Well I'm glad Mr. Smug Rudd has grown some balls and said that the Chinese paramilitaries will not be allowed off the Chinese bus and the torch will be protected by Aussie security.
I hope someone extinguishes it.
Re: Valid Protest?
Well I'm glad Mr. Smug Rudd has grown some balls and said that the Chinese paramilitaries will not be allowed off the Chinese bus and the torch will be protected by Aussie security.
I hope someone extinguishes it.
#Hillary4prism
BD:TW
Some piously affirm: "The truth is such and such. I know! I see!"
And hold that everything depends upon having the “right” religion.
But when one really knows, one has no need of religion. - Mahavyuha Sutra
Freedom necessarily involves risk. - Alan Watts
Re: Valid Protest?
What jurisdiction do the Chinese Parmilitary forces have in this case to stop teh person from this legitimate protest? Absolutely shocking.
Rest in Peace TosaInu, the Org will be your legacy
Originally Posted by Leon Blum - For All Mankind
Re: Valid Protest?
I'm guessing they use the same as Blackwater does to shoot civilians and get away with it.
In other words, none.
Still maintain that crying on the pitch should warrant a 3 match ban
Re: Valid Protest?
Not protesting what the Chinese are doing in Tibet is one thing. Understandably there are plenty of opinions on the matter, so disagreement is not surprising.
But allowing the Chinese to abuse the Olympic Games as spectacle, and not drawing a line when they do things like this? It's beyond their sovereignty and jurisdiction and shouldn't be tolerated. I'm all for keeping politics out of the Olympics, but if the Chinese can't resist the gloves should come off.
"The facts of history cannot be purely objective, since they become facts of history only in virtue of the significance attached to them by the historian." E.H. Carr
Re: Valid Protest?
I personally think the Olympics are inconsequential, but if the Chinese want to make much of it, then smart politicans will extract some concessions for it. If people really wanted to help Tibet, they'd have agreed to let the Chinese parade their flame in a blaze of glory, in return for movement towards the cultural autonomy and Beijing government political position the Dalai Lama is pushing for. Instead, people have protected the purity of the Olympic ideal, which is a load of nonsense anyway, while ensuring that no concessions will be made for Tibet, and the Tibetans will suffer Beijing's anger once the games are over. And after all this is over, people will preen themselves on how they stood up for the forces of good against the forces of evil, oblivious to the opportunity they had ignored to actually do some practical good.
Shakes head at the idiocy of it all.
Re: Valid Protest?
You are confusing cause and effect. If it were not for these (and previous, similar) international protests the Chinese wouldn't even acknowledge that the Dalai Lama exists.
Apart from that, the protests show the Chinese government that we may have diplomatic relations, trade ties and other exchanges with them, but that we are no dupes to their dictatorial propaganda.
The bloody trouble is we are only alive when we’re half dead trying to get a paragraph right. - Paul Scott
Re: Valid Protest?
The Dalai Lama doesn't exist, he is an imposter rather than the real Dalai Lama whom Beijing backs, and his legitimacy threatens the integration of Tibet into China, all at the same time. Do you really think that you've decisively undermined the strength of the Chinese position by forcing them into a position that shows up the contradictions in their case? The fact is, there is no contradiction at all, in all of these arguments. The Chinese are in possession of Tibet, they have the strength and willingness to do whatever they like with it, and there is nothing any outsiders can do to force them to do otherwise. Those are the bare facts that arguments about the Dalai Lama's legitimacy and the abuse of democratic principles and human rights cannot disguise.
The Dalai Lama recognises this, which is why he's attempting to push for an arrangement that is good for Beijing as well as for Tibet, independent of whether or not he is the legitimate Dalai Lama. Unlike the protestors, he's actually attempting to achieve some practical good for Tibet. If Beijing can agree to some kind of solution that is acceptable in practice to both sides (and they don't actually need to recognise the Dalai Lama to do so), then all these arguments about legitimacy can be waived away in a wash of doubletalk. Diplomacy can begin with workable arrangements, through to more permanent structures, before ending in formal recognition. Recognition without substance means nothing.
Re: Valid Protest?
Modern Olympics aren't about sports. Anyone who thinks so needs his head examined. It's a circus in the original sense. And anyone who protests and ridicules these games is entitled to feel good. Cause they did good.
This torch thingy has become the best anti-Chinese propaganda train in quite a while. Most amusing. In London it was nearly snatched by protesters, in France it had to be doused despite the presence of 3000 police, in San Francisco it was paraded through empty warehouses and alleyways at break-neck speed. Teh redicule.
The bloody trouble is we are only alive when we’re half dead trying to get a paragraph right. - Paul Scott
Re: Valid Protest?
Whoever had the idea to award the games to a one party state should be sacked.
There are times I wish they’d just ban everything- baccy and beer, burgers and bangers, and all the rest- once and for all. Instead, they creep forward one apparently tiny step at a time. It’s like being executed with a bacon slicer.
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.
"The purpose of a university education for Left / Liberals is to attain all the politically correct attitudes towards minorties, and the financial means to live as far away from them as possible."
Re: Valid Protest?
That would be the Olympic Committee. And you have my full support.
The bloody trouble is we are only alive when we’re half dead trying to get a paragraph right. - Paul Scott
Re: Valid Protest?
In my opinion, they should be complimented. I mean, I would prefer they weren't in China (I despise communism, for one), but by doing that they showed that they would award the games to the most deserving, regardless of politics. That being said, when accepting the Olympics there should be a clause that limits the use of propaganda.
Re: Valid Protest?
Modern Olympics aren't about sports. Anyone who thinks so needs his head examined. It's a circus in the original sense. And anyone who protests and ridicules these games is entitled to feel good. Cause they did good.
This torch thingy has become the best anti-Chinese propaganda train in quite a while. Most amusing. In London it was nearly snatched by protesters, in France it had to be doused despite the presence of 3000 police, in San Francisco it was paraded through empty warehouses and alleyways at break-neck speed. Teh redicule.
I agree. The more people are reminded of how awful China is, the less anti-American they will be. For a short period of time
"That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
-Eric "George Orwell" Blair
"If the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court...the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned the government into the hands of that eminent tribunal."
(Lincoln's First Inaugural Address, 1861).
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ
Re: Valid Protest?
if the US was chosen to hold an Olympic event right now I think there would be protests too...and with good reason...no wear near near the same level...and rightfully so...but it would exist.
"If given the choice to be the shepherd or the sheep... be the wolf"
-Josh Homme
"That's the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn't good enough for me! I demand euphoria!"
- Calvin
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