You can't see or read anything in the news at the moment without coming across the issues surrounding the Olympic torch relay.

Now, I am all for speaking out about issues which I hold dear and would expect others to do the same, so if the hijaking of this event by politcal activists gets some attention regarding China's human rights record, I suppose it is a good thing. What a pity that it took an event held once every four years, and one that is supposed to bring nations together, to acheive some widespread recognition to this cause.

Perhaps governments worldwide felt that since it didn't affect them, there was no need to do anything about it?

I would be interested to hear others thoughts on this subject.

Nikki

Niki
Yes it is a shame that the athletes who have been training and waiting may be disappointed.
I'm avoiding the political aspects.
hugs
Gracie

The fact is that the Olympics is a highly politicised and commercial sporting event. It is also a myth that it brings nations together. Teams are formed that represent their respective countries, national colours are worn, and the nation's flag is raised and the national anthem played at the winning of every gold medal. Just listen to the commentator ignore the winner and instead talk at great length about the British athlete accomplishing a personal best in coming last. If it was truly intended to be a sporting event devoid of borders then the athletes would compete as individuals and we could take pride in their performance rather than in their country of origin. Also, we only pay lip-service to concerns about human rights issues in China. Gordon Brown was recently in China promoting trade links between our two countries. Indeed, he had out the begging bowl. When Nicolas Sarkozy states he may ( and I emphasise the may ) not attend the opening ceremony in Beijing, he merely playing gesture politics. There is no talk of a reduction in French trade with China as a consequence of their poor record on human rights. It is the commercial possibilities that China represents that won them the Olympics in the first place. Why else would the Olympic Commitee award the Games to a regime that illegally occupies Tibet and oppresses its own people. All talk of a boycott of the Olympic Games is a nonsense. It won't happen and would acheive nothing if it did. The disruption of the torches procession might highlight the issue of Tibet but that is all it will do, and as such, is again gesture politics. Athletes should not be made to carry the can for the unwillingness of politicians to act on moral issues. The simple fact is that the world's nations cannot embrace China quickly or warmly enough.

hold on a minute. have i missed the point? i thought governments were formed so the rich can tax and opress the masses and call it legal. i thought the olympics was just a guise for big business to perform a few golden handshakes. are the working class comodities getting above there station again? lol, how dare we!

If you ask me, the chinese dont deserve to HOST the games given their atrocious human rights record. The way they've carried on in Tibet is nothing short of a disgrace. These incidents may well mean that the IOC think twice about giving a future olympics to a south east asian country.

Lol xxxxxxx
Anna-Marie

There is a long tradition of using the Olympics as a platform for the expression of political ideas, with varying degrees of success. In 1968, African American athletes raised their fists in the black power salute during the medal ceremony. In 1972, Palestinian terrorists held 11 Israeli athletes hostage, killing two of them. And, in 1980, President Jimmy Carter threatened a boycott of the Moscow summer games if Soviet troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan. When the Soviets failed to meet the February 20 deadline for withdrawal, the US went ahead with the boycott, with the UK, Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Japan all supporting the boycott in one way or other.

As long as Dubyah & friends still support most favored trade status for China, and the US debt to China continues to increase, such an action is unlikely this time, though.

Im going to be harsh here as I hate protesters that stuff every thing up for every one else I think that the protesters thet get in the way of the torch should have there skulls caved in I mean if they want to protest then protest theres no need to ruin someones run with the tourch as it is a great moment for that person, a once in a life time chance and to have it ruined by some stupid pot smoken hippy just isn't fair. Yes there is a human right problem in china but theres no need for stupidity just make your point and move on. There I've had my say on protesters there nothing but no brained, time wasting, pot smoking, doll bludging hippys (ps I work in earth moving so I have to deal with these morons all the time.)

I'm quite sure that the Tibetan people feel just awful that a few individuals might be denied the opportunity to participate in the largely meaningless torch relay, and that a brief word with the Dalai Lama will surely convince him and his people that the oppression they suffer pales by comparison to the personal goals of a handful of athletes who have dreamed of jogging down the main street of their hometown bearing the flame.

The struggle against tyranny and oppression in China is nothing new. Have we forgotten the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989? And it's true that Dubyah, Gordon Brown and their pals are scrambling to preserve the trade agreements that line the pockets of the anti labor employers here at home, such as walmart, who are willing participants in child labor and other human rights abuses in China in an effort to flood the marketplace in the western world with unsafe and substandard products at the cost of millions of American manufacturing jobs.

I'm quite sure that the families of children suffering lead poisoning from unsafe toys and of displaced American workers unable to keep their homes will realize that their petty problems don't begin to equal the disappointment of some guy from the local high school track team who wants to have his day in the sun and videotape the human interest story from his local Fox affiliate about his run down Main St. and a handshake with the mayor for posterity.

I realize that no one wants to piss off the Chinese, but if Dubyah hadn't pissed away the budget surplus that existed when he took office and placed us in the position of debt to Chinese lenders, we might be in a better position to stand up for the rights of the downtrodden as we claim to be doing in the Middle East.

Further, I might observe that the brilliantly orchestrated assault on the Golden Gate Bridge was pretty well executed for a bunch of potheads.

I've just heard a radio programme on the history of the olympic torch,and it threw up a couple of interesting facts/observations.
It seems that the olympic torch is a modern invention,first appearing in 1936 for the summer games in Berlin
and the winter games in Garmisch-Partenkirchen,the whole thing being the brainchild of Josef Goebbels,the Nazi PR genius.There's a sort of satisfaction in seeing the product of one terror regime turning into a PR disaster for another one.
Also,it seems that the Mount Everest stage has probably already been filmed! According to a german engineer with good contacts in Tibet,the Chinese have built an 'Everest Base Camp',altitude 5000metres,with road connection and capacity for about 600 soldiers.The engineer managed to visit this camp in 2007 with the help of tibetan friends,who told him that the purpose of the camp was to film the Everest stage of the torch run,and that filming had apparently already started.At this time,the whole chinese side of Everest was closed to foreigners.Now,this may of course be a wise precaution, given the unpredictable nature of the weather on Everest,but if you watch this stage in May,bear in mind that it may not be live TV.He also made the point that,although some foreign journalists are apparently accredited to the camp for the torch event,they're not likely to be able to see more than a 100metres or so for topographic reasons,even if the weather is perfect.


Cheers,
Lynn H.