The Olympic Handshake - JOIN IN NOW!
Reminder that there is a Tibet, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Burma combined protest in London tomorrow. Details here.
This from Avaaz.org. Visit their website and virtually shake hands with someone. There is also an animated map showing the handshake’s journey around the world. Please visit the site and participate, and encourage others you know to do the same.
As the Beijing Olympics begin, the world looks on with mixed emotions. It’s a moment which should bring us closer together, and Chinese citizens deserve their excitement — but the Chinese government still hasn’t opened meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama, or changed its stance on Burma, Darfur and other pressing issues.
Even worse, extremists in China are promoting the view that Olympic activism like ours is anti-Chinese. We can’t stay silent, but we also can’t let our efforts be abused to divide people. So what can we do? The answer comes from the Dalai Lama himself, in an unambiguous gesture of Olympic spirit and friendship: a handshake.
It began in London, passed hand to hand by thousands of us — now the handshake has gone online, and is criss-crossing the globe on its way to Beijing. All of us can join, Chinese and non-Chinese, and it comes with a promise: to hold ALL our governments accountable where they fall short, in Tibet, Iraq, Burma or beyond. We’ll deliver our message in a bold media campaign in Hong Kong and around the world: Click below to see how the Olympic handshake started, sign up to join in, and watch it circle the globe –
http://www.avaaz.org/en/handshake
The worldwide outcry has produced a little progress, but much resistance from Chinese officials so far. If we are to see advances not setbacks after the Games, we need to show both that our voices will never fall silent, and that our challenge is a positive one.
We have one last chance to reclaim the spirit of the Olympics, with the message of friendship and dialogue we share with the Dalai Lama. The more people join the global handshake, the more powerful our message will be when it hits the Chinese and international media. So let’s forward this email on, encouraging everyone to join in. “One World, One Dream” is an ideal that’s bigger than the Olympics — it’s time for citizens around the world to take it back.
August 9th, 2008 04:59
Mugabe got as far as Hong Kong before he was told by Chinese officials to stay away from the 2008 Olympics.
http://www.capeargus.co.za/?fArticleId=4543651
For whatever it’s worth, it was inspiring to see Zimbabwean athletes marching in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, and know that Mugabe is likely sulking at home, barred from the opportunity to display his arrogance and illegitimacy on an international stage.
I hope that the courage and hope of all Zimbabweans is celebrated this week by the world.
My heart continues to be with you, Sokwanele.
Tariro
August 9th, 2008 19:06
Now that the big Olympic show has officially begun, and it must be said the elaborate opening ceremony was most impressive. London will have much to live up to in four years time. But at least the London games will not be mired by the kind of political controversy that surrounds those in Beijing.
To award the Olympics to a country ruled by a dictatorship is to invite trouble - as was shown in Berlin in 1936 and Moscow in 1980. The Chinese government was bound to treat the games as a great propaganda exercise, and in course of events has generated a political mist as thick as the smog in Beijing that it has tried to clear. But the truth will keep shining through. It is a fact that civil liberties, as commonly understood in the West, remain foreign concepts in China.
It is to be hoped that the competitors, including the wonderful and plucky Zimbabwean division of athletes, produce much to marvel at. But the games are a diversion from some terrible realities.