Pride Goeth Before The Games

There has been a steady, ongoing rumble out of the West about the Olympic Games' venue in China, a country whose recognition of human rights is slight at best, absent when it affords them certain opportunities and advancements, at its worst. But the prevailing thought, when the Games were awarded, was that an anxious China would begin to see the error of its ways, in its need to present to the world as a premier location for the renowned Games.

Its prestige would rise as the world came to China to take part in the Olympics in the summer of 2008. Visitors to the country would see for themselves how technically advanced, how economically fruitful, how socially responsible, how governmentally respectable the country has become. They would view the games, look about at the splendours of ancient China, joined with its modern equivalent, and admire unstintingly.

And it's true that China has advanced its society in many ways. While spectacularly failing it in so many other, more significant ways. The quality of life in China has suffered exponentially as China has churned up its domestic production in its determination to become the world's trade and export engine. Workers' rights has suffered, the atmospheric conditions inimical to human health and well being have risen; care and treatment of the vulnerable has plummeted.

These are matters internal to China, as China insists. But her external influence which has been withheld in places like Sudan where she could exert that influence beyond a gentle chide, is what has infuriated human rights activists. To the extent that their high-profile and much-admired American trophy figure for the games, Steven Spielberg's bowing out as Olympic ceremonies artistic advisers has dealt a stunning blow to Chinese pride.

A petition desperately urging China's humane intervention in Darfur, signed by a significant number of Nobel laureates didn't crease the brows of China's bureaucracy, nor did the emphatic lobbying of any number of concerned diplomats and celebrities. But Steven Spielberg, yes indeed. Seems he enjoys a highly respected place in the Chinese public's esteem.

A public now expressing consternation and surprise, wondering what on earth distant Darfur's problems have to do with China's hosting of the Olympic Games. And reeling under the snub delivered to their country; their understanding of the situation somehow stunted by their government's information firewall.

Reporters Without Borders offers its opinion: "Every time a journalist or blogger is released, another goes into prison. China's dissidents will probably be having a hard time this summer."