Olympic Torch Relay

[krasnoludek]

San Francisco officials completely changed the route of the torch relay today to circumvent the protests that were obviously going to happen. It was transported to another part of the city, run for a short distance, before being shuttled to the airport and sent off. It was a completely cowardly act just so that China could point to it and say

Comments

[starfirerapture]

Yeah. I went today and let's just say that Newsom is sort of on my shit list now.

It was a ridiculous move on his part to say in the weeks leading up to the relay that he was inviting protests and not restricting them to certain areas, and then completely re-routing it. Even when it was said as recently as yesterday that the route may change depending on the progression of the relay, it was shit to move the route completely from the start, instead of modifying the route should a problem have ensued.

Peskin's comments were brilliant - he likened Newsom to the ruling members of China, and I completely agree. Everything about the event was anti-American and anti-San Francisco.

[oxeador]

[...]he likened Newsom to the ruling members of China, and I completely agree.[...]

Yeah, right. What Newsom did is exactly the same that what the ruling members of China do. He probably killed a couple of people to free space for the torch to be paraded. He shut down any news outlet who reported on this in a negative light and jailed its owners. And he will create a filter so that this blog cannot be read from any computer in San Francisco.

[starfirerapture]

I didn't say that he was a ruling member of China, I said I agree with the correlation - mostly because I was annoyed at the outcome of the day's events

[krasnoludek]

I had been planning on going and even asked a bunch of people to go with me. But no one was available and I'd had to have skipped an obligation to go. While I was disappointed to not have had a stronger political resolve, I'm glad my whole afternoon didn't get wasted.

I totally agree about the deception on Newsom's part. It goes completely against the political history of this region and also indirectly works against the American right to assembly and free speech.

[once_a_banana]

A different point of view: The news of the massive protests and clashes between Tibetan exiles and pro-Chinese demonstrators are all over the news, internationally, so the protesters certainly didn't get ignored. In fact I almost lean toward the point of view that this allowed the clashes to be about what they're really about, instead of inveigling the torch and the runners in the whole messy business. The media was all over the protesters, and (like them) had to scramble to catch the torch when it actually came out of hiding.... so they had lots of time to interview innumerable protesters and publish quotes from them. And the developing CW is that the massive route changes were a strong indication of just how huge the opposition was, and how unwelcome in the city the self-congratulatory display by the Chinese authorities, effectively ruining their party. It is probably more embarrassing to them to have their route slashed in half, and hidden from public fanfare, and hustled around in secretive busses, than it is for them to

[krasnoludek]

I agree and a shade of this was reflected when I said "people across the world will chase their appropriated symbol so that it has to be shuttled secretly through its destinations. Some triumphant parade that is."

The protest still got its attention, but now China's preemptive reaction has done more damage to its position than good. It belies China's statements that the protesters are a tiny, unrepresentative minority. They displayed a fear of confronting their foe; the level of reaction indicated how seriously they are considering this foe.

[rdore]

I think you're being more than a bit whiny about this (but hey, this is livejournal). If they were genuinely concerned the protests would get totally out of control, moving the torch was probably the right decision. In any case, comparing moving the torch to human rights problems in China is absurdly hyperbolic -- it makes the actually flagrant problems in China seem less significant that they are by comparing them to something vastly pettier. The protestors still got to protest, and got plenty of media attention.

[krasnoludek]

I don't see where in my post I am "comparing moving the torch to human rights problems in China

[quique12]

Funny how reading this I read something like media biased against protesters, while if I listen to my housemate I hear media biased against China.

I think protesting the the event of the torch is sad. The Olympics represent the unity of nations and they are about solidarity.

Although the Chinese government might be bad, the Chinese people aren't and the Olympics are about the people, not about the governments.

[krasnoludek]

Does your first line refer to the general discussion here, or to my post specifically? Because I don't make any mention of the media in the post. In fact, I was overall pretty satisfied with the media's coverage of the disappointment of the protesters and supporters. From what I saw, both conservative and liberal news sources were covering it pretty well.

I agree that the Olympics represent the unity of nations and are usually about the people, not about the governments. But when the government of the hosting nation abuses people so flagrantly, then how can the world join behind them in unity? The Chinese government has made this a political issue by using the games as a political piece to gain nationalistic pride and to draw international attention away from the ugly side of their policies. The protest is not against Chinese people, but against the Chinese government for daring to use a symbol of harmony while at the same time openly continuing its abuses. See my response to rdore above for more elaboration on this point.

[pirate_artist]

Well, now I can pretend that I went to protest after all ... but couldn't find the new route! (Would have been more interesting than sitting in the lab all day, but oh well). It does seem kind of underhanded, and unfair both to protesters and spectators (so, basically, all the interested citizens of the Bay Area).

[krasnoludek]

oh well :-\