This video is about how China’s government suppressed the population prior to and during the Olympics to enhance the country’s image. It is made by Amnesty International. There were many other issues not just the suppression of people’s voices. This includes the taking away of land to build venues without compensation, and slums were covered up and people were displaced. Furthermore, people were locked away without trials, executed, and silenced. In the video, Amnesty international has talked about how the first step to better human rights is the taking some of crimes out of executable crimes. When people wants to find out about statistics on the number of executions for example, the government hides it. The government controls the traffic of the internet and that silences people’s voices largely, especially in this age of technology. People feel helpless when they want their voices to be heard, but have no outlet. When they do voice their opinions and suffering, they run the fear of being caught and locked up or executed.
I think this video relates to our class especially on the silencing of voices. The subaltern has their voice silenced by many factors. In this video, people are actually silenced by their government which is supposed to be looking out for their interests. These people don’t really have other options when trying to voice their opinion as the government can control activities of organizations in China. However, with the increasing integration of China into the world market and so on, China has to be more sensitive to human rights issue, and that I hope should help resolve some of these problems.