1 million 300,000 signatures for the respect of human rights and the principle of self-determination of peoples
1 million 300,000 glances of disapproval toward the Olympic torch which celebrates the power of those who don't want any question to their own power
1 million 300,000 voices against the shameless opportunism of Western governments that give priority to GDP growth regardeless to moral issues
1 million 300,000 choirs against cultural genocide in Tibet and Eastern Turkestan, against 5,000 death sentences each year, against the repression of dissent
1 million 300,000 switched off TVs during the Olympic Games 2008
1 million 300,000 unsold copies of the main sport magazines
1 million 300,000 click less on the main online newspapers
1 million 300,000 advertising contracts less for those who give us information deprived of any content
1 million 300,000 people who believe that a better world is possibile
Gandhi said: be the change you wish to see in the world!
It would be a claim opposed to a true culture of peace asking a few thousand professional athletes to sacrifice years and years of work, to sacrifice perhaps the only chance in life to get a sponsor, because *** I *** do not agree with the significance of these Olympic Games 2008.
I do not agree then I boycott! I do not watch the Games on TV, I do not buy newspapers that talk about it, I do not talk with friends about it, I delete the Games from my existence. This year I will live without the Olympics.
This is non-violent struggle, intellectual resistance, active citizenship: let's turn off the Olympic torch by the cold of our disapproval!
By the same disapproval we will hit the hypocrites trade agreements signed by our blind politicians, the tributes to an illiberal regime by our deaf politicians, the silence on human rights by our dumb politicians.
By the same disapproval we will hit all acts of abuse, oppression, repression, cancellation of the opposition and dissent that go on all over the world, from China to Italy, from Tien An Men to Abu Ghraib to Bolzaneto.
We will rise our voices at the same time against all the lies to justify war, against all the hidden wars in the world, against the dominance of economy on civil society, against the increase of GDP at the expense of moral issues, we will shout to the arrogance of those who believe that having the power means having the truth.
Let's turn off the Olympic flame, unguilty symbol of injustice in the world.
During the Olympic Games, let's turn off TV!
This appeal starts from the BIPPIblog but must travel on the web. I invite all the bloggers to publish it.
I invite all my five readers to copy and paste this post on all blogs and forums that you can find, on message boards and mailing lists. Translate it into other languages, send it to all by mail, stick it in university bulletin boards, send it to newspapers and radios. I invite all those who live without chains to dissociate themselves from these Olympic Games 2008 and to declare it with a message. Declaring is important, so that everybody will be able to read and know it: I do not agree!
We are millions, let's not be dumb, we too, in this desert of dumb television, let's rise our voice high on Internet, the last place of intellectual freedom; let's hit the blind, deaf and mute power in his wadding kingdom of money and publicity; let's shout our peaceful protest in the only way that the nomenklatura and the caste can understand: let's turn off TV!
PS
Till May 10th there will be no other posts on this blog.
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2 comments:
I have thought long and hard about this one Bruno, and I can't bring myself to agree with the boycott.
Much as I love to support the work you are doing, I wont be putting this petition on my blog.
I remember vividly the 1981 Springboks tour of New Zealand. I don't want to see a repeat in any way because of a boycott of the Olympics.
I would rather look for a positive action, although I don't know what that could be.
Can anyone out in cyberspace think of an alternative?
I don't know. Boycott is always a way to make a statement about something.
I read about The Tour and can agree that sports boycott is a somewhat funny way to support political opinion because sport itself is something that can unite and give peace to the world and has only little to do with politics.
But when I try to find positive actions it is hard to find something that would be as effective as a boycott of the olympic games. Especially because the games are used for propaganda as it looks like.
The best would probably be to go to China and inquire about Tibet or to not boycott the games and still report on everything political, putting more attention to the games but also increasing the political pressure. That could also be a good thing.
Maybe it is also to early to call for a boycott - when the games start in three months we should reconsider a TV boycott again.
If it is evident that the games are rigged, the China team is doped and Tibet is even worse off, we all should go there and knock on their heads until sanity comes out of it. But before that we will turn off the TV and boycott ;-)
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