Boycott the Olympics is that enough?

[the.fee.fairy]

i don't think that it is logical to boycott a single country either.

After all, we've followed the US into a futile war over oil, and we've done our fair share of treating people badly and turfing them out of their homes in the past. We've also locked people in asylums for no good reason and tortured them for information.

In my experience, of actually visiting China, i've found it to be a lot more free than is painted by the press.

Quite why they'll give everyone a downer on China and not the US is beyond me. After all, most computer parts and machine parts come from China, yet the '1st world' countries will happily support the trade behind the scenes, whilst condemning a governmental regime in the front.

And what about India? The treatment of the people is not much different. Or Singapore where you can be fined for not flushing a public toilet. The press were in uproar when the singaporean justice made the decision to hang a foreign drug smuggler, yet we allow foreign terrorists out of prison and onto the streets to spread racial hatred!

I do believe that it is the people of said country that make it. The people in India are not down because they live in what we would class as slums or, tents in some cases, they are pleased because they have a roof over their head. They have a saying 'We do not look to the man above us wanting to be him, we look at the man below, glad we are not him'.

The chinese people that i met seemed to be happy with the regime. I had long chats with local people about their state. We talked about the welfare state, and they have none. As far as they are concerned, there is no reason for anyone to not work, and they are pleased to work. how different is that to here, where the workers pay taxes to let a lot of people sit doing nothing (i know this is going to be an unpopular view...and i realise that not all people not working can help it, or help themselves for whatever reason...).

I also wonder whether sometimes, we, in the 1st world countries push out views onto others. We expect to live in nice houses and have the material possessions, and a lot of the problem is the we cannot think why others wouldn't want them. In Singapore, very very few people have kitchens in their homes. It is the same in China. They prefer to go out to the street sellers for dinner, or to go and eat socially with friends. Is there a problem with that?\I thnk not, but a lot of the press would have problems with that because they believe that a house should have a kitchen, and that it is uncivilised not to.

Toilets are another issue that i came up against in both China and India. A lot of the people i was in a group with made comments like 'they're animals' because they don't have 'western' toilets. Personally, i have no problem with a hole in the floor. The Chinese, for example, believe that it is more hygienic because their bare skin is not touching the place that another's bare skin has. Does this make them, or us uncivilised?

I'm ranting now...so i'll stop before i lose track!