‘We Didn’t Change China, But Protests Were Worth It’: From the Gazeta Wyborcza
Now that the 2008 Beijing Olympics have begun and President Bush along with about 80 other heads of state are in attendance, can it be said that all the demonstrating by Western human rights activists was for naught?
Having been imprisoned behind the iron curtain for decades, the people of Poland are particularly sensitive to this question, which is why the author of this article from the Gazeta Wyborcza, Ewa Siedlecka, points out that she is proud that Poland’s leaders have are not attendingtoday’s opening ceremony.
“Today’s opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing will be attended by the leaders of the free world, the president of the United States first and foremost. It is a day of triumph for communist China. So was it worth protesting? … It was. The worthwhileness of the matter isn’t measured by ‘winning’ or the chance of winning. Opposition to evil is a moral duty and a question of conscience, which every one of us must critically examine for ourselves.”
And of those who have braved the authorities in recent months to express their disapproval of the Beijing regime’s human rights record, Siedlecka writes:
“All of those who display Tibetan flags, demonstrate in front of the Chinese Embassy, protest, sign petitions and go to Beijing so that for a dozen seconds they can yell slogans or unfurl a banner before Chinese security drags them away - are living proof that the world hasn’t been completely bought off by China’s more-or-less virtual money.”
By Ewa Siedlecka
Translated By Marcin Wawrzynczak
August 8, 2008
Poland - Gazeta Wyborcza - Original Article (Polish)
Today’s opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing will be attended by the leaders of the free world, the president of the United States first and foremost. It is a day of triumph for communist China. So was it worth protesting?
It was. The worthwhileness of the matter isn’t measured by “winning” or the chance of winning. Opposition to evil is a moral duty and a question of conscience, which every one of us must critically examine for ourselves.
All of those who display Tibetan flags, demonstrate in front of the Chinese Embassy, protest, sign petitions and go to Beijing so that for a dozen seconds they can yell slogans or unfurl a banner before Chinese security drags them away - are living proof that the world hasn’t been completely bought off by China’s more-or-less virtual money.
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