The ancient Greeks believed that the Olympic Games would bestow good fortune and divine compassion upon them. They would cease all wars and conflicts during the Games, and compete for a crown of olive leaves.
Today, after hundreds of years, one wonders how much of the spirit of the Olympics and its deeply-rooted and pure ideals have remained in the Games.
According to the Olympic Charter, "The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."
In this context, the Olympic Games by itself or in conjunction with other organizations help to promote world peace.
However, with a glance at history, we can see that the new Olympic Games, since their establishment, have gone through many tragedies over the years including wars, racial discrimination, genocide, and persecution of religious or political movements. For instance, the Berlin Olympics (1936) were held during the reign of the Nazi Party, a dictatorial Party that killed millions of people.
These Games were canceled during the Second World War. The Moscow Olympics also more or less lost its validity after 64 countries boycotted the Games due to Soviet's invasion of Afghanistan. In protest of this occupation, instead of flying their own flags, 15 nations marched with the Olympic flags during the opening ceremonies.
This article was originally printed in Persian on the front page of Hambastegi Newspaper on Dec. 24, 2007 in Iran.
The honor of hosting the 2008 Olympics has been given to a regime with a dismal human rights record.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had requested the hosting of the 2000 Olympics Games back in 1993. At that time, Beijing's Mayor, Chen Xitong, who was a main player in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, was sent to the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to represent China. As was expected, their request was turned down.
In hopes of improving the human rights situation in China, the Olympics Committee in 2001 granted hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing.
However, not only has the human rights situation in China not improved, it has even become worse in some aspects. One of the serious cases of human rights violation on the verge of the 2008 Beijing Olympics is the continuation of the persecution of practitioners of the Falun Gong spiritual practice.
In 1992, Falun Gong (Falun Dafa), was introduced to the public as a way to cultivate the mind and the body.
It is a practice coming from ancient Chinese culture and civilization. Within a very short period of time, over one hundred million people in China and other countries started practicing Falun Gong. This practice consists of 5 gentle exercises along with some teachings based on three principles of Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance.
Since 1999, the CCP has outlawed Falun Gong and has started persecuting this practice on a wide scale. It has been reported that over three thousand Falun Gong practitioners have died under torture in prisons and forced-labour camps. The actual number is believed to be much higher.
The most appalling part of this real story is the horrific organ trade that the CCP conducts by removing organs from Falun Gong practitioners (while they are still alive) and selling them to people needing organ transplants.
Reporters Without Borders (RWB), as an international organization, in a letter to IOC has requested that Beijing be asked to act out its promises and to settle the sorry state of human rights in China.
The RWB has created a symbol of five handcuffs in place of the Olympic rings to represent the Beijing 2008 Games. This sign symbolizes that the CCP has turned the nation into a big prison; it is a reflection of the pain the people of China suffer from lack of freedom.
As RWB points out, "Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky's outraged comment about the holding of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow–'Politically, a grave error; humanly, a despicable act; legally, a crime'-remains valid for 2008."
Translated from Persian and published with permission.