This NOT what its about.

Some 300,000 Chinese citizens are being displaced, illegally (but what is law in China?), some being jailed. Why?

For the 2008 Olympics.

Yes, the games meant to promote peace between rival city-states in ancient times, where warriors would lay down their arms and instead compete in feats of atheltisism. An event that today marks the comming together of the whole world to share in the joy of friendly compet... oh who am I kidding?! Today, the Olympics are about $$$. Who has the deepest pockets gets both the games and the rights to broadcast, the right to have your little logo everywhere for the whole planet to see. That's what it's about.

China beat out Canada to host these games. Many critics at that time hoped that hosting the games would force many of the human rights abuses in China to come to light, and perhaps force a change. Well, I guess not. I seem to remeber certain groups rallying against Toronto hosting because of our homelessness issues. We do not have 300,000 new homeless on our streets. At least we didn't put any of our people there intentionally (althought I'm sure that point could also be argued).

Do we, as a people, care? Nope. So long as the Chinese people that make the cheap shit products we buy at Sprawl*Mart can still get to work, we're good.

Shame on all of us.

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online