Olympic Torch Run Protests

April 10th, 2008

…all the respect it deserves

1936Torch

In the wake of China’s crackdown on civilians and Buddhist monks and priests in Tibet, its links to Myanmar’s military rulers and genocidal juntas in Sudan’s Darfur region, this year’s Olympic Torch Run is meeting with anti-PRC protests along its route. Protests last week in London and Paris turned violent and were met with crackdowns of their own. The flame arrived in San Francisco Wednesday morning, a city with the largest number of Chinese residents in the US, and it was met with protesters.

The Dalai Lama told reporters outside Tokyo on Wednesday that he supports China’s hosting of the Summer Olympic Games, but insisted no one has a right to tell protesters “to shut up.”

36Olympic

The torch run seems a particularly good target for protest of China’s dismal record on human rights. The run was invented for the 1936 games in Berlin by Carl Diem, leader of the German Olympic Committee as a favorable propaganda vehicle for Hitler’s Third Reich.

So don’t be fooled by right-wing denunciations of the ongoing protests as the torch makes its way across the globe. It is a spectacle that never occurred in ancient Greece, but was invented to serve Adolph Hitler and announce him to the world he was about to throw into massive, murderous turmoil with his dreams of conquest and hatred of ethnic minorities and Jews. Linking the torch run to its notorious beginnings is apropos as a vehicle of protest against China’s brutal policies and involvement in ethnic and religious violence across the globe.

REMINDER: Don’t forget, kiddies – This is Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, brought to you again this year by the David Horowitz Freedom Center!

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2 Responses to “Olympic Torch Run Protests”

  1. Andy on April 10, 2008 4:54 pm

    Given the anti-UK feeling following the Iraq war, I have a suspicion that there won’t be a global torch run in 2012.

  2. Aileen on April 10, 2008 9:14 pm

    Hi, Andy. Let’s hope you’re right that the Iraq occupation (can’t be a war, since Bush declared the war over on that aircraft carrier wearing his studly flight suit) will be over by 2012. The torch run is kind of cool for drumming up interest – we’d probably forget there are Olympics if somebody didn’t remind us every 4 years or so), but given its history, it’s also a target for protests when the hosts have been behaving badly. That should be okay too.

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