The Nation: Protests in Paris, San Francisco overshadow Olympic torch

[NewsBot]

San Francisco, Paris - Protests from Paris to San Francisco continue to overshadow the traditional world relay....

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[marc26]

this will get pretty interesting
and i understand the Olympics gives the protesters a platform but where are they all the other times human rights violations are going on in China before
or that they are the leading foreign investor in Sudan and that they have basically ignored genocide in Dafur

[Nanook]

Originally Posted by marc26

this will get pretty interesting
and i understand the Olympics gives the protesters a platform but where are they all the other times human rights violations are going on in China before
or that they are the leading foreign investor in Sudan and that they have basically ignored genocide in Dafur

Exactly. They only protest loudly this time because sports in general and especially the olympic games and the world cup football are the major events and therefore get mass media attention. However, sports and politics should remain seperated. A boycot is therefore out oif the question imho.

Why e.g. there are no demonstrations about the election process in Zimbabwe or the poverty in Haiti, to name a few things.

I think China doesn't handle the Tibet case correctly, but that is another story. Here (in my view) we are talking about mainly professional protestors who's only goal is to annoy people and create chaos and destroy other people possessions. Same as you see when the G8 comes together.

[Dodger]

Did the Olympic flame get blown out in Paris?? and if it did, how did they relight it, without going back to Mt Olympus?? send out for some Greek geezer with a Zippo???

[LivinLOS]

Theres apparently 2 other secret backup flames taken from the source accompanying it..

I also wondered this..

[Soupdragon]

Originally Posted by Dodger

Did the Olympic flame get blown out in Paris?? and if it did, how did they relight it, without going back to Mt Olympus?? send out for some Greek geezer with a Zippo???

PARIS: The Beijing Olympics torch was extinguished for a third time on Monday as hundreds of pro-Tibetan demonstrators disrupted its progress through Paris.

Hope he remembered to refill that zippo.

Closer to home the one of main reasons nothing gets done about the Myanmar attrocities is China supports the Junta. Nothings gonna change quickly here but I do support bringing these issues into the public eye.

[marc26]

Originally Posted by Soupdragon

Closer to home the one of main reasons nothing gets done about the Myanmar attrocities is China supports the Junta. Nothings gonna change quickly here but I do support bringing these issues into the public eye.

completely agree with you and if the Olympics allows a platform, great
but i wonder where these people are last year??

[Dupree00]

Route shortened after thousands gather for S.F. torch run

[Dupree00]

THE OLYMPIC TORCH IN S.F. / THE FIX: Pro-China crowds attempt to stifle dissenters

No torch, no problem - they came to protest

Torch leaves S.F. after surprise route shift

[edje123]

Originally Posted by Nanook

Here (in my view) we are talking about mainly professional protestors who's only goal is to annoy people and create chaos and destroy other people possessions. Same as you see when the G8 comes together.

my point exactly!
if they really care and have the b*llox for it, why don't they go to China and protest over there. As if ever that is going to happen.

[Soupdragon]

Originally Posted by edje123

my point exactly!
if they really care and have the b*llox for it, why don't they go to China and protest over there. As if ever that is going to happen.

You mean like the student who stood in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square and was alledgedly executed a few weeks later. Maybe not a good idea.

[edje123]

That's what i mean. It's soo easy to be a loud mouth over here and hassle an innocent dude with a torch. I can understand you want to protest, and luckily for us in the west we can without being executed, but i disagree on how they did it.

[marc26]

Originally Posted by edje123

That's what i mean. It's soo easy to be a loud mouth over here and hassle an innocent dude with a torch. I can understand you want to protest, and luckily for us in the west we can without being executed, but i disagree on how they did it.

im not against protesting
and why cant people protest in the country they reside, maybe opens up people's eyes
my comments are that although i am actually for the protests, i wonder where these people are all the other times

[Dupree00]

Originally Posted by marc26

im not against protesting
and why cant people protest in the country they reside, maybe opens up people's eyes
my comments are that although i am actually for the protests, i wonder where these people are all the other times

Probably rock climbing. Those guys that scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and hung banners were awesome.

[edje123]

Originally Posted by marc26

i wonder where these people are all the other times

i wonder aswell, violation of human rights in China did not start just a few months ago.

tnx Dupree for solving this great mystery

[tulac-moen]

I am for the protests too. I think if the china autorities weren't so rude back in tibet few weeks ago, I though I have a different opinion. There is currently no room for any protests in china for Tibetans. Most of them go directly to gail (even chinese one).

For me, the games means also liberty, frienship and peace ... which have to take place in a peaceful and open mind country.

I would have a same opinion ... if the olympic games had took place back then in the Hitlerian germany.

I like german and germany, I've spent a whole year there ... but in the current modern germany (not in the Hitlerian one).

Just my point of view.

[hagler]

Originally Posted by edje123

my point exactly!
if they really care and have the b*llox for it, why don't they go to China and protest over there. As if ever that is going to happen.

probably because dissent is not tolerated in China and a protest of that kind usually ends up with the participants either dead or languishing in some chinese hellhole of a political prison. Arent you lucky that you come from a country where freedom of speech and religon is so enshrined into the life that you take it granted.

Good on them. Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

[tulac-moen]

Originally Posted by hagler

Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

For me, the olympic game has to take place in a country which share and care for sporting spirit, friendship .... but also Freedom AND Human Rights.

It's seems the olympic comnitee had asked some of these too ... but on the way and process to beijin, they have been to be knock out by silence & amnesia.

[LivinLOS]

Really good Stratfor piece (are they not always).. On why Tibet is so central to Chinese security policy..

Chinese Geopolitics and the Significance of Tibet | Stratfor