One World, Shared Disgust

Everywhere across the world, wherever the Olympic torch goes, people are protesting in a massive show of global defiance and disgust. This post will keep track of protests along the torch's route, as a world stands up and speaks out in favor of human rights and against the crackdown in Tibet, and indeed all across China, as the Chinese government "clears" its streets of potential "troublemakers" ahead of the games. The Xinhua propaganda mouthpiece has labeled these protests as the "vile misdeeds" of a "few Tibet separatists" and that "people welcome the torch." These photos however show one world with one dream, Free Tibet!

Paris, April 7, 2008

"French police grappled with a demonstrator trying to grab the torch. What organizers had billed as an occasion to celebrate the Olympics' sporting ideals of peace and harmony is turning into a contest between China's supporters and critics." - NY Times

Was the IOC really stupid enough to not expect anything like this to happen? I think they fully realized what was going to happen, but chose to mortgage their so-called Olympics values in exchange for rolling around in Chinese money. And the protesters are not politicizing the games. The IOC and China have already did that. China has long been promoting these games as evidence of its "peaceful rise" - never mind the thousands languishing in Chinese gulags or undergoing torture - and as a measure of success of the Communist Party. The IOC and the Chinese government have politicized these games long before the protesters.

"Protesters with Tibetan flags at the Place du Trocadero opposite the Eiffel Tower before the arrival of the Olympics torch relay on Monday." - NY Times

London, April 6, 2008

Chinese security officers (in light blue uniforms) provided security for the torch route in London! What's next, a Tiananmen-style massacre in Trafalgar Square? Gordon Brown should be ashamed of himself for capitulating before the Chinese as such. Source of photo: New York Times

"One protester who broke through the police cordon, David Allen, said his anger flared at the sight of British sports stars being guarded in London by Chinese security men.

“It makes us complicit in the regime’s repression,” Allen said. ”You have to ask: Where were these security men last week? Beating up people in the villages of China, no doubt.”" - NY Times

"Thousands of demonstrators crowded the streets of central London as the Olympic torch was carried through the city on its way to the summer Olympic Games in Beijing." - New York Times