Protesters Disrupt Olympic Torch Relay

The Olympic torch is making its way around the world in a charming and delightful tradition that was regrettably begun by the Nazis for the 1936 games. This year, some of the “Free Tibet” crew have decided to disrupt the procession. They managed to force changes to the route, and the communist government in Beijing has been whining about them ruining the party. It’s one of those cases where all involved are acting like dumb-asses.

To begin with the protesters, they have won some cheap media attention and that plus $5 will get one coffee at Starbucks. Despite their campaigning for the last several years, Tibet is still occupied by the ChiCom government. The importation of Han Chinese continues, and will continue, while the indigenous Tibetan culture is quietly extinguished. If they really wanted to free Tibet, weapons shipments are the only way forward. One cannot forget that this is the same Chinese Communist Party that killed 40 million Chinese to get its way. It isn’t about to roll-over because of some moralizing and haranguing from people who want a comfortable life and an easy conscience.

The International Olympic Committee should get its share of the blame, too. The IOC president Jacques Rogge remarked on the decision to give Beijing the games, “I’ve said that it is very easy with hindsight to criticize the decision. It’s easy to say now that this was not a wise and a sound decision.” Letting a dictatorship host the games is not a good idea. Hindsight has nothing to do with it. He also said, “It is a crisis, there is no doubt about that. But the IOC has weathered many bigger storms.” True, but the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the boycotts of the 1976, 1980 and 1984 games were not the IOC’s doing. This mess is.

As for the Chinese, what exactly did they think they were getting when their bid for the 2008 Summer Games won? There are people in this world who don’t particularly like the ChiCom government, for example the first person singular. Hosting the games in Beijing was a natural magnet for them. And a great many of those people come from countries where the government doesn’t get to police what they say or what they write. As a result, they don't tug forelocks very well.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said, “We express strong condemnation of the deliberate disruption of the Olympic Torch Relay by ‘Tibetan independence’ separatist forces regardless of the Olympic spirit and the law of Britain and France. Their despicable activities tarnish the lofty Olympic spirit and challenge all the people loving the Olympic Games around the world.” She must have earned an "A" in Party Jargon 101, but Manicheanism is a really stupid way to deal with this issue.

This journal condemns the protesters, the IOC, and the ChiCom government. And for good measure, the Dalai Lama needs to step aside and let a politician (rather than a jumped up monk who ran away from the Chinese tanks) speak for the Tibetans – someone who understands that communists are often reasonable when threatened with violence and never when they are not.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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