Author: Berit Anderson
Protests in Europe this week have put a damper on the passing of the Olympic torch. The torch’s relay across Paris was continually interrupted by pro-Tibet human rights protestors on Monday, the presence of whom forced officials to extinguish the torch a total of five times. One protestor near the Louvre even came at the Olympic symbol with a fire extinguisher, showering the intervening police officers with foam, according to a Los Angeles Times article.
The torch is scheduled to make its first US appearance Wednesday in San Francisco, where officials say a high level of security is planned to keep US protestors at bay. About 200 Bay Area human rights activists have already executed a faux-torch relay in the city and San Franciscan political leadership issued a symbolic declaration to meet the torch with “alarm and protest,” according to an article on the AFP wire. The same article noted that an originally planned pause for celebration of the Olympic relay in Chinatown has been cancelled.
This may be one of the largest American demonstrations of protest against international human rights abuses thus far in my life. Neither the genocide in Darfur nor the violent political upheaval in Burma in 2007 have received the magnitude of public protest expected this week in response to the US portion of the Olympic torch relay.
I chalk this up to several factors. First, and unsurprisingly, the Dalai Lama is the religious darling of Americans seeking clarity and enlightenment. What overbooked, overstressed cubicle-slave wouldn’t trade it all in for a few months drinking green tea and practicing yoga in Dharamsala with a group of laid-back guys in red robes? His speaking engagements in the US are packed with adoring fans, and China’s attack on the human rights of Tibetans is likely to anger all of them-especially those who have heard that the Chinese government declared the religious icon a terrorist back in March.
Furthermore, the Olympic torch is considered a symbol of the United States’ athletic prowess and national solidarity (by Americans, admittedly. The Greeks would no doubt throw up their arms in disgust.) Not only does the US play host to the games more frequently than any other country, but it consistently comes home with the gold-frequently after performances that strum at the heartstrings of Americans young and old.
A nine-year-old me drooled over the seamlessly executed US gold-medal-garnering vault performed by gymnast Kerri Strug on a broken ankle during Atlanta’s summer games. I spent the next month practicing my Olympic bow; arms raised victoriously, faux-injury bent gingerly at the knee, blue-blooded pride in my fellow countrywoman pulsing through my veins.
It is no surprise then, that when such a strong symbol becomes enmeshed with a defamation of the Dalai Lama and violence toward his followers, people get more than a little upset-upset enough to rise up from behind their cubicles and take to the streets.
Of course, this isn’t the first time international political dissent has put a damper on Olympic plans. The games were cancelled completely during both World Wars, and the US led a 60-nation withdrawal from the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow to protest the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This was, of course, in the midst of renewed anti-Soviet sentiments amongst the US, much of Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
It is virtually impossible that the US government will act in such strong opposition to current Chinese human rights abuse or to this summer’s Olympic games in Beijing, as doing so would be in direct conflict with their own self-interests. China is the United States’ second-largest trading partner. Its goods make up 26.2 percent of our imports, according to foreign trade statistics from the US Census Bureau. Furthermore, their prices are unbeatable. Severe government critique of their policies or a US boycott of the Olympic games would, in all likelihood, sever at least a few trade ties between the US and China, thereby raising prices in our already struggling economy.
Although the US has repeatedly encouraged China to seek out increased communications and dialogue with the Dalai Lama, China has yet to respond in any constructive way-nor do I expect they will without a considerable struggle. Sadly, the very humanitarian cause that has so engaged the American people is the same cause our current government will do its best to avoid taking responsibility for. Luckily, the Europeans are also upset.
Berit Anderson is a junior DWA major. She can be reached at banderson@oxy.edu.
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