The word “boycott” comes to us courtesy of the Irish land war in the 1880’s.
Today, it’s mostly being used in reference to the Beijing Olympics, and the concept that because of China’s poor record on Human RIghts/Environmentalism/Pretty Much Anything, Governments and athletes should boycott the games.
Leaving aside the whole debate about it’s just a bunch of over-trained, over-specialised naked apes performing for the amusement of the masses, it’s unlikely that any government is going to have the cahones to actually go through with a boycott.
Which means it’s up to us.
So, I personally will not be watching any broadcast of the Olympics, further I will not buy, or recommend any product from any Olympic sponsor, I will also happily tell people why I am not buying, and encourage them to join.
We might not be able to stop the Olympic Games in Beijing, but we can make it expensive for them.
The 2008 Olympic Sponsors are here.
1 response so far ↓
Daniel // April 7, 2008 at 1:26 |
It’s fun to be a total, ridiculous hypocrite. I’m happy to go on about the ridiculousness of the unwillingness of people to make small sacrifices when they themselves advocate radical action, but i would be dishonest to claim that I could go any decent period of time without purcasing a Coca-Cola product, and rest of the sponsors would be unliekly to have my business in any case.
I’ll make up for it one way or another!
My parents are visiting western rural China for a month or two fairly soon, and they’re pretty excited about doing some Risque Stuff They Probably Shouldn’t Really Be Doing. It’s fun to imagine that I have some kind of notoriety as an Internet Person and that my wild anti-Party rants will put them in danger. Basically trying to live your life as if it’s a William Gibson novel is hilarious.