Greece today
Reporters Without Borders:
Free Tibetans
Posted on 03/24/2008 3:43:14 PM PDT by consistentpatriot
ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece - Even before the Olympic flame was lit Monday, a protester of China’s human rights policies disrupted the solemn ceremony, foreshadowing the prospect of demonstrations throughout the 85,000-mile torch-relay route right up to the Beijing Games themselves. Forecasts of clouds and rain had been considered the main threat to the pomp-filled torch-lighting. But in the end, while the sun sparked the flame to life, it was the protesters who turned the joyful bow to the Olympics’ roots into a political embarrassment for China over its crackdown in Tibet and other rights issues.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This year, instead of using a torch that burns material and increases greenhouse gases, a torch running on several greek-made rechargeable batteries will be place inside a faux flashlight torch.
/sarc
I will not be watching the Beijing Olympics this year. And everywhere I can, I am not buying Chinese goods. I’m not making a show of it, just doing my own personal boycott.
This is going to get interesting over the next few months.
China ping
That explains why the only American stop on the torch tour is San Francisco.
Greece today
Reporters Without Borders:
Free Tibetans
The commies in China will breathe a sigh of relief when the games are finally over. And the leftists can ignore the Tibetans again like the other hundred million victim’s of Marx’s wonderful vision.
Ditto what you said.
The Beijing Olympics of 2008 are the Berlin Olympics of the 21st Century.
Oh my,that is perfect!!!
They are going to rack up 85,000 miles and only one stop in the U.S.? Amazing! They can expect a protest in San Francisco though.
How about another way to look at it... There’s an argument that the wider play the Olympics get, the wider audience the protests will get. A bigger embarassment is in the works for China than they are perhaps willing to acknowledge.
They’ve gotten their noses bruised by embarassing quality control issues with products. The Tibetans are becoming noisy now, and if China gets too heavy-handed they’re going to do it live on camera this time.
The Olympics themselves have all the potential to be disrupted several times with various forms of protest. Other dissident groups will also see this as their chance to get themselves heard and seen.
The Chinese government is trying to preserve a system that is doomed to be rejected by their increasingly wealthy people. Their position is hopeless, and I think the Olympics will be a massive opportunity for the world to see how vacant of ideas the Red Chinese government is.
I see all of this as good news, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. :-)
I think it is capitalism that will change China. A growing economy, and growing wealth for more and more people will make them crave freedom. It is theirs when they want it.
Economic sanctions seem right, except they don’t really ever work. In some ways it just appears to keep the people even more dependent on their oppressors. Like Cuba. And formerly in Iraq.
I despise the Red Maoists too... But I think this experimentation they’ve been doing with capitalism is going to do nothing but spread and it will inevitably take them down. When the Hong Kong lease expired and the Reds took over I predicted it then: that Hong Kong would affect China much more than China will affect Hong Kong. It was actually the first step toward a free China.
You mean the one where Jesse Owens humiliated the Nazis on their home turf?
Hopefully these butchers can be humiliated at these Olympics too.
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