions when we are readily support ing many other countries that are major vi olators of human rights? We forget a lot of these countries that are breaking human rights laws are receiv ing federal aid from the United States. Why do we fund these countries if we are so intent on righting the wrongs of the world? With the out-of-control crime and drug rates, we need to start paying atten tion to our country’s needs. Before looking at everyone else’s faults, we need to differ entiate between what we call “polite inter ference” and hypocrisy. Najla Abu Shaahan Daily Cougar University of Houston Via SoO / CATHOLIC CLUB MEETING 7:00 PM The Battalion encourages letters to the editor. Letters must be 300 words or less and include the author's name, class and phone number. The opinion editor reserves the right to edit letters for length, style and ac curacy. Letters may be submitted in person at 014 Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Letters may also be mailed to: The Battalion - Mail Call 014 Reed McDonald Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-1111 Campus Mail: 1111 Fax: (979) 845-2647 E-mail: battletters@hotmail.com