Hollywood Needs To Leave 2008 Olympics in China Alone

By Holly Wood. We are detecting a movement by certain elements in this business to protest the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We say "Stop It Now" because any sort of boycott would be counterproductive to the best interests of the United States and destructive to Beijing/Hollywood relations. Moreover, it would just be plain out stupid. Trying to use the Olympics as a political tool will not change conditions in Darfur. And Stephen Speilberg withdrawing as an advisor to the 2008 Olympics was completely ineffectual. A personal indulgence by a rich Hollywood director. An empty symbolic gesture at best. Has Speilberg even been to Sudan? And Mia Farrow calling them "the Genocide Olympics" is useless name calling.

China is a major trading partner with Sudan purchasing oil and staying out of the country's internal affairs. Admittedly not getting involved to try to prevent the mass murders, rapes and population displacement is a moral dilemma, but does the U.S., and particularly Hollywood, have any case for claiming moral superiority in this area? We don't think so. What have the USA and Hollywood done to stop the so called genocide in Darfur? Not much but talk. And the occassional photo-op drive by. As we have learned in Iraq, if you get in for a penny you get in for a pound and the Chinese simply want the oil without the responsibility of nation building. Imagine that. And from where we sit America has no special claim to lecture China on human rights. If America is so interested in preventing human rights abuses in Sudan then the USA should do something about it instead of arrogantly trying to pressure China to pressure the Sudanese government in Khartoum to be humane. Regardless of what ever else we do or don't do, just leave the 2008 Olympics alone.