| New comment:
| Author: ronin2
| Title: I normally don't do this but
I normally don't do this but I felt compelled to write after I saw this ad and read the heated discussion below it.
I am not a fan of Amnesty International personally. And I was a member for a brief period so I know how they function. They feel justified in creating such cheap, offensive propoganda such as this because the vast majority of them sit on their couches, observe injustice from a distance, proceed to do little more than put their signature on a letter, host a tea party, or create an attack ad such as this, and call it making a difference. All from the comfort of their own home without doing any work or making any sacrifices. They refuse to waver from a very strict set of ideals they will impose at every possible turn no matter how inappropriate, disrespectful, or ultimately useless it may be. Because what they do is so simplistic it naturally attracts a lot of people who are seeking to feel good about themselves without giving any real effort. Once they get so many members they get high and mighty and promote insulting material like this.
There are many far more respectable organizations like MSF or IRC who are made up of proffesionals too busy working on the ground in places like China, rolling their sleeves and working with the Chinese people and their goverment to directly treat and manage problems like AIDS, orphans, disaster recovery, etc, to bother with nonsense like this.
I do not believe political differences and conflicts should get in the way of the Olympics. And I especially feel trashy ads such as this, directly linking the an Olympic venue and almost directly linking the Games to human rights abuse should be off limits, if only to the conscience of its instigators. It is an insult to the Chinese people, especially after all the pride and effort they showed in hosting the Games, and disrespectful to the athletes. That is why I agreed with President Bush (lo and behold) in his decision to attend the games. It wasn't about the host country, it was about the athletes and all the work they've done to represent their country.
To suggest that President Bush attending or the IOC choosing China as the host country was to somehow endorse or ignore the deplorable actions of the Chinese goverments is to suggest that all the many thousands of fans from all over the world somehow don't care about the dignity of their fellow man. The Olympics are a time to forget the political, racial, religious, economic, and ethnic difference that divide, both the radical and minor, the respectable and reprehensible, the historical and modern, the historical and the transient, and to be united for a few precious weeks by the common ideals of athletics that we can all relate to and learn from; sportsmanship, integrity, commitment, determination, teamwork, and all the things that allowed athletes from all countries and background to represent their country, not as agents of conflict or political pressure, but of honor and athletic spirit.
Ads like this are deplorable because they sabatoge the sense of unity and global peace that the Games are meant to instill. If hosting the Olympics was restricted only to countries that have never debased the dignity of its fellow man, it would be only a privileged few who would hold that honor. And that, my friends, would defeat the purpose of the Games.
Amnesty needs to dispense with the cheap propoganda and recognize that the Olympics is to short and sweet of a time to be used as a political tool.
(Now see, I said all that without a single swear word or calling anyone an idiot)
| Link:
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/p ... ming#comment-231692
