William Blum: China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics

To Blum's highlights of American hypocritical "concern" about human rights must be added the fact that the US prison-concentration camp system is no different from Nazi Germany both within the US and at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and the CIA's secret prisons around the world, with Bush & Co. proudly promoting torture, and the Democrats refusing to cut off funding to the federal prisons at home and abroad. The death penalty is also a human rights violation which has been abolished in Europe, most of Latin America, Australia, South Africa and other countries. The death penalty and horrifying, racist, anti-workingclass prison-concentration camp system existed during the Olympics in Los Angeles and Lake Placid in 1932, Squaw Valley (California Sierras) in 1960, Lake Placid in 1980, Los Angeles in 1984, Atlanta in 1996 and Salt Lake City in 2002. Legal segregation existed before 1964 and de facto segregation continues to this day, a gross human rights violation. Lynching of African-Americans was common in this backward country before 1950; today it is done legally with the death penalty. Yet the so-called "human rights" groups did not stop the torch from being run through the US at any time because of AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, which would MAKE HITLER PROUD.

Then there is this support for a CIA agent, the Dalai Lama. For the history of this CIA agent and his promotion of serfdom, see The Making of Modern Tibet by A. Tom Grunfeld (1996) New York: M.E. Sharpe Inc. As Blum points out, Tibet has been part of China for 2 centuries. Certainly any killing of human beings is outrageous but Americans come into the court of public opinion with bloody, murderous, torturing hands when it comes to protesting other countries' human rights violations. When Americans demand that the Olympic torch never be allowed in tihs country because of AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS and that the American team be barred from competing anywhere just as the South African team was barred from competing anywhere when apartheid existed, then we can talk about China's human rights violations. Until then, this complaint about China's human rights violations is the same old colonialist racism that was perpetrated against China before the 1949 revolution by the US and Europe. Having the Olympics in Asia is unusual, due to the racism that permeates such decisions. With the exception of Japan (in many respects, an American colony since WW2), which hosted the Olympics in 1964, 1972 and 1998, and the US fascist puppet state of South Korea, in 1988, no other Asian country has hosted the Olympic games. With the exception of Australia in 2000, all other Olympic games have been mostly in Europe or the US with only twice in Canada (1976 and 1988) and once in Mexico (1968). Clearly, the attacks on the torch going through the US is plain old-fashioned AMERICAN RACISM.