the independent campus newspaper of swarthmore college since 1881

Saturday, July 5, 2008

« RETURN TO OPINIONS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »

Apt questions by protesters

In print | March 20, 2008

To the Editor:

STAFF EDITORIAL

I would like to thank Swarthmore for hosting the panel discussion entitled “China Meets the World: Olympics, Modernization, and Transformation” and for making the event free and open to the public.

I enjoyed reading the summary by Rosario Paz, which I thought was accurate except on one important point. The two Falun Gong practitioners who spoke did not make comments that were “only loosely related to the topics discussed at the event.”

They were, in fact, responding to slander created by the Chinese government and repeated by the Chinese students about the practice.

The question of religious freedom had been brought up by a Swarthmore student, so the practitioners’ comments were in no way irrelevant.

One of the Chinese students, in response to another question, likened China’s preparations for the Olympics to the situation of a student who has guests coming to a messy dorm room. The solution is to shove the clutter into a closet.

While that is a cute and appealing analogy, we should remember that some of the “clutter” that China is shoving into the closet is human.

Walt Babich
Instructor
English Language Institute
University of Delaware

Discussion

Comments are closed.

« RETURN TO OPINIONS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »