Australian Olympic legend Dawn Fraser to boycott Beijing

Aussie2Aussie · 11 April 2008

I agree juw, 2020 should not have responded to my question to you.

So, do you want to answer?

2020hindsight · 11 April 2008

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-boycott11apr11,1,1995138.story

A Japanese craftsman's one-man Olympic boycott
The maker of iron shots favored by elite shot-putters refuses to produce any for the Beijing Games to protest China's Tibet policy.
By Bruce Wallace, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 11, 2008
TOKYO -- Masahisa Tsujitani is getting a lot of attention these days for a man who has spent much of the last 40 years bent over a lathe in a garage workshop, where amid the sharp smell of burnt oil and iron he grinds out some of the finest 16-pound shots ever tossed by Olympic athletes....

"I feel badly for the athletes who won't get to use my shots, but after Tibet I know I'm right," he said last week. "Enough is enough."

With his one-man boycott of the Games, Tsujitani has become a reluctant hero here among those unhappy with the muted response of politicians to China's crackdown on dissent in and near Tibet. Japan's political class has uttered barely a peep of protest, with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda saying only that he would "welcome talks between the concerned parties in a way acceptable to both sides."

The Asahi newspaper dismissed that comment as "tantamount to saying nothing."

Tsujitani is more blunt. "Japanese politicians are wimps," he said.

ok - Japanese politicians are wimps.
At least Rudd told em straight

PS You'd think a lump of steel would be pretty easy to make

PS A2A, I didn't realise I was answering your question. - but thanks for your response. I am personally pretty confused on this one myself. Would be brilliant if there was some sort of acceleration of the move to "meaningful autonomy" that the Dalai Lama has publicly expressed as his preference for Tibet. I just hope the Olympics is also a success.- for the sake of the sportsmen/ women who have given 4 years of training to this.

Incidentally I was responding to the general trend of a few threads on this - including Superfly's boycott thread - references to Hicks and Haneef etc (??)

and Disarray's broad swipe back there that people who participate in public demonstrators tend to be fringe-dwellers i.e.
a) to protest anything anywhere implies that you're from the looney left
b) except for this one for some reason.

PS I have never carried a placard either.

2020hindsight · 11 April 2008

continued..
"China - an opportunity or a threat" - interesting turn of phrase

Top-level relations have since thawed, even as the Japanese public remains conflicted over whether to treat China as an opportunity or a threat.

Unlike his most recent predecessors, Fukuda has been an advocate of a Beijing-friendly foreign policy, calling China an indispensable partner and nurturing the warming diplomatic mood.

No government officials were allowed to meet the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, during a 10-day visit to Japan last fall shortly after Fukuda took office. And diplomats here acknowledge that Fukuda is loath to take a hard line over Tibet ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's arrival next month for a summit that Tokyo is eager to see go off without a hitch.

Still, Tsujitani doesn't want the athletes to be hurt by a boycott, and said it was a pity they won't be able to use his shots. The politicians should stay away, he said. Not the athletes

.
sounds like he's got the shots, and Beijing can go skip rope.

>Apocalypto< · 11 April 2008

F#@K Dawn Fraser!

2020hindsight · 11 April 2008

continued

... kind of ironic that the Japanese would judge the Chinese on Human rights

this show currently on SBS :-

As It Happened
Friday, April 11, 8.30pm
Channel: SBS
Duration: 60 minutes
Rating: M

In December 1937, Japanese troops entered Nanking. On the road to the southern Chinese capital and in the city itself, massacres, rapes and thefts were committed by the Japanese troops day after day for months.

"barbaric acts that cost the lives of 15 million Chinese "
"but the older soldiers didn't just want to kill them, they wanted to rape them first"

robert toms · 12 April 2008

Yes I watched the show,I have read accounts of Nanking over a long period.
Human rights...as the SBS programme said that the Japanese considered Chinese as inferior .When this happens human rights are not considered.
The inferior become a kind of sub-human group and any treatment dished out to them does not register on the conscience scale.
Just a few examples...the Nazis attitude to Jews,the Jews to Palestinians,the US to Iraqis (torture etc),the attitude to Vietnamese during the conflict with the US...they were portrayed as devoid of human feelings etc,what sort of people would throw their children overboard ? etc etc etc
When you de-humanise the others you are able to treat them how you wish...without resorting to your conscience.
I do not think that anything in Tibet approaches these scenarios...

2020hindsight · 12 April 2008

robert toms said:
When you de-humanise the others you are able to treat them how you wish...without resorting to your conscience.
I do not think that anything in Tibet approaches these scenarios...

agree with all of that rob
(not that we should ignore the Tibetan plight obviously)

:topic btw, leading into anzac day and all, remember that China lost a lot more than we did in WWII. (in fact a lot of countries did - when you include the civilian casualties)

Poland 16.10% (majority Jewish)
Russia 13.77%
...
China 3.8%
...
NZ 0.67%
Aus 0.58%
.....
USA 0.32%

There were twelve times the percentage of Chinese who died at the hands of the Japanese,
than Americans (USA) who died on all fronts in that war.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, when we lecture the Chinese about what it feels like to be persecuted - I'm guessing they already know.

https://www.aussiestockforums.com/f...43736&highlight=disproportionately#post143736

2020hindsight · 12 April 2008

kennas posted this article on POLITICS thread. ..
Imagine subjecting other countries to Brendan's bs were he to become PM.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23525541-2,00.html

The third was Dr Nelson's inability this week to articulate a clear position on China and Tibet - he was even contradicted by senior colleagues - as the Prime Minister performed strongly on the issue on the last leg of his 17-day world tour.

... this week insisted the Prime Minister should attend the Olympics even though other democratic leaders were considering staying away from the opening ceremony in protest at China's recent crackdown in Tibet.

He also criticised Mr Rudd for making public statements about human rights violations in China.

Dr Nelson's colleagues told The Weekend Australian his comments reinforced the proposition that the Opposition Leader stood for nothing.

Others said the fact that Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis contradicted his leader by saying no politician should go to the Games opening ceremony showed how little regard Liberals were giving to Dr Nelson's views.

None of the frontbenchers, backbenchers and former ministers contacted by The Weekend Australian offered any support to Dr Nelson on the issue of China, instead volunteering that he was almost certain to be challenged.

"Nelson's a dud," one shadow minister said. "The public have made up their mind on him."

Another said there was "an air of inevitability" about Mr Turnbull becoming leader.

I heard Nelson being interviewed on ABC yesterday - full of criticism against Rudd - then against the Chinese - then against etcetc . Then he was asked "so, if the AOC decided to boycott the Olympics, would you support that?" -
answer "that is a matter entirely for the AOC".

as Charlie Brown would say, "hey, I've got an idea! - maybe I could be wishy one day - and washy the next!!"

2020hindsight · 12 April 2008

Beijing Airport's New Terminal Set to Open
The New Beijing Airport Terminal 3 Looks Similar To A UFO

The world's biggest airport opened in Beijing last month

It is 17% bigger that all five terminals at London;s Heathrow airport put together. - will serve 50 million people annually by 2020
(and what will that do to global warming and/or pollution).

The triangular skylights meant to look like scales of a dragon etc.

2020 said:
Then he was asked "so, if the AOC decided to boycott the Olympics, would you support that?" -
answer "that is a matter entirely for the AOC".

PS correction to previous... on recollection, I think the question was "so, if the AOC decided to boycott the Olympic Torch relay" - sorry.
but the answer was a complete hide-behind-the-AOC's-apron.

2020hindsight · 12 April 2008

:topic , The architecture olympics?

PS maybe a lot of that steel (44,000 tonnes) in the "Birdsnest" is Australian origin? started as red dirt in the Pilbara? now the main arena for the next Olympics? - complete with a few molecules of the Abs and the settlers and the explorers and the Dirk Hartogs and the Dampiers and their crews etc who wandered the Pilbara, - a few molecules of their ashes end up mixed with the iron ore? maybe?

Bird's Nest - Herzog & De Meuron in China.

Architecture Olympics * T3 Beijing Stadium
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erxzFxHR660&NR=1

Australian Olympic legend Dawn Fraser to boycott Beijing

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>Apocalypto<

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Australian Olympic legend Dawn Fraser to boycott Beijing

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