Hackney Emulates China

The people running the libraries in the People's Republic of Hackney have attempted to emulate the Chinese wrt censoring off message individuals, who have the temerity to criticise the London 2012 Olympics.

Iain Sinclair was declared a "non person"and banned from speaking at Hackney Library, for the crime of writing an off-message piece on the Olympics.

This essay, published in the London Review of Books, responded to aspects of the creation of the Olympic Park in the Lower Lea Valley: the destruction of the Manor Garden allotments, the eviction of travellers, and the famous "legacy" revealed as nothing more than a gigantic shopping mall in Stratford.

I thought we lived in a country where freedom of speech was guaranteed?

Olympic Medals won during the Beijing 2008 Olympics

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Verbal Punch Up at Press Conference

Wei Wang, the secretary general of the Beijing organising committee, expressed his displeasure about the behaviour of some members of the international media for coming to China "to peek, to be critical, to dig into the small details and find fault" in the country's human rights record".

He vented his spleen during the IOC-Bocog press conference, as journalists pressed him to reveal how many Chinese citizens had been granted permission to use the three Protest Parks set up for the Games. Wei Wang claimed twice that he had not been given figures from the Office of Public Security.

"After 30 years of reform China has developed greatly. People enjoy more freedom. People are living a good life. Everyone is happy. That's a fact. Of course there are exceptions, like in any other country. But they need to take the legal process and procedures to resolve any issues. We cannot allow this country to be in chaos.

There are a few people who have come here to peek, to be critical, to dig into the small details and find fault. This does not mean that we are not fulfilling our promises [over human rights to the IOC]. The whole country can see how can China has developed; how China has genuinely welcomed the world to enjoy everything with us."

The IOC was given a rough ride by Alex Thomson, a Channel 4 journalist, who asked as to whether it was "in any way embarrassed" by the Chinese government "lying through its teeth" about keeping its promises to improve human rights and press freedom.

The IOC communication's director, Giselle Davies, did not answer the question but instead said:

"We have to note that there have been enormous steps forward in a number of areas".

Thomson kept pressing and asked how the IOC felt about the "manifest failure of the Chinese government to keep their promises." Davies refused to answer, saying that the IOC was "very proud about how these Games are progressing".

Thomson kept up the attack:

"I'm not asking about how well the Games are being run, or how wonderful the Games are.

Are you embarrassed by China?

I don't think anyone thinks you have answered the question."

Davies said:

"The Olympic Games is largely about the athletes and they have given us extremely strong feedback about how things are going."

Thomson was by now fending off two volunteers, who were trying to take the microphone from him. However, he soldiered on:

"We're not getting anywhere are we?

Are the IOC embarrassed about the Chinese governments record on human rights? One more chance?"

Davies ignored the question and said:

"We have to note the enormous steps in the wider area.

The world is watching and the IOC is appraising."

Olympic Medals Won

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Special Protest Zones

Mindful of criticism over the lack of free speech during the Beijing Olympics, China has authorised the right of protest in specially designated "protest zones" dotted around Beijing.

They are hidden away in hard-to reach suburbs, seven miles from the main Olympic stadium. There are also rules about who can demonstrate, and what they can demonstrate about.

In order to protest, the "protestee" must apply for a permit at the Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) five days before the planned protest. They must fill out an application that specifies the purpose and time of the protest, what will happen during it, the slogans that will be written on banners and posters, the estimated number of protesters and whether megaphones or any form of amplified sound equipment will be used. Foreigners have to go through the same procedure, and make sure their application is in Mandarin.

The protest must also comply with Chinese law on public demonstrations.

Protests that threaten the territorial unity of China are illegal, so protests demanding freedom for Tibet are of course banned.

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Putin Says Da

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said "Da" to attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on 8 August.

Putin will join the "great and the good" at the opening ceremony including; George Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are shying away from the event.

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The "Unseen" Adverts

Amnesty International has managed, rather cleverly, to highlight an issue that vexes them without even resorting to an official advertising campaign.

Amnesty's French offices commissioned TBWA to create a series of adverts highlighting China's alleged human rights abuses, in the run up to the Olympics.

The adverts included images of a man being pushed headfirst into a swimming pool, a policeman walking away from a man who has been shot while lashed to an archery target and a woman chained to a dumbbell in the colours of the Olympic rings.

The tag line is:

"After the Olympic Games, the fight for human rights must go on."

Amnesty in the end decided never to show them, because they were too graphic. However, they were entered for a website competition and inevitably ended up circulating on the web even crossing the Great Firewall of China.

The adverts, despite never being officially shown, have caused a huge amount of controversy in China and resulted in a large amount of publicity for Amnesty.

There is one more irony here.

TBWA, which produced the advertisements, also put together a series of adverts aimed at the Chinese Olympics market, including a series for Adidas featuring local athletes and their fans.

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Sakorzy Changes His Mind

Following hot on the heals of the announcement by President Bush that he will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 8 August, President Sarkozy of France has fallen into line and said that he will attend as well.

Sarkozy was the first world leader to threaten to miss the opening, in protest at China's crackdown in Tibet after riots and protests there in March.

Sarkozy has now told Chinese President Hu Jintao that he would attend the ceremony on August 8.

The President's Office issued a statement that said that France wants to "deepen its strategic partnership with China".

Money matters, especially when there is an Airbus contract in the offing!

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Bush To Attend Opening Ceremony

President Bush has stated that he will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on 8 August 2008, despite calls for him to boycott it.

Speaking before the opening of the G 8 Summit on the island of Hokkaido in Japan, Bush said that not going to the ceremony "would be an affront to the Chinese people" that might make it "more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership."

Given the amount of dollars held by the Chinese, Bush is wise not to "affront" them.

Other leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, are avoiding the opening ceremony to protest China's record on human rights and its dealings in Tibet and Sudan. Brown of course (trying to avoid being controversial) claims that he was never going to go, as he was too busy.

Prime Minister Fukuda of Japan is also going:

"I don't think you have to really link Olympics with politics."

The Olympics is primarily about politics and money, to think otherwise is naive in the extreme. However, as said before on this site, many of those who call for a boycott are hypocrites as they own many products manufactured in China.

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The Private Militia

Whilst the media and journalists get themselves into a lather over alleged reporting restrictions in China, in the run up to the 2008 games, they may care to take a look at what is happening in the UK as we prepare for the 2012 games.

Organisers of the 2012 Olympics being accused of running "private militia", in their desire to provide security for the 2012 games and to protect the construction site.

It seems that a couple of amateur photographers were targeted by heavy-handed security guards at the stadium building site in East London, this also happened a year ago when photo enthusiast Dr Patrick Green clashed with two security guards at the site.

Louis Berk and Steve Kessel claim that they clashed with four security personnel while on a 'public pavement' outside the construction area in early May.

Guards were under the impression that they had been taking pictures of the construction site through a hole in the fence.

Mr Berk was quoted in Amateur Photographer:

"The interrogation then turned to the content of our cameras,' said Louis, who lives in north London.

The leader of the pack told us we were not allowed to photograph security staff and demanded we show him the pictures. Neither I nor my friend had taken any pictures – in fact, my friend was using a film camera so it would have been impossible to comply with this illegal request."

In a letter to Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive David Higgins, Mr Berk accused the authority of operating the equivalent of a "private militia".

The ODA are investigating.

China has only recently started to open up, therefore there will still be issues wrt press freedom etc; Britain is one of the world's oldest democracies, there is no excuse for this kind of heavy handed behaviour.

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UN No Show

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, will not be attending August's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

He cites "scheduling issues".

Quite!

Springtime in Paris

The Olympics torch came a cropper in Paris yesterday, despite heavy police and Chinese protection for the torch, the relay was abandoned in the face of some very assertive protests.

Whether the cost in terms of lousy pr and wasted man hours in protecting the torch, on its round the world relay, is worth it is open to question.

The Olympics Torch

The Olympics torch managed to pass through London yesterday without being stolen, as some protesters tried to do.

There were scuffles and protests along the route, and 35 people were arrested; at some stages, the protection around the flame was three deep, making it almost impossible for the crowd to see it.

After a change of route, the Chinese ambassador was able to carry it unmolested through China town.

The cost of protecting the flame yesterday is estimated to be around £1M.

Money well spent?

The Olympic Torch

The Olympic torch for the 2008 Beijing Games arrives in London today, not via Terminal 5 Heathrow.

It is expected to receive an lively welcome.

Hypocrisy

Those people, such as Sarkozy, who call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics might have greater credibility if it were not for the fact that a large amount of Western imported consumer goods and clothes are manufactured in China.

Those who call for a boycott, whilst still enjoying the tangible products of China, are hypocrites.

Torch Trouble

It looks as though there will be trouble as the Olympic torch is carried around the world, in the run up to the Beijing Olympics this August.

Anti China protesters evaded tight security and managed to disrupt yesterday's Olympic torch ceremony, this guarantees that the flame's procession through London in a fortnight's time will be disrupted.

Tenzin Dorjee, a Tibetan activist who was briefly detained during the protest, said:

"Later we will do protests in London and Paris."

Scotland Yard will allocate 2,000 officers and staff, including river, airborne and mounted police, to protect the Olympic flame's journey from Wembley Stadium to Greenwich on April 6.

Human rights activists, supporters of an independent Tibet and critics of China's support for Darfur and Burma are preparing demonstrations along the 31 mile route.

Are the Olympics really worth all this trouble?

It's The Money Stupid

Dana Perino, presidential spokeswoman, asked whether President Bush would rethink his plans to go to this summer's Olympics after the recent riot in Tibet said that Bush's position is "that this should be about the athletes and not necessarily about politics.

Wrong!

The Olympics is about money, as the sponsors and athletes know full well.

Get Real

All of those siren voices, and celebs, who are calling for a boycott of the Olympics in China need to understand the following.

When you stop buying Chinese products and clothes, then you may have a moral leg to stand on in your call for a boycott. However, even if you manage to source all of your products from outside of China, the majority of people in the West will still continue to buy Chinese products.

Why boycott the Games, when we continue to buy the products?

Protests Increase

Following on from Steve Spielberg's decision to drop out of advising the Beijing Olympics, eight Nobel peace laureates have written on open letter to the Chinese president demanding action to end "atrocities" in Sudan.

The open letter, published in The Independent newspaper, accuses China of "providing resources that make it easier for that government to continue to carry out its atrocities".

Olympic athletes, MPs and business leaders are among the other signatories.

The Olympics, despite the best efforts/wishes of the Chinese and IOC, does not and cannot exist in a vacuum. However, engagement rather than boycott is the best way to promote understanding and change.

Spielberg Quits Olympics

Steven Spielberg has withdrawn as an artistic adviser to the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

He issued a statement, in which he accused China of not doing enough to pressure its ally Sudan to end the "continuing human suffering" in western Darfur.

Beijing has not yet responded to this major setback to its Games.

It is reasonable to assume that they will not be best pleased by this.

The International Olympic Committee said:

"The IOC recognise Darfur is a highly complex issue, with tragic circumstances, but is a matter for the UN to resolve."

The question is, will others follow suit?

Gagging

Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese government of "gagging" dissidents, and clamping down on domestic journalists to stave off potential political instability.

Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said:

"The government seems afraid that its own citizens will embarrass it by speaking out about political and social problems, but China's leaders apparently don't realise authoritarian crackdowns are even more embarrassing".

1.5M Displaced For Olympics

The Olympics are expensive and expensive exercise, not just in terms of time and money, but also in terms of human misery.

That at least is the view of of the Geneva based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), which has stated that some 1.5 million residents of Beijing will be displaced by the time it hosts the 2008 Olympics; many evicted against their will.

COHRE claims that residents are often forced from their homes with little notice and little compensation, as the Chinese government embarks on a massive city redevelopment to accommodate the Games.

Quote:

"In Beijing, and in China more generally, the process of demolition and eviction is characterised by arbitrariness and lack of due process."

China's Foreign Ministry said it was groundless and the figures vastly inflated.

Spokeswoman Jiang Yu said 6,037 people had been displaced since 2002 for the construction of Olympic stadiums.

Quote:

"During the process, the citizens have had their compensation property settled. No single person was forced to move out of Beijing."

COHRE should be aware that China is embarking on a period of unprecedented growth and economic development, the Games are merely the catalyst for the upheavals to come.