The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics games are becoming very controversial because of China's continual human rights violations. There are certainly hopes that the totalitarian regime of China will adopt more liberal policies but will they?
Over seventy years ago at the 1936 Berlin Olympics there were similar hopes that good sportsmanship and the influence of other nations from around the world would win over tyranny and conflict. Despite the four gold medals of Jesse Owens, the Germans were able to hoodwink the world into believing that they were as civilized a nation as any other. Being naive, the Olympic competitors actually thought that their lofty ideas and Olympic spirit would win over Hitler's human rights abuses, but they were wrong.
In five months the nations of the world will be in a similar position when athletes from around the world will convene again in a country where basic human rights are denied. This is nothing but a show! Those who believe that human rights violators will change their ways live in a fantasy world. What is making them change? Nothing. They have gotten what they wanted-Olympic games in their country.
Have we really learned nothing since 1936? We do not listen the lessons history tries to teach us. Our children are taught a white washed, sanitized history or none at all!
