http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104ap_nepal_olympic_torch.html
It’s a fucking peace ritual. By definition, you can’t pull it through by “whatever means necessary”. It isn’t more worth than human lives.
Turn it into a pompous military parade with everybody goose-stepping along for all I care.
These Olympics are officially, literally, bloody dead for me.
Too many human rights violations at this point for me to feel comfortable watching them (and thus supporting the sponsors). I had a feeling I’d be boycotting when they said they’d be in Beijing.
The whole torch business was a Nazi innovation for the 1936 Olympics anyway so it’s kinda fitting.
Speaking of Nazi’s, the Olympics and halfwittery, I’d like to submit this little beauty. 
To be fair, Wikipedia indicates that Berlin actually won the bid to host the 1936 Olympics before the Nazis came to power; of course, they weren’t subsequently stripped of it, and I doubt the maker of the sign had any of this particular nuance of history in mind.
Not that I advocate killing protesters, but if it’s a peace ritual, why are the protesters trying to disrupt it through violence?
I think it’s dumb, because it’s not going to change anything.
Well, most of the protesters are not violent.
And Tristan, this has been a highly effective protest. China wanted to celebrate its past 30 years of economic development with this media event. I don’t recall other countries recently pitching such a controversy magnet.
The protesters have successfully rebranded the 2008 Summer Olympic games. It will not be a Chinese propaganda coup. These sorts of optics matter in the Middle Kingdom.
And yet, the Chinese knew it was coming, and are making sure the average Chinese citizen has no idea it’s happening at all.
Yeah, but China isn’t North Korea. The Great Firewall of China is pretty easy to penetrate, but most Chinese don’t bother with the inconvenience.
Besides, this is power politics: the Chinese are not the only audience. There are the Taiwanese to consider as well, for example. That said, I agree that these protests won’t instigate an internal coup or anything, but few things do.
IIRC, the IOC has said that the Chinese have to turn off the firewall during the games. Of course, what the IOC will do about it if the Chinese don’t is another matter entirely.
I like to think that’s the kind of ironic joke that a smartass like me would insert into a serious protest.
Ideally the Olympics should transcend politics, but I guess that ship sailed a long time ago.
I found this story to be interesting.
It seems that Chinese people are protesting at French owned Carrefour stores in direct response to French pro-Tibetan actions during the torch relay. I guess that I would like to know if the Chinese protests are truly spontaneous or if they were organized by the government.
