Why Canada Should Boycott the Beijing Olympics

In 1980, Canada participated in a boycott of the Olympic Games in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. It's ironic in some ways that we'd participate in an invasion of the same country just over twenty years later, though for far different reasons. In 1984, the Soviet bloc boycotted the Los Angeles in Olympics, leading to the best medal year in US history, as the Simpsons famously parodied.

So here we are in 2008 with the Olympics in Beijing fast approaching. China is itself an odd case when it comes to liberty and human rights since nothing is ever black and white. The People's Republic of China (not to be confused with the Republic of China, aka Taiwan) runs the country in a quasi-Orwellian fashion. The government keeps a close eye on people's communications, filters out foreign news, rewrites history, and makes people disappear if they don't comply with the state's rules. Ironically, the PRC has kept up the famous Chinese tradition of petition. China is communist only on paper these days, moving to a sort of capitalistic socialism since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. The government is run by a technocratic oligarchy.

The whole issue with the 2008 Olympics comes over the region of Tibet. Up until 1950, Tibet was an independent nation, though China has always asserted some degree of influence over the nation. This is one of the few things the PRC and the Republic of China can agree on. I find this somewhat ironic since I consider the Republic of China to be an independent state, and what's to stop the PRC from putting it back under its boot heel, given the UN ignores it. I digress. Tibet is a major spiritual capital for the Buddhist religion. Famous exiles include the Dalai Lama. The exiled parliament of the nation currently holds its capital in Dharamsala, India.
China must have been pretty foolish to assume that the Olympics would not draw attention to the country's numerous and flagrant human rights abuses. Riots broke out in Lhasa, the traditional capital of the region, in protest against the Chinese government. The Chinese government shot and killed several protesters, though there are conflicting amounts of just how many. China to the rare position in which they actually admitted they had done it, though I'd be more inclined to believe Tibetan figures than theirs. Without foreign observers, we may never know for sure. In the aftermath, the city has been locked up tighter than Fort Knox. Buddhist monks, who did not participate in the riots, have been put under house arrest. Buddhism follows a principle similar to Ghandi's Satyagraha, the path of non-violent resistance. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly stressed this. Many people agree that the Chinese subjugation of the region and the oppression of its people is wrong. China has repeatedly denied that such subjugation exists. Pro-government supporters protesting in Toronto yesterday reiterated that position. With all that has gone on in China lately, as well as in the past such as the infamous Tianamen Square incident (where on this spot, nothing happened) and the bloody Cultural Revolution. The Western World obviously disapproves but will we do anything about it?

Back to the topic at hand about a possible boycott. I think Canada needs to boycott the Beijing Olympics. Not just the opening ceremonies but a total, complete boycott like in 1980. The Canadian government has been repeatedly stressing the human rights issue in China. This has been one of the corner stones of the Harper government. It has been argued that this has led to a chilling of relations between Canada and the PRC. Many argue that a boycott will not do anything to help the situation. I would be inclined to agree but it does serve one purpose, that is to embarrass China during it's finest hour. I also think it would be hypocritical for Canada not to endorse such a boycott given our supposed devotion to human rights causes around the world. The West these days is all talk and no action. What makes China any different, just because we buy a lot of junk from them? China would be foolish to stop exporting its goods to the West because it would lead to its own economic destruction, given that much of the progress made relies on manufacturing and global business. Another common argument against a boycott is that it would be unfair to the athletes who have trained for years for the games. That is a rather selfish position from supposedly caring and good liberal Canadians. No matter how much they've suffered and sacrificed to train and excel, I can guarantee the Tibetan people have suffered more under the Chinese boot. Tibet is only one such example of people poorly treated under this regime. In retrospect, it was a very poor decision for the IOC to give the Olympics to China. Toronto should have been given the games. Though I did not support their bid back then, since I believed they could not pull it off (given their current financial situation, I was right), they were second place. The IOC however has a long line of questionable decisions behind it.

In conclusion, if Canada truly believes what it preaches to the world about human rights, we should have a complete and total boycott of the Olympic in Beijing. Lets establish ourselves as a world power by being the only nation brave enough to stand up to the red dragon and say "enough"!

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Earth Hour a Publicity Stunt

I remember way back when WWF meant a good smack down. Global warming shares a lot in common with pro wrestling, namely for showmanship and the fact that it's fake. The Luddites are at it again. The latest publicity stunt by a certain animal rights group wants us to turn all our lights off at 8pm on March 29th for an hour. It's been dubbed "Earth Hour". Supposedly turning all our lights off is going to save the planet. This certain group was originally created to preserve animal habitats but I guess they've been loosing publicity due to GW so have decided to hop on the bandwagon. How does one get attention in this day and age? Bring up GW of course. Earth Hour is nothing more than a publicity stunt that's more transparent than grandma's underwear. It does give me the opportunity though to find out which people on my street are utter morons. Personally, I intend to have my house lit up like the Griswalds' Christmas in protest. Toronto hopes 1 million people will join in but recent unscientific polls show that's not the case. 64% of CTV (liberal bias) viewers said they don't think the event will have any effect. A whopping 80% of Toronto Sun (conservative bias) readers said they would not participate. This gives me some hope that there is at least a majority of people in this world with their heads screwed on right. People smart enough to separate truth from brainwashing.

I really don't see how abandoning technology for an hour would do anything, even if global warming was real. Especially in Toronto where the vast majority of our electricity comes from nuclear and hydroelectric power, which don't emit carbon exhaust. Let the Luddites freeze in the dark for an hour, looking like fools. I'll be sitting here in the toasty warm glow of my electric lights, chilling with a couple video games, a hot cup of tea from my electric kettle, and my favourite albums.

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Are Study Groups Cheating? Ryerson Says Yes

Today, Ryerson university decided not to expel a first year engineering student for hosting a Facebook study group that was allegedly used by students to cheat on assignments. However, the university is still imposing academic penalties on the student, who will loose 20% of his year over this fiasco. You can read more details in the newspapers. I'm not a lawyer, but I believe this student has grounds for a lawsuit to get his 20% back. The whole incident also exposes who far behind the most "progressive" institutions are in this country.

Sites like Wikipedia and Facebook are popular among university students. The latter is a social networking site. Recently, many students have been setting up Facebook study groups to discuss notes and assignments without actually having to meet. Gone are the days of the long hours in the small rooms at the library, though universities haven't seemed to realize that yet. I don't use social networking sites, but I can't side with the university on this issue. It's absolutely ridiculous and a colossal waste of time on Ryerson's part. How is such a group any different from the students meeting at the library and working on the assignment together? According to them, this is cheating too but those groups aren't the ones being attacked. It's also worth noting that this particular student had only started the group and wasn't responsible for the posts in question. Seems to me he is just being made the black sheep. In my opinion, no academic offense was committed here. The university acted irresponsibly and should be made to reimburse this student's year, the money he spent fighting this, plus extra for them having sullied his good name. The whole issues just shows how technologically backwards today's academic institutions are in this day and age. Sure, they have all the latest gear but they're scared to death of it, and are hysterical students will use it to cheat. I think acts like this are punishing the majority for a small handful of people who would have cheated whether the technology was there or not.

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Full Metal Ignorance: Afghanistan is not Vietnam

Anti-war protesters, though with the best intentions, are quite misguided on the subject of the war in Afghanistan. The idea comes from the unwinable war that was Vietnam and that Afghanistan and Iraq are the same things. Lets forget Iraq for now and focus on the conflict Canada is involved in. Each time one of our soldiers is killed over there, there is a great deal of outcry about Canada being there in the first place. It stems from this idea that Canada is a peacekeeping nation, which simply is not true. In fact, Canada has been involved in comparatively few peacekeeping missions. We went in there as a response to 9/11. Canadians were killed on that day, and that was a legitimate act of war. The Taliban were the primary supporters of Al Qaida and hence, that was the belligerent nation responsible for the attacks. Some seven years later and the war continues long after the main fighting has ended. Are we really in a doomed circled of never ending violence as the anti-war people say or are we legitimately doing good? I say no to the first and yes to the second. First of all, wars simply do not end when the major fighting stops. World War 2 on it's grand scale took almost fifty years to be fully resolved after it officially ended in 1945. You can't honestly expect to go into a country and then just leave. That would be irresponsible and a crime against humanity.
Canada's main role right now is reconstruction in the most volatile Kandahar region. We are training their army and teaching them to build infrastructure in hopes that they will be able to regain full control soon. Remember that this country was a mess before we went to way with them. Arguable, the Taliban represented one of them most brutal and oppressive tyrannies that mankind has ever known. If we leave now, not only do we put years of progress down the drain, we risk condemning the Afghan people back to tyranny. This is not about imperialism or pushing western values on their culture. This is about human rights. Of course we all want the troops home as soon as possible but the anti-war people need to realize that this stuff doesn't happen over night.

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