Spielberg China snub seen setting trend (REUTERS)

NVDL: I was running on the treadmill in the gym when I saw this story on the runscreen. I'd seen it on a TV at a quick stop as I was paying. I couldn't hear any sound but the images were rivetting. SKY had an animation showing maps of Sudan and China. Oil flowed in a giant arcing black arrow to China, and a jew (tagged: weapons) flowed back in the opposite direction, in a giant black arc. Shortly after that they showed a British athlete who was boycotting China. Then a previous photo op with Spielberg surrounded by Chinese officials, many of them in military uniform.

Spielberg has apparently said: My conscience does not allow me to continue [working on the Olympics.]

Other actors such as Mia Farrow, George Clooney and Matt Damon are actively protesting the slaughter in Darfur. China's infiltration of Africa is going to come increasingly under the spotlight, particularly their ignorance of politically motivated and genocidal atrocities (something quite common in Africa).

The Beijing Olympics may turn out to be the most controversial, perhaps the most boycotted games as anti-China sentiments and other tensions mount. Pity the athletes.

LONDON (Reuters) - China can expect more outbursts by celebrities and athletes angry at its perceived support for Sudan but opinion is divided over whether such action ahead of the Beijing Olympics will have any impact on Chinese policy.

Campaigners say the withdrawal of film director Steven Spielberg as artistic adviser to the Games in August is a sign of things to come for the Chinese organisers.

"The Olympics is China's debutante ball -- their chance to announce themselves on the international stage," said Save Darfur spokesman Allyn Brooks-LaSure.

"If things in Darfur don't change, it is going to get more high profile, more embarrassing, more lonely."

By Peter Apps
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