I saw the much maligned President on TV.
“I’m going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event.”
On Wednesday, movie director Steven Spielberg resigned as artistic advisor to the Beijing Olympics, citing concerns over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, which he linked to China.
Bush said in the interview that what Spielberg did was “up to him”.
“I’m not gonna go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way,” Bush said, adding that he has “a little different platform” to Spielberg to communicate with Chinese leaders. …
It’s not often I agree with George Bush. But in this case, he’s right to go.
Dialogue is better than boycott. I still feel rotten about Olympians forced to boycott Moscow 1980, L.A. 1984 and the other boycotts.
Olympic swimmer Dean Kent from New Zealand just wants to compete:
“I’ve had so many friends who trained all their lives to make it to the Olympics and miss out, and then for people to expect us to be worrying about anything other than enjoying the experience peeves me a bit.
“If they want to protest about it, fine – they can come over and do it. But it seems like people are trying to use athletes and the Olympics as a stage to politicise problems people have in their own countries.â€
I should add that I respect Spielberg’s decision too. He’s an honourable, intelligent guy who’s doing what he feels is morally right.
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