A lot of my fellow Cuba bloggers have lambasted Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for indicating he might be willing to meet with Cuban dictator Raúl Castro, with few, if any, pre-conditions. A bad idea, perhaps, and Obama has somewhat fuzzied up his position — although maybe a bold move like that might be what it takes for the United States to finally effect change on the island after almost 50 years. My cohorts argue that what Obama suggests would weaken the U.S. position as regards to Cuba and reward the tyranny in Havana. And Obama's proposal, they argue, shows that he is unfit for the presidency.
If that is true, what does it say about the United States, that President Bush has announced that he will attend the opening ceremonies of next month's Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, the capital city for one of Cuba's rivals as the most repressive regime on the planet? I know, I know, Bush has talked tough about Cuba, and the Chinese practically own the United States, but I wonder what the Tibetan people think about Bush's travel plans? Do they see the hypocrisy?
For one, Reporters Without Borders, one of the most vociferous critics of the dictatorships in Beijing and Havana, is not impressed by Bush's plans. (French President Sarkozy apparently is also planning to travel to China for the Olympics.)
"Sarkozy and Bush are now depriving themselves of a means of leverage that might have led to the release of imprisoned journalists and human rights activists. We would like to know on what grounds these two presidents have reached their decision. There is still a month to go before the start of the 2008 Olympics. Now is the time for a massive campaign for an improvement in the situation of free expression in China. We appeal now for demonstrations outside Chinese embassies all over the world during the Olympic Games opening ceremony on 8 August.
"As we do not have permission to go to China, still less to demonstrate there, we will organise a cyber-demonstration outside a virtual version of Beijing’s Olympic Stadium on our website (www.rsf.org), which will begin on 8 August and will continue throughout the games. Everyone will be able to participate in this protest and express their disagreement with the detention of prisoners of conscience and the continuing crackdown on dissidents.
"There has been no improvement in the situation of free expression in recent months and arrests are continuing at the same pace," Reporters Without Borders added. "Huang Qi, the well-known editor of a human rights website, was arrested in June in Sichuan province, while journalist Sun Lin was given a four-year prison sentence for contributing to a website based outside China."
Read the rest of RSF's news release, here.
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