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| Would you boycott just because an actor says to? |
| Yes |
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36% |
[ 4 ] |
| No |
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45% |
[ 5 ] |
| Couldn't care less about the issue |
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18% |
[ 2 ] |
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| Total Votes : 11 |
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Samantha
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
Location: Jinan-dong Hwaseong
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 Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 9:47 am Post subject: So one person protesting is supposed to stop everything? |
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070902/film_nm/gere_china_dc
| Quote: |
Gere touts new movie, urges Olympics boycott
By Michelle Nichols
Sun Sep 2, 10:10 AM ET
Actor Richard Gere chases a fugitive Bosnian war criminal in his latest movie role, but in real life the devout Buddhist is pursuing China on human rights abuses and says a boycott of the Beijing Olympics could help.
Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, told Reuters the 2008 Beijing Olympics were a good opportunity to encourage China to end human rights abuses in Tibet and allow the Himalayan region to decide its future.
Last month thousands of Tibetans marched in New Delhi and New York calling for a boycott of the Beijing games.
"A general boycott to me certainly has value; it's probably impractical, but emotionally absolutely makes sense," Gere, 58, said. "Why should the world reward people who are obviously so bad to their own people, so bad to other people."
"In the same sense, encouragement is really important," he said in an interview to promote "The Hunting Party," opening in U.S. theaters on Friday. "Not one country on this planet has got it all together, including the United States."
Golden Globe winner Gere, star of "American Gigolo" and "Pretty Woman," has long been barred from visiting China for his support of Tibet and in 1993 spoke out about the plight of the Himalayan region at the Academy Awards.
China has ruled Tibet since 1950. About 120,000 Tibetans are exiled in India, including the Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader -- who fled after a failed uprising in 1959.
Amnesty International and other rights groups say China is severely restricting the freedom of Tibetan people and suppressing their culture. China says it is helping a historically poor region develop.
"China should be achieving extraordinary greatness," Gere said. "At some point they are going to have to face the fact that this system they have committed themselves to will not work. The kind of pretend dualism of communism and capitalism will explode at some point."
HUNTING BOSNIAN FUGITIVE
In "The Hunting Party" Gere takes on another contentious international issue -- fugitives from the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
Gere plays war reporter Simon Hunt. In 2000 Hunt, cameraman Duck, played by Terrence Howard, and rookie reporter Benjamin, played by Jesse Eisenberg, set off on a sometimes humorous search for Bosnia's most wanted war criminal -- "The Fox."
The movie was developed from an Esquire magazine article by war correspondent Scott Anderson. Anderson and four other journalists reunited in Sarajevo in 2000 and came up with a sketchy plan to find top war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic.
To their surprise they came closer than they ever thought they would to finding Karadzic and had a run in with the CIA that left them with the impression that Washington didn't really want to catch war criminals.
Karadzic is a former Bosnian Serb political leader who has been indicted by a U.N. war crimes tribunal for genocide, but he remains on the run more than a decade after the war ended.
"The Hunting Party," directed by Richard Shepard, likens the half-hearted hunt for Karadzic to the U.S.-led search for Osama bin Laden -- founder of al Qaeda and accused mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States -- a skeptical view shared by Gere.
"They don't even talk about him anymore," he said. "It was very quick that it became 'Oh this isn't about bin Laden, this is about terrorism.' Who knows what goes on?" |
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Draven
Joined: 03 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:14 am Post subject: |
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| Silly question. |
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artyom
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:54 am Post subject: |
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so one person protesting is supposed to stop everything
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 12:43 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd rather just boycott Hollywood activism. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Your poll about an actor is silly. The issue the actor is concerned about is not silly. Why did you trivialize an important human rights issue? |
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Atavistic
Joined: 22 May 2006
Location: How totally stupid that Korean doesn't show in this area.
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Depends on the issue. |
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OiGirl
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: Hoke-y-gun
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:58 pm Post subject: |
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| He got you to talk about it and post his position here. |
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Scotticus
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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| OiGirl wrote: |
| He got you to talk about it and post his position here. |
Exactly. For all the people who bemoan how vapid Hollywood activism is (I agree, it's generally pretty shallow), it DOES get people talking. Richard Gere making the human rights issues in China known will do more than a thousand "normal" activists could ever do.
And in response to the original question of whether you should do it cause one actor said so, I say you should do it because the issue he is referring to is a serious one that is not being taken seriously enough.
I harp on the US's rights violations all the time, but China makes us look like boy scouts in comparison. I shudder to think of the PR Beijing is going to get from all the tourists who see big buildings and cleaned streets and say, "Wow, China is a great place." Obviously they'll never care enough to (or put in enough effort) to learn about the millions forcibly displaced by the construction, the homes torn down and the "dummy" buildings put up in front of the shanty towns (to hide them from the eyes of tourists). |
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Samantha
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
Location: Jinan-dong Hwaseong
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| Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2007 7:53 pm Post subject: |
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Well I meant to put some more options on the poll. Ones along the lines of Yes- but not because they say to; Yes- was already concerned/thinking about it; No- my action wouldn't affect anything. I just couldn't figure out how to word them last night.
I realize it's a serious is the title was supposed to be a little tongue in cheek. I wonder if having a celebrity call attention to the situation will actually make a differnce? I can see if enough people do the "what...hunh...there's something bad going on?" and start making a fuss about everything, China might start to do something. The question on that though is will it be lip service and a peace making attempt or something more permanent? |
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