“The truth, Helen, is always the right answer.”, so says Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List, Steven Spielberg’s 1993 biographical film telling the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust.

In a statement Spielberg released today he says :

Spielberg walks out on Beijing games in protest over Darfur | World news | The Guardian

“I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue business as usual. At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur.”

Just how someone who founded The Shoah Foundation to record and teach young people about the genocidal crimes of the Nazis and, latterly, the genocide in Rwanda got himself associated with the Chinese government amazes me.

Thankfully he seems to have come to his senses before it’s too late.

What a shame that George Bush seems to be still lost on what is morally right and wrong wth China. His summation of the issues relating to Tibet in his recent interview with The BBC was this :

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | In full: George W Bush’s BBC interview

I’m going to the Olympics. I view the Olympics as a sporting event. On the other hand, I have a little different platform than Steven Spielberg so, I get to talk to President Hu Jintao. And I do remind him that he can do more to relieve the suffering in Darfur. There’s a lot of issues that I suspect people are gonna, you know, opine, about during the Olympics. I mean, you got the Dali Lama crowd. You’ve got global warming folks. You’ve got, you know, Darfur and… I am not gonna you know, go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way ‘cause I do it all the time with the president.

Yeah, annoying people wandering around moaning that a whole country was invaded by another State, that their leader has been in exile since 1959, cultural rape (destruction of religious artifacts, imposition of Chinese language over Tibetan), state repression of the media, enforced settlement of Chinese people in Tibet….

I could go on. I could mention the Panchen Lama.

Article 1 of the Olympic Charter states :

“Under the supreme authority of the International Olympic Committee, the Olympic Movement encompasses organisations, athletes and other persons who agree to be guided by the Olympic Charter. The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised in accordance with Olympism and its values.”

Building a peaceful and better world George. That’s for all. Even the Dali Lama crowd.