more depressing shit

 with the olympics being held in china this year a lot of people around the world are pushing for a boycott of the games. i’m torn. i definitely don’t support china’s occupation of tibet, but i’m not sure that sports and politics should necessarily mix. the olympics do provide an international platform by which the participants can express their political beliefs and have potentially billions of people see it — mexico city games are a good example. however, i’m just not sure if a boycott is going to get anything done.

 there was a cyclone that recently hit burma causing a lot of damage and death. the burmese regime is blocking aid to affected citizens, and china is complicit with the regime’s actions. the chinese government has gone as far to block efforts by france to urge the un to enforce the delivery of aid. i donated $20 to the campaign to bring aid to the region, and have written an email to un secretary general ban ki-moon asking him to step in and do something (it’s strange to me that i even had to do that, like why can’t he just see the need to do it without being coerced into it?).

 now that you have read this email i think you should at the very least write to un sec general ki-moon for the same reason i did. donate money, too. if you choose to ignore this and go on living your life, that’s fine. it’s easy to disengage with the global community and forget about the gnarly shit going on around the world when it’s happening 15,000 miles away.