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Clashes mar Olympic torch relay


Flashermac

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p.s. Gonna have any Chinese security guards in SFO?

 

I really don't know. Crowd control tends to be undertaken with a decidedly light hand around here. I have witnessed exceptions to this rule over the years but only rarely. There are quite simply a lot of crazy fucks in these parts and everyone knows it. It is best not to get folks riled up and the cops seek to avoid doing so.

 

The torch is scheduled to travel basically the entire length of the Embarcadero, San Francisco's downtown waterfront. This is a long stretch with lots of open space about. There is no way to cordon off the entire route or even any great part of it. If they have Chinese robo-goons (I just can't imagine this, but who knows?) then those goons might protect the torch itself but they will not be able to clear a path along the route if any great number of spectators decides otherwise. It could certainly get ugly and if it does my money's on the fruits and nuts.

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<< The unrest which started last month has led to global fury over this issue and China's human rights record in general.

 

"China has spent eight years and tens of billions of dollars preparing to host the Summer Games, which Beijing has envisioned as a kind of coming-of-age party to showcase its rapid growth. But the outbreak of violent unrest in Tibet and a continuing crackdown there by Chinese security forces has emboldened China's critics...whose demands are often ignored in China and played down by Western leaders eager to promote Chinese trade and investment," said the New York Times.

 

[color:red]For the protesters, the unrest showed that China has not lived up to the human rights promises it made when it was awarded the Olympics in 2001.[/color] As a result, their attempts Sunday and Monday to snuff the Olympic flame are regarded as a symbol to "blow out the lights on China's policy," the Sueddeutsche Zeitung commented.

 

The paper acknowledged that the protest itself was a sign of "helplessness" because it lacked substance and only attacked China, without coming up with genuine ideas for a solution.

 

China, for its part, appears not aware how much it has come "under the Olympic magnifying glass" - as Dutch daily De Volkskrant described the situation in an Olympic feature last week.

 

"The stubbornness with which it (the Chinese government) shrugs off the protests shows a complete lack of knowledge on the rules of an open society. It underestimates on a grand scale the event Olympia as a simple form of political marketing. >>

 

 

Bangkok Post

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Guest lazyphil

china lefties? lol.....oh come on, chinese goods only in walmart. ok, i know you were just applying classic chuckwoww aplomb, seriously the world is awash with chinese goods.

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Aplomb! Great word. That should send a few members scurrying to the online dictionary. But phil you also know I occasionally use a little literary license to make a point. The 'lefties' I'm talking about are the ones you described as the 'usual wasters'. Seriously though there's something really absurd about this whole situation. China has the world by the balls economically and no way are they ever going to turn Tibet over to NATO. It is interesting to watch the right/left ethical gymnastics all mixed in with common or garden China bashing. And San Francisco is a perfect venue...you can't make this stuff up.

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Guest lazyphil

<>

 

you edited that didn't you?.....i'm sure 'right to protest' wasn't there before because i thought you were refering to the chinese as the lefties which clearly you were not.

 

anyway, yes it makes for a peculiar news bulletins!

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<>

 

you edited that didn't you?.....i'm sure 'right to protest' wasn't there before because i thought you were refering to the chinese as the lefties which clearly you were not.

 

anyway, yes it makes for a peculiar news bulletins!

 

No I didn't edit that post at all. I meant Western righties and lefties united against China. I think environmentalists and pro-Tibet protesters hate them as much as the pro-Taiwan anti-communist right wingers do....but for different reasons. Hard to identify the useful idiots in this one.

 

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