China, Olympic and Politics behind the sports

Can Olympic highlight the situation of Human Rights and freedom of speech in China? Would it be a mean to put pressure on Chinese government to bring change to their society? I believe it does. At first place Chinese authorities probably thoughts that hosting the Olympic can give them an amazing chance to promote the government and cover up their insufficiency in dealing with massive domestic demands to change the political and social sphere. Now, it seems that the Olympic Committee has been so smart to grant this opportunity to the communist China. During the last days the Olympic torch has become a source of protest and objection against the Chinese government. This will be continued throughout the spring and summer. No doubt that the Chinese government will be stuck in a huge dilemma that seem very unlikely to scape from.

Among the book and articles which have been published about this issue, I found Minky Worden's book, China's Great Leap: The Beijing Games and Olympian Human Rights Challenges , extremely informative, comprehensive and fresh. It included a variety of articles written by people who have first hand experience and insight about China today. During the last week I read almost the entire book and I enjoyed the diversity of perspectives and the depth of approaches. Minky Worden will be in San Francisco and will talk about her book in an event. (Read more here)