The French outdoing Olympic frame protests

[readingstockport]

Since there's nowt as satisfactory as a nice conspiracy theory, the shambles that is this Olympic Torch tour could make a person wonder whether there's a Fifth Columnist at the IOC.

Only it's hard to see how anyone without a satisfactorily ulterior motive could think it was sensible to drag the flaming thing half-way around the world given the certainty of the reception it'll receive.

Interestingly enough, and something I was not aware of until Sunday, was that the entire olympic torch carrying farrago was only created in 1938 by Leni Riefenstahl who was a staunch nazi and 'hitlers favourite director' for the Berlin Olympics. She wanted the flame carried by naked greek men but was overruled and since then we have what we have now. Before then there was no olympic torch relay as we now know it apparently.

 

[NMH]

Since there's nowt as satisfactory as a nice conspiracy theory, the shambles that is this Olympic Torch tour could make a person wonder whether there's a Fifth Columnist at the IOC.

Only it's hard to see how anyone without a satisfactorily ulterior motive could think it was sensible to drag the flaming thing half-way around the world given the certainty of the reception it'll receive.

Word.
Knowing that the torch is the significant herald of the events, and tradition now decrees that it always be done - the olympics are already fast approaching failure.

Even if many do not feel for demonstrating against the event in China, there must be a diminishing number who feel to demonstrate for.

People power might actually succeed where a committee of officials may fail, and it would be great to see the events held worldwide (except China) - in separate stadiums for each event - as a Worldwide statement of non-acceptance of state oppression.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Interestingly enough, and something I was not aware of until Sunday, was that the entire olympic torch carrying farrago was only created in 1938 by Leni Riefenstahl who was a staunch nazi and 'hitlers favourite director' for the Berlin Olympics. She wanted the flame carried by naked greek men but was overruled and since then we have what we have now. Before then there was no olympic torch relay as we now know it apparently.

True, except that it was devised by this drab and grubby little non-entity instead of Leni Riefenstahl - who may have soppily doted on Hitler (rumour has it they shagged - can't blame him, she was fit as in her youth) but also was a brilliant film-maker, if of course for the vilest of purposes: Carl Diem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Juan Albion]

the entire olympic torch carrying farrago was only created in 1938 by Leni Riefenstahl.

Bit late then wasn't she!

 

[Man of Harveys]

I feel horribly ignorant about the history behind Tibet. Can anyone post me a reasonably unbiased and not too lengthy link?

My trip to Goa, of all places, raised my awareness of it - the Tibetan markets, where they sell very cheap and decent silver jewelry are v much part of the tourist landscape there. It's hard not to feel sorry for them, lying around in hot markets waiting for patronage, and then you realise that they're the richer Tibetans.

I did what I could and bought a "never give up" t-shirt. *pathos*

 

[Easy 10]

That torch has got to be carried through Tibet as well, on its way to Beijing.

THAT should see some fun and games...

 

[Everest]

The torch has now had to be extinguished 3 times. They've even resorted to running without it being lit.

:yahoo:

 

[Titanic]

The torch has now had to be extinguished 3 times. They've even resorted to running without it being lit.

Like Tim Henman yesterday...

 

[eastlondonseagull]

That torch has got to be carried through Tibet as well, on its way to Beijing.

THAT should see some fun and games...

It's going to the summit of Mount Everest, apparently. Wonder whether someone'll drop it

.

 

[London Calling]

Go forward 4 years.

As the UK flag/ torch tours the world:

In the UK we have demo's agingst our presence in Afghanistan, Iraq and God knows where else.

In India and other Colonial nations, we have anti Colonial demostrations.

In Africa, we have demo's againgst our contining support againgst Mugabe,

In France demo's againgst our poor food.............................

Does this tourch thingy go through the middle east?

 

[clapham_gull]

Channel Four News got accidently connected by the switchboard to a conversation Seb Coe was having when ringing the Olympic Office (whatever it's called...).

The Chinese officials protecting the torch had pushed him around outside parliament and he referred to them as "thugs..."

Unlike the torch, this ones gonna run and run.

 

[Bry Nylon]

And WHO are those Chinese blokes in David Icke tracksuits jogging along next to the torch? I thought the torch represented the Olympic movement, not the host city? In which case, they can can f*** right off.

Hopefully, someone will manage to get hold of it in San Francisco and lob it off the Golden Gate Bridge

 

[Slough Seagull]

Nice to see an ex-Bury player making a stand...

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | India footballer in Tibet protest

 

[Lord Bracknell]

And WHO are those Chinese blokes in David Icke tracksuits jogging along next to the torch? I thought the torch represented the Olympic movement, not the host city? In which case, they can can f*** right off.

Hopefully, someone will manage to get hold of it in San Francisco and lob it off the Golden Gate Bridge

And after San Francisco ...

Buenos Aires
Dar es Salaam
Islamabad
New Delhi
Bangkok
Kuala Lumpur
Jakarta
Canberra
Nagano
Seoul
Pyongyang
Ho Chi Minh City
Hong Kong
Macao

... and then throughout China and Tibet.

 

[Buzzer]

Should be interesting.....the Chinese have got a huge problem with muslim separatists in their regions that border the West with a lot of support for the separatists from Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan, the Chinese have already had a go at India about the Dalai Lama, Hong Kong might have something to say about Chinese human rights, Bangkok's devoutly Buddhist nation might also want to have a word about suppression of their faith.

Oh, and the Aussies have never been backward in coming forward in these sort of things.


What's that Chinese curse - may you live in interesting times.

 

[REDLAND]

great news

The International Olympic Committee may scrap the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay as a result of the protests over China’s military crackdown in Tibet.

Jacques Rogge, the IOC President, says the organisation’s executive board will meet on Friday to debate whether to allow the torch to continue its 85,000-mile, 21-country journey.

Mr Rogge said this morning that he was “deeply saddened" by the violent protests in London and Paris, and concerned about tomorrow's torch relay in San Francisco.

The IOC is holding its last official meetings in the Chinese capital this week with organisers of the Beijing games. Gunilla Lindberg, a Swedish IOC member, said that the protests surrounding the torch relay were “damaging the Olympic movement”. “I think it is very sad. I get angry,” Ms Lindberg said.

“Using the torch this way is almost a crime. This is the property of the IOC, it is not a Chinese torch.”

Kevan Gosper, an IOC member from Australia, agreed. “All I can say is we are desperately disappointed,” he said.

IOC officials had warned their Chinese colleagues that London, Paris and San Francisco “would be sensitive places”, he said, and China's recent crackdown in Tibet had "stirred the potential for protest".

He added that he had always opposed such an extensive international route. Mr Gosper said: "I’m a firm believer that we had the right template in the first place, that the torch simply should go from Olympia, Greece, to the host country.

The torch has been attracting ever more forceful protests since was lit in Olympia, Greece, last week.

More than 35 people were arrested in London on Sunday and the torch had to be re-routed on several occasions as police, taken by surprise by the vigour of the demonstrations, battled to keep pro-Tibet protesters - some armed with fire extinguishers - away from the flame.

There were continual scuffles along the route as members of the relay team handed over the flame to the next runner.

In Paris yesterday the flame had to be put out four times and the torch taken into protective custody aboard a bus due to the strength of the protests.

The Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral were draped in protest banners showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs, and the mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoe, canceled a welcoming ceremony for the Olympic Torch amid the chaos.

Authorities fear that San Francisco, one of America’s most liberal cities — where some of the largest Iraq war demonstrations have been held — could see protests even more violent than London and Paris.

Even the city’s supervisors recently voted 8-3 for a resolution to accept the flame only with “alarm and protest” at China’s Tibet policy.

As a result of the controversy, the route of the flame has been dramatically shortened to a 9.6km loop along the San Francisco waterfront, and will no longer stop in the city’s historic Chinatown or on the Golden Gate Bridge. Several hundred police officers will form a security blanket around the torch when it passes through the narrow city streets.

Some 200 activists in San Francisco have already organised their own “human rights torch relay” in anticipation of tomorrow’s event. “Our message is that the Olympic torch and crimes against humanity cannot co-exist,” said the organiser, Steve Ispas.

Another group calling itself the Committee of 100 (C100) for Tibet will today hold a “Tibetans Freedom Torch”, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the actor Richard Gere attending. C100 has bought a billboard advertisement that reads: “Stand up for Tibet, say ’No’ to China’s bloody torch.”

Chinese community leaders in San Francisco have questioned whether countries castigating China’s human rights records have the moral authority to do so, and they say that Chinese-Americans will proudly welcome the torch.

Meanwhile, San Francisco’s Mayor, Gavin Newsom — who didn’t support the city’s ‘alarm and protest’ resolution — has attempted to downplay the politics of the event.

“We have the right to free expression — all of us — as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of others,” he said.

“It’s not the US’s torch, not Beijing’s torch, it’s the Olympic torch."

After San Francisco the torch is next due to visit Buenos Aires, Dar Es Salaam, Muscat, Islamabad, Mumbai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Canberra, Nagano, Seoul, Pyongyang, Ho Chi Minh City, and Taipei. It then arrives on the Chinese territory of Hong Kong, moving on through Macao for a grand tour of mainland China before arriving in Beijing on August 2, two days before the start of the games.

If the IOC votes to scrap the international leg of the torch relay, it is likely that the Olympic flame would go straight to China.

The concept of an international relay is a new invention, beginning with the 2000 Sydney Olympics, and has now expanded to 21 cities outside mainland China for the Beijing Olympics.

Alex Gilady, an IOC member for Israel, said that the committee had already discussed ending the international relay after the Beijing games, and that it would likely come up again.

“This will be a discussion again,” Gilady said. “Not now, but after the Games.”

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I think we could well do without a similar fiasco in the months running up to London 2012.

 

[London Calling]

Oh lets, I want loads of sport people whinging, how they were shocked by the reaction to them, that they wern't aware of the issues, that they have had their head in the sand since they were born, that they have no principles, that they would sell their granny to get gold and that even then they were crap at sport.....

Henman ffs.

LC

 

[Lady Bracknell]

San Francisco looks like being another entertaining shambles.

 

[Storer68]

Im embarressed.

The French managed to put it out THREE times. We never put it out once.

I blame McGhee