Chinese architectural designer Ai Weiwei, who conceived the now famous “Bird’s Nest” Olympic stadium design for the Beijing games, will not attend the opening ceremonies in protest against Chinese dictatorship. He has some powerful words of explanation in the Guardian today:
We must bid farewell to autocracy. Whatever shape it takes, whatever justification it gives, authoritarian government always ends up trampling on equality, denying justice and stealing happiness and laughter from the people.
(Guardian)
A bold and tremendously important gesture. Read the entire piece here.
I agree that we need to be critical, especially of China’s financial ties to Sudan, but I am also hesitant to express this as a punishment to the athletes in these events. I think the best action is to <a href=”http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/olympic-sponsor-speak-out-on-darfur”> boycott the opening ceremony </a> to punish the sponsor and those who stand to profit most from the “event” that is the Olympics, without depriving the athletes of their one day.
I guess i should have used the link button and not html…
here is the link again, cleaner.