By Derrick O'Keefe and Melanie Raoul - Znet

David Emerson, Canada's foreign minister, attended the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games and made it clear that he felt that this was not the appropriate time to talk about human rights, "We're no shrinking violet on [the human rights] issue but we don't see the Olympics as the venue to make that point"...Perhaps Emerson was concerned that the world would be impolite about Canada's human rights record when Vancouver hosts the 2010 Winter Games.

Martin Lukacs | Rabble

In this small, impoverished northern village, people eke out a miserable existence. One of the world's most powerful countries occupies their land, plunders their resources, interferes with their governance and seems intent on assimilating them into wider society.

With its Olympic Games at hand, the country would rather the international community dwell on its national achievements than cast scrutiny on these abuses.

By WILLIAM BLUM - March 29 / 30, 2008

It's nice to see the West's conscience stirred up. They're real good about such things, when the target is not one of their own, particularly against a communist country. In 1980, 62 nations -- including the United States, Canada, West Germany, Japan, and Israel -- boycotted the Olympics in Moscow because the previous year the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan. Four years later, the Olympics were held in Los Angeles. Not a single member of "The Free World" boycotted it, even though the previous year the United States had invaded Grenada...

by Seumas Milne - The Guardian

If a government wants to abuse human rights and rig elections, it needs to have the support of - or be - the western powers...[T]he best chance both of settling the Zimbabwean crisis and of meeting Tibetan aspirations is without the interference of western powers, which would do better improving the human rights records of their allies and themselves.

By URI AVNERY - Apri1 7, 2008

The world media are shedding tears for the Tibetan people, whose land is taken from them by Chinese settlers. Who cares about the Palestinians, whose land is taken from them by our [Israeli] settlers?...[T]he Israeli spokespersons compare themselves - strange as it sounds - to the poor Tibetans, not to the evil Chinese. Many think this quite logical.