The Genocide Grand Prix?
With the Olympic Games being held in Beijing this year many influential people have used the opportunity afforded by the publicity to attack China’s abysmal human rights record and support for regimes that perpetrate genocide.
F1′s had a Chinese Grand Prix since 2004. So are none of F1′s millions of fans bothered about being tainted by association with a country that has perpetrated and facilitated immense cruelty?
F1 had to face a similar issue in the late 1970s and early 1980s as it continued to host races in Apartheid South Africa while international pressure grew on the racist regime.
It is a subject that provokes strong opinions – to many fans the intrusion of politics into their favourite sport is an anathema. Others resent it as a hypocrisy, claiming other countries commit crimes of equal or greater magnitude and no-one complains about them.
But the counter-argument to that is pretty strongly put too. In this case we’re talking about China backing a regime that has killed 200,000 people and displaced a further two million. The money to build the Shanghai International Circuit had to come from somewhere, and China cashed a pretty big cheque selling weapons to the Sudanese.
Whatever your feelings about the politics and the Olympic Games, it depresses me that the question of whether F1 should be racing in China under the circumstances has been largely overlooked.
If the Olympics are going to Beijing and drawing attention to a major international issue, F1 seems to be shuffling into Shanghai and doing its best to ignore the same issue. I wonder if that might change by the time F1 returns to China in October, two months after the Olympics have finished.
Photo copyright: Red Bull / GEPA
More on the Chinese Grand Prix
Michael K said on 20th February 2008, 10:29
First and foremost, openwheelfan, you still spelt Oppenheimer wrong ;-)
Almost everything has been said already, but the call for a protest at the race seems a bit iffy to me, I don’t exactly know how widespread watching the GP is within the Chinese population, but I have this feeling that no one gives a **** in China. So all that would happen is “the West” would see it and probably discuss it ad nauseum without anyone who has any relevance to it even noticing.
openwheel said on 20th February 2008, 12:39
Yes Micheal K I know I spelled “Oppenhiemer” wrong but my curser would not allow me to correct it.
Gman is supporting what I was trying to say. I never said to boycott. I feel that not staging the race would do more harm then not going. Gman’s last paragragh is exact way I feel. I will not comment to Alvin’s post as this is not a politic blog.
Keith — great subject!!!!
Michael K said on 20th February 2008, 12:48
Oppenheimer, openwheelfan, Oppenheimer :-D
openwheel said on 20th February 2008, 13:06
LOL I need to keep people on their toes!!
Alianora La Canta said on 20th February 2008, 16:08
The reason why the China question has been overlooked in Grand Prix racing is because most people who know how races are selected know it’s entirely down to money. Those who don’t know generally don’t care, because they don’t care about F1 either. They do not see F1′s presence in China or anywhere else as a badge of approval for that country – except, perhaps, that it proves it has a powerful enough economy to hold a race.
The Olympic Games, on the other hand, is traditionally apolitical (the whole “sport and politics do not mix” notion was put into the Olympics in a failed attempt to stop the two getting mixed). Anything which is seen as altering that apoliticism is considered serious, so going to a country where the politics may affect the sport is complained about very seriously. If China had a history of allowing free speech, it probably wouldn’t be in half as much trouble as it is with the Olympics people. Other, more serious consequences would ensue, but that’s another story.
Sport is like science. For the best performance, it should not be contaminated by outside influences. However, for it to have an effect in the rest of the world, it must inevitably invite matters from outside in (including politics).
As for the whole “not going to countries where human rights abuses still occur” issue, I can tell you that not only does no such country exist, but that every country is still engaging in human rights abuses at this time. A cursory look at the websites of psychiatric support organisations will demonstrate that every country which recognises the term subjects at least some people with that label to treatment that could be considered inhumane simply because of that label. That this is against the UN Charter of Human Rights appears to have missed those countries.
That said, I have to boycott China for the foreseeable future. I have Asperger’s Syndrome, which is on the autism spectrum and classified as a mental disorder. Until Chinese law changes, I am therefore forbidden from entering the country. At least Singapore doesn’t actively discriminate against people of a different neurology…
Vertigo said on 20th February 2008, 16:54
I know we’ve spent ages saying this isn’t a political blog, but Alianora la Canta’s statement that China doesn’t let in people who have mental disorders is despicable. What’s even worse is that I had no idea this happens. F1 or no F1, people should be made aware of this sort of evil prejudice.
Arnet said on 20th February 2008, 16:59
I stand corrected. The Olympics just gota little bit more political, with British athletes getting a gag order.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=513362&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
openwheel said on 20th February 2008, 17:55
After Alianora’s latest post I think that more discussion on the politics in sports may be warranted. For us to discuss this first we have to discuss ourselves. As I have read above “we” are against human right abuses. Most law abiding people are. It is when we get in a group situation that abuse becomes a viable option in certain situations. I know first hand how this can happen trust me!! This brings me to the socialogical aspects of groupthink that occurs within military units as well as governments in general. This occurs more often than we think. Sometimes it occurs with issues that have nothing to do with human rights. We also have governments run by outright sociopaths as in North Korea. We would never think of staging a race there. Not just because it has no facility but we all realize it would just be wrong. Personally with my own involvement in difficult situations the line which we all would like to use is never stable. It not as easy as “right is right and wrong is wrong”. When I was young I could think that way – Today I am not so sure. Alianora brings a salient point that effects her personally and I agree with her. I had no intention on going to China. But if I had I would not now. Discussions like this can make you ask difficult question. The problem is that people tend to answer too quick. Every situation that has potential for abuse is different. As hard as it may sound military units and goverenments commit these abuses honestly thinking that the good outways the bad. Groups think very Machiavellian(sp?). Individuals tend not to.
Arnet said on 20th February 2008, 21:44
But this is where we as fans can participate. It is out of our hands where F1 races will be held, but we can choose to not be consumers there. Drop in the bucket, of course, the races will sell out, but at the end of the day, we have to follow our individual conscience.
milos said on 21st February 2008, 3:39
China is a very complicated issue. The world has created China as it is today, so if anybody is to blame for the situation are all those who want to buy things cheap… Would please everybody who added their bit to this discussion right now look around and count how many made in China clothes you wear right at this moment, how many made in China things you have around yourself right now, what percentage of your electronics gadgets are made in China. If you are an iPod user you have at least one if you need a hint …
I spend lot of time in China and I developed an extremely strong allergy to that country – especially to the “culture”. No manners, greed, coruption, everybody out to rip somebody off, everybody cheating everybody else, ignorance, nationalism whatever bad comes to your mind you can find it in China … Get rich quick and burn everything around in the process is what the country is about. Whatever you may think about the ideology or political system is just the packaging. The coommunist ideas do not exist in China anymore. Money is their god … If you think that locals can’t afford to buy F1 tickets you are very very wrong … Yes there are hundreds of millions that earn next to nothing, but I can tell you that a grand stand ticket in Shanghai is as affordable for middle class Shanghainese as is a grandstand ticket in affluent Singapore affordable for middle class Singaporean … But in China you have millions of very very rich … Go to any hole of city with 200 – 300,000 people ( a village in China scale ), and count all the Audis, Mercedeses, BMWs, Buicks, Porsches, Passats … then wonder why F1 is there… Not because Honda makes cars in south China, because everybody who makes fancy cars sells a lot in China …
I would love to deal with other countries and everytime an opportunity comes to switch something from China somewhere else I am very happy to do so. But … the greed of the world does not allow that. People vent their opinions and feelings like here below this post, but when it comes to everybody’s wallet, people prefer to pay a dollar for China made stuff insted of 3 for Korean, 5 for Japanese or European or American …
So, if we all want to send message out, just stop being hypocrats and stop buying Chinese stuff. Instead of 20 cheap T-shirts a year buy 2 expensive ones, instead of changing mobile phones every year or more often keep one for 5 years, it will still dial the number, instead of giving the kids 10 new toys every week, give them 1 every month … And ditch all the “designed in California assembled in China” iPods… Until we are willing to that, we have no right to complain about China holding the Olympics or F1 races …
Sorry for this rant …
Daniel said on 21st February 2008, 13:57
Once I thought the discussion was over, milos shed some new light on it…
Once again, I agree with you. Chinese products are low cost for us at a high cost of labour rights violations and heavy enviromental damage… And our “awareness” to judge the news is as important as when we act individually as consumers and citizens…
On the other hand, we should not forget that chinese products were responsible for helding inflation rates at low levels worldwide for the last decade, especially at the US…
openwheel said on 21st February 2008, 14:25
Milos,
Your “rant” is worthy of a reply. I agree with everything you said. Words are easy for us, action on the other hand is much more complicated. The economic consequences of boycotting or cutting back on imports from China would affect the world economy . I am not saying that it is “right” to buy “made in China”. I just think that the work to do this for every consumer is daunting. For example some goods are assembled in Mexico with parts from China. The greed is worldwide and F1 is not immune to it. The venues in China can foot the bill. As Alianora said before “Bernie will go where the money is”.
Ned Flanders (@ned-flanders) said on 17th February 2011, 15:59
Well, all of a sudden this article seems very relevant again!
Me too… but it encourages me that people aren’t prepared to turn a blind eye to the situation in Bahrain right now