in a move designed to admonish china for their investment in the sudan and extend president bush's impotent assertions regarding human rights, the u.s. flag bearer at friday's lavish* opening ceremonies in bejing was lopez lomong, a former sudanese "lost boy" who is now an american citizen and 1,500 meter runner.while happy for lomong's personal success and intrigued by his personal story, i cannot help but note the hypocrisy of the american team's "statement" regarding human rights. maybe i'm crazy, but i suspect that a symbolic action condemning america's embrace of torture, practice of secret rendition and passionate persecution of unjust wars would make a slightly stronger statement about the american** commitment to human rights. sometimes i wonder if there is any end to american hypocrisy.
current reports out of china suggest that in response to american insolence, china's flag bearer at the closing ceremony will don this symbolic dress.* woo boy. no one throws a party like an asian authoritarian regime.
** f*ck yeah!
5 comments:
For what it is worth... the US athletes chose Lomong, not the gov't.
The Sudanese issues were amplified a bit when Joey Cheeks (founder of Team Darfur) had his visa withdrawn at the last minute.
thanks for the clarification. i knew about the selection, but still found the connection between the selection and bush's statements this week interesting.
i think it's a lot easier for our country to point out the abuses of others than it is to confront our own injustices. speck and the log, ya know.
wouldn't you know.
Oh... I agree with you that the US tends to do a great job on pointing out others' issues but never acknowledging their own.
And I would love to see the Joey Cheeks of the world (or... I guess... of the country) speak out about both Darfur AND Gauntanamo!
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