達富, 奧運

今日Darfur's sorrow : a history of destruction and genocide的作者M.W. Daly寫了一封信與NY Times:

To the Editor:

In "China's Genocide Olympics" (column, Jan. 24), Nicholas D. Kristof writes of a "growing recognition that perhaps the best way of averting hundreds of thousands more deaths in Sudan is to use the leverage of the Olympics to shame China into more responsible behavior."

Is this really the "best" the world can do, more than three years after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell testified about the genocide in Darfur? The suspicion is inescapable that Western governments' evasion of responsibility will only be abetted by efforts to channel public outrage into such ultimately futile gestures as placard-waving and armband-wearing at next summer's Beijing Games.

Worse, in the event that China's government did bring pressure to bear to stop the violence in Darfur before the Olympics, who can doubt that the killing would resume as soon as the athletes left Beijing and the world’s attention had turned elsewhere?

Popular campaigns to "shame" China give comfort to the United States, NATO and other governments that have done little or nothing to back up with action their oft-professed concern for the people of Darfur.

Until the American public demands an end to the games in ashington, it will be hypocritical and counterproductive to target the Beijing Olympics.

Martin Daly

Waterville, Me., Jan. 24, 2008