Watcha Gonna Do When They Call For You?
The time is winding down to the unveiling of the big event, the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. China has left no opportunity unturned to convince the world that she deserves to host the Games, that Beijing will prove to be a superior site, that the 2008 Summer Olympics will be a rip-roaring success, that visitors to the country will be amazed at the progress China has made in every avenue of civil, social, technological and ecological advance.Oops, scrub - no pun intended - that last one. Not for lack of trying. All those coal-fired furnaces endemic to China's economic success up until now have no doubt been retrofitted with scrubbers to ensure what they emit in the way of sooty carbon dioxide has been rendered as passable as possible. And, although Beijing's harbourfront has become a rank mess of foul aqua-bloom, and the city's atmospheric conditions remain as opaque as usual, she has solutions.
One million cars will be denied entry to that vast city's core, in a last-ditch effort to provide some semblance of breathable air for the athletes and visitors during the Games' duration. And good luck, there. Then, of course, there's the urgent situation with respect to China's recalcitrant human rights record. Which she claims she is steadily improving, but which the rest of the world - Reporters without Borders included - claim reeks of deception.
China's recalcitrant attitude toward condemning rogue countries like Burma, Sudan, and Tibet have gained her no defenders in the free world. Yet China has gigantic problems of her own, from the resurgence of Islamism among her Muslim population, to Tibetan nationalism in a part of the country that has historically resisted inclusion in greater China, seeking to reclaim Tibetan independence.
The country's thirst for energy has brought it into close embrace of some of the world's worst human rights abusers. China has observed common cause with and support for such terror-recognized groups as Hamas. China, along with Russia, has adamantly refused to add the heft of their censure within the international community and the United Nations to firm and specific condemnation of Iran's Ayatollahs and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
Yet during the catastrophic earthquake that brought death and chaos to the country, China demonstrated amply her emerging view of self as defender-protector of her own, and in the process casting adrift her traditional isolationism, requesting and appreciating any and all assistance from the international community, in coping with her huge tragedy. There is no denying that China is passionate about hauling herself into the upper circle of successful national economies.
The cultural atmosphere of political cleft is to encourage universal acceptance, moderation and opportunity for advancement among all her diverse population groupings. China, for all her faults - and she has many, not only her hard martial response toward dissidents and internal critics, but the unceasing war being waged against the Falun Gong, demonizing and criminally harassing their adherents at home and abroad - does genuinely seek to achieve a satisfied, egalitarian and homogeneously pacified population. Too bad people aren't ciphers.
So, the production of the 2008 Olympic Games, with all the frenzy of planning and cajoling of the Olympics Committee, the massive construction, the efforts at staging a huge event that will appeal in its presentation to foreign visitors, is the country's coming-out event, its long-awaited introduction to the rest of the world as a valued, admired and sterling member of the international community - one with mighty economic and political clout.
She already has attained some of those goals, but the country desperately seeks validation from the world outside. And part of that is her expectation that leaders of countries around the world will demonstrate their acceptance of China - the good and the questionable - in attending the opening ceremonies of the Games. To do so in the eyes of many is to demonstrate one's afflicted morality and conflicted ethics.
On the other hand, the world recognizes a commitment to encourage wayward countries to improve their social, political manipulation of their populations and to assist in their achievement of any advances toward democratic freedoms, however tainted they remain with residual elements of their original, often blighted ideologies.
So, in recognition of the strides that China has made so far, and in hopes of encouraging her to continue to open herself up politically to a relaxation of her stringent ideological control of her population and her relations toward the rest of the world, some significant world leaders have adjusted their original intent, and declared it to be their intention now to attend the opening ceremonies.
Besides which, world leaders, like any other denizens of this planet, feel a powerful draw to such events, extraordinary as they are. Sending a mixed bag of messages, to be certain, but extending a courtesy due in some part to incipient efforts with the hoped-for promise of more to come, the presidents of the United States and of France have announced their intention to attend. While other world leaders adamantly stick to their positions not to.
While many world leaders will continue to boycott the Beijing Olympics, some have gradually responded to personal requests to reconsider. Consider how far anxious Chinese authorities will accommodate the reluctant, when they go out of their way to provide unique arrangements to ensure that cultural and religious requirements are met for, for example, Israel's president, Shimon Peres. As the opening ceremony takes place on the Sabbath, special housing has been arranged so he may proceed on foot to the site.
Jewish groups are truly at opposite ends of the spectrum on this issue. Many of them adamantly against any Jewish presence because of the general perception of China's atrocious human rights record. Some Israeli and American Jews claim that official attendance represents a violation of Jewish tradition and morality. But the Office of the President has made the official announcement of acceptance, following notable efforts from the Chinese government and the Olympics Committee to ensure official representation of the State of Israel.
President Peres avows that he "sees great importance in the strengthening of relations between Israel and China, and in promoting economic, cultural and security ties". Undeniably pragmatic. And Israel must be pragmatic in the tenuous and bitterly militant world she inhabits. Besides which, there's an underlying connection: not only is President Peres the Honourary President of the Israel-China Friendship Association, being one of the architects of improving relations between the two countries, but there's an additional connection.
Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert's grandparents and parents lived in Harbin, in northeast China. He is reported to have said, in 2007, "We feel a lot of gratefulness for the Chinese people for the very warm and friendly manner in which they treated Jewish people both in Shanghai and in Harbin. So China is not another country for me. China is very much a part of my family heritage and memory of my family. And we have great love for the Chinese people."
Jews, it would seem, have lived in China for hundreds of generations. There are Jewish Chinese whose physical characteristics and facial features are undeniably oriental, through a gradual process of intermarriage, while retaining their Jewish identity. And, China, like Japan, provided a refuge for countless desperate Jewish refugees throughout the dread years of the Second World War. To Jews, that does count for a great deal.
Labels: Political Realities, Traditions, World News
posted by Pieface @ Friday, July 11, 2008
<< Home