Why China in 2008?
Many Americans were deeply disappointed when the International Olympic Committee voted to hold the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
But I can only imagine how crushing this news must have been to those prisoners of conscience — Catholic Christians, political dissidents, Tibetan nationalists, and others — including American citizens — who languish in communist Chinese jails.
The Chinese government supposes that it can hide its atrocities behind the drama of athletic competition. But if medals were given to nations for committing human rights abuses, China would win the gold every time.
Human rights conditions in China today are in many respects worse than when I discovered China’s brutal one-child policy in the early 1980s. And they are likely to get worse, much worse, in the run-up to the Olympics.
The Chinese government will use the games to spruce up its international image, while at the same time strengthening its hold on the Chinese people. Beijing will receive a face-lift, buildings will be refurbished and dead grass will be painted green.
At the same time that they’re sweeping the streets, they will sweep up dissidents of all kinds, who will be arrested and banished to the countryside, or even sent off to labor camps. The international media will arrive in Beijing to find the city sterilized of all possible protest. The games will not bring change to China, but instead a wave of persecution.
For me, one of the most disturbing aspects of the games is the construction of new stadiums. You see, stadiums in China are used not just for soccer games, but for public executions. Like the Coliseum of Ancient Rome, these stadiums have become killing fields, where thousands of people have been executed without due process. More people are executed in China each year than in the rest of the world combined.
The day of an execution, the stadium is filled with people. They are there by government order, there to learn the dangers of crossing the government.
The prisoner — sometimes there are several — is marched in and forced to kneel in the middle of the field. After his crimes are read, he is killed by a single shot to the back of the head.
Once the Summer Olympics of 2008 are over, once the athletes and the international press leave, the playing fields of the new stadiums will become killing fields as well.
At its highest level, the Olympics celebrate the human spirit. It is not just about soccer or the decathlon, basketball or the long jump, but the freedom of men and women to do their best — to be the best that they can be — in every field of human endeavor.
This is why the games should always be held in countries where human rights are respected. This is why Beijing, where that overarching spirit is violated every day, is such a bad choice for the Summer Olympics of 2008.
Spanish Government Looking for Babies
The government of Spain recently turned its attention to the problems of its low birthrate, encouraging women to have more children for the sake of the country. Spain currently has the world’s lowest birthrate, at 1.2 children per woman. The low birthrate has led to an aging population, with more people over the age of 65 than under 15. Dr. Juan Antonio Fernandez, a demographer with Spain’s Superior Council for Scientific Research, believes that by the year 2050, Spain will need four times the number of people it currently has in order to keep its pension system going.
Unfortunately, the government’s pleas, broadcast on radio and television, are falling on deaf ears. Many Spanish women are like Stella Villamermea, a 33-year-old from Madrid, who believes that, “having babies is not our only role in life. It’s not even a duty.” Her husband concurs, stating, “we never even thought of having children before.”
Dr. Fernandez isn’t optimistic that the birthrate is going to increase in the near future. He suggests the government increase immigration, as a way to counter depopulation. But recently passed laws have made immigration to Spain difficult, especially for workers from North Africa and Morocco.
The Spanish government’s tactic of convincing women to “put aside their ambitions and reproduce for the sake of the nation” is doomed to failure. Unless women like Villamermea and their husbands see babies as blessings, as goods to be desired in themselves, they are unlikely Lo make the sacrifices necessary to have children.
(“Spain’s Baby Bust,” by James Heer, National Post, 17 July 2001 quoted in LifeSite Daily News, 18 July 2001)
