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Clashes mar Olympic torch relay


Flashermac

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p.s. WTF are CHINESE SECURITY doing escorting the torch through London? I saw the torch procession for the Atlanta Orympics, even got caught up in it for a while. No security at all except for some local cops.

 

:hmmm:

 

 

Maybe something to do with the Olympics being in Beijing and a lot of Tibetan protests going on? Just a thought. :) Back in 1948 one of the relay runners got stuck in a pub BTW. Times change.

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I was in Bejing in 2000 on the day the Olympics were awarded to China, man what a party that night was, is it really 8 years ago!

 

I was in Tibet when the Chinese threw their last big crackdown (October, 1987). What a party that wasn't! Is it really over twenty years ago? Oh well...

 

There will be an Olympic torch relay in Frisco on Wednesday, the only one in the US this year. Should be interesting. Already today a crew climbed the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled pro-Tibet banners. I am opposed to that particular technique although I support the pro-Tibetan cause. Still, it was a pretty amazing stunt from a technical perspective. Hell on traffic, though.

 

There are very few people here locally lining up with the Chinese on this issue. There are some communist groups posting fliers excoriating the Dalai Lama for being a "splittist" and a "tool of U.S. imperialism". (Somebody buy those old goats a new thesaurus, please!) Even the Chinese-Americans here are less nationalistic than they might be as there are some Fulan Gong types as well as KMT/Taiwanese refugees. The garden-variety lefties are all pro-Tibet and there is a fairly big Tibetan ex-pat community also. And of course we few but hale right-wing reactionaries will always take the opportunity to oppose communistic tyranny wherever it raises its head. So it looks to be pretty one-sided overall. I'm unaccustomed to being in the majority around this nuthouse but I promise I won't lose my self-restraint as a result.

 

The route over which the torch is to be carried is quite long so whatever protection the torch has will be spread thin. I'll be out there in my twenty-year-old yak wool jacket I got in Lhasa (that I can still fit into, mind) which I have today freshly hand-washed for the occasion. We'll see what happens.

 

Tashi delek!

 

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Maybe something to do with the Olympics being in Beijing and a lot of Tibetan protests going on? Just a thought. :)

 

 

 

So you're saying Old Bill can't handle things in London on his own.

 

:hmmm:

 

 

 

Back in 1948 one of the relay runners got stuck in a pub BTW. Times change.

 

They should have known better than to let the Hash House Harriers carry the torch.

 

:beer:

 

 

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Rogueyam,

 

I am currently in Seoul and it scares me the fact that the Olympics were held here 20 years ago and I was here for that whilst working in my first ever job in SE Asia. It only seems like yesterday.

 

Fux I am turning into the type of reminising old fart I used to take the piss out of when I was in my twenties, you know the type the guys who say "I remember when this was all fields" :sad:

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"So you're saying Old Bill can't handle things in London on his own."

 

I'm not saying that. The Chinese Embassy's in London and Paris are saying it. Maybe somebody knows how it works in international law but it looks like the host nation is responsible for protecting the flame. Anyway these protests can't be compared with Atlanta.

 

It will be interesting to see what happens in San Fran. The Ozzies say there won't be any Chinese security guards in Canberra...

 

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23502929-661,00.html

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