Article
Changing the Rules of the Games
Dream for Darfur...has...[as its] goal to convince China’s government that the Games are imperiled unless it halts its support for Sudan’s regime... Dream for Darfur asks that the major sponsors like McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft and Volkswagen take very small but potentially significant actions: to meet privately with Chinese officials to express concern over Darfur, for example, or to take a symbolic stand by calling publicly for officials from Sudan who have been accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court to be banned from attending the Games... [Executive Director Jill Savitt] says that the sponsors are starting to take notice. Even executives at Coca-Cola have privately expressed anxiety about their association with the Games, according to Minky Worden, a veteran China specialist at Human Rights Watch. (On Tibet, Lenovo, the Chinese computer giant, recently said it was following the conflict there “with concern and regret.”) [Also includes Microsoft response. Also refers to GE (General Electric), Johnson & Johnson]