Lest we not forget

The Beijing Olympics came to an end today. A lot of importance was placed on these games, labelling them as China's coming out party. The Olympics did show a different face of China. We saw the emergence of a new China, a country that has wealth, modern architecture, and rich ancient culture. The opening ceremony alone showed that China led the West toward it's 20th century glory, and it is ready to takeover the reins again.

The games also saw the emergence of Michael Phelps, and Usain Bolt. The latter had the scientists wondering how fast can humans really run.

But in the midst of these games, the question regarding the Darfur Genocide remained unanswered. I know politics should be left out of the games, and it is not like the G8 countries are doing much for the genocide or about the human rights violations in Guantanamo. But, I also believe that since China opened its doors for the rest of the world, China could have been more willing to cave to the international pressure, to exercise its economic influence on the Sudanese government to bring an end to the genocide.

One Olympian who I immensely respect, more than Phelps or Bolt, is ex-speed-skater Joey Cheek. After his Gold victory at the Turin Winter Olympics, instead of gushing over the Gold, he used his 15 minutes of fame to talk about the Darfur Genocide. He donated his victory money to provide food and shelter to the displaced Darfurians in Chad. Cheek was planning to go to Beijing to speak for the voiceless, nameless Darfurians, but his visa was revoked by the Chinese authorities. However, he decided to turn this negative situation into a positive and decided to speak up against the Genocide from America.

The reason I am writing this post now is because I don't know if Darfurians would ever get a platform where their problems would be addressed, and finally be solved after four brutal years of killing and physical violation of women.