The White House announced today that President George Bush is set to grace the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games in China, despite repeated calls by international human rights organizations for him to stay away from the said games.
This is contrary to what many believed that the US president should stay away from the Olympics, as part of the clamor from human rights organizations around the world for him to ignore the Chinese government’s invitation due to the prevailing unrests in Tibet, where scores of people were killed already as chaos builds up in that part of the world.
White House sources reasoned out that it has nothing to do with politics but the participation of the athletes in this worldwide sports events. I don’t think that the mere absence of the US president will ever create a vacuum of attendance from participating teams once the Olympics started.
It would be uncanny, however, if some of the participating teams from the west will decide to boycott the Olympic games in China, in protest of the Chinese military’s crackdown against the protestors who have destroyed properties inside Tibet’s capital. But it seems international teams have geared up to really show off their wares in the forthcoming Olympic games in Beijing.
Of course, one major thing that the Chinese government should do is to ensure that security before, during and after the games is properly put in place. However, in a country where human rights violations are common place, who would dare do some shenanigans?
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