April 10, 2008 7:03 PM BST
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.