The torch of shame

From No Right Turn - New Zealand's liberal blog:

The Olympic flame arrived in London today for the European leg of its worldwide relay in the leadup to the Beijing Olympics.  The Chinese, in true propaganda style, have dubbed the relay "the journey of harmony", but its already turning out to be anything but.  The London leg began at 10:30am UK time.  Within an hour, someone had grabbed it, others had tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher, and ten people had been arrested.

Looking at the video, the torch has so many police and Chinese bodyguards (the people in blue) around it that I'm surprised anyone can see it at all.  This is what Beijing's oppression has reduced the Olympics to: a staged propaganda run, with security so thick that it might as well not be happening, while the people boo from the sidelines.  

And this is just the beginning.  The torch will go to Paris tomorrow, where the city government will be telling them to stick it, then to San Francisco on Wednesday, where it will also be greeted with protests.  This is going to happen everywhere the torch goes (or at least everywhere where people are remotely free to protest), from now until the torch returns to China in May. The Chinese media censors are going to have their work cut out for them if they want to spin this as a journey of harmony...

•  Well the Dalai Lama is the one

  who's world-wide network of peacemongers is inciting the whole world to watch what China is doing to their colonies. That dang evil hippy.

  Seriously though, the Torch is a symbol.  The slogan this year is "Light the Passion, Share the Dream."

  Nice slogan.  Empty words.  It is the Chinese who are trampling the shared dreams of those it claims as its citizens, so to desecrate the Torch now is simply to put the truth of the matter on view.

  by spotDawa on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 05:50:44 AM PDT

•  I would very much love to see that torch...

  get extinguished.  What the Chinese have done in Tibet (especially making Priests disavow the Dalai Lama or suffer pain/death) is an abismal crime against all of humanity.  For them to be hosting games supposed to uplift humanity was simply outragious from the start.  Now, it is on a scale of hosting them in Russia during Lennon's reign.
  "Share the Dream" indeed.  "I have a dream," for sure, but it's not one China would like.

  by rainmanjr on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 06:03:32 AM PDT

  •  They've got, like

    ten spare flames, lit at the same time/place (Athens) that travel along with the official torch to re-light it if it goes out. It went out during the opening of the Montreal olympics and an official accidentally re-lit it with a zippo, so they put it back out and re-lit it with one of the official flames.

    by mveit on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 07:48:31 AM PDT

    •  Too bad. n/t

      by rainmanjr on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 08:05:10 AM PDT

•  They are getting what they deserve

  They wanted to showcase China as a sophisticated modern nation, they are showing it as tyrannical, repressive, authoritarian, backwards, and morally bankrupt.

  All we need is a Jessie Owens in this Olympics to complete the analogy.

  by Dcoronata on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 06:08:29 AM PDT

•  Pat Oliphant's

  latest cartoon is particularly apt.

  by mofembot on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 06:09:10 AM PDT

•  These are the people China oppresses

  Helping to lead the chants was Buddhist monk Ngawang Khyentse, who said: "We can't just remain silent. We have no other choice than to protest because there is no other voice for Tibetans inside Tibet, so we have to speak out for human rights. We are not asking for a boycott of the games, although there are many different views, we are asking for pressure to be put on the Chinese government to help the situation in Tibet."

  Notice that Khyentse does not advocate boycotting the games.  Even amidst severe oppresion the monks do not wish to harm China.  Only stand up against it's cruelty.  

  by rainmanjr on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 06:12:48 AM PDT

•  contrast this

  with what would happen today in america were the torch being carried here for an olympics being held here. There would be nothing but images of happy cheering people allowed on the TV.
  Protesters would be relegated to a back alley 3 blocks from the action, surrounded by police who would be "protecting" their "free speech zone".  It's all a huge colossal joke. I'll tell you what it is about China that draws the interest of the american elite, and it sure isn't human rights, it's how they have pretty successfully kept a couple billion people under lock and key with no real voice to complain. The neocons are salivating at the thought of having that kind of control and have been working tirelessly to get there.
  This doesn't change the fact that China deserves every last bit of criticism, they do, I'm just pointing out that thanks to Bushco we've lost any kind of moral authority we may have once held.

  by FireCrow on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 07:10:06 AM PDT

  •  That you'd equate China and America

    tells me what I need to know.  

    by burrow owl on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 07:31:18 AM PDT

    •  you misread what I said

      and if you think our government is so much better than China's it's only because they haven't finished destroying what rights we have left. I have no idea what you meant by your comment.

      by FireCrow on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 07:40:13 AM PDT

      •  I get your point...

        ...but the contrast is a bit starker than you imply. You wouldn't be posting this in China, unless you wanted to be arrested pretty quickly. Indeed, one of the chief reasons that most Chinese internet postings on Tibet sound like LGF fascists is that anything else will earn you a jail term.

        But you do have a point in terms of trends rather than present realities on the ground.

        by sagesource on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 08:03:46 AM PDT

•  I've been watching Sky News Live for hours,

  about effing time people protest! It's shameful of the Chinese to parade this symbolic torch...though I suppose they don't see the irony in this. Time for another Darfur Action Diary!

  by Asinus Asinum Fricat on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 07:15:59 AM PDT

•  The torch is floating on a river of blood

  And pollution, and blasted human rights, and political prisoners, and torture.

  Just because we have lost much of our moral prestige in the world doesn't mean we can ignore China's role in subjugated the people of Tibet, its complicity in the destruction of Burma. I want the US to boycott the Olympics and will support anyone who presses that agenda.

  Our own Speaker Pelosi has said that a boycott won't be happening because "it would be unfair to all the US athletes who have trained so hard for these games." I forcefully disagree. It would be a step toward regaining much of what we have lost in the past 8 years.

  by The Raven on Sun Apr 06, 2008 at 07:25:52 AM PDT