April 7, 2008
The Olympic torch that will break through the darkness
Back in 1978, Argentina was preparing to host the World Cup. The fact that the military junta had by then purged the nation of thousands of dissidents and that one of the biggest torture and death camps was a few hundreds yards away from the River Plate stadium mattered not a jot to FIFA, the world governing body, the participating nations, and the fans.
But thirty years on, China has a problem on its hands, unless it smartens up its human rights image. When you have global internet, and rolling 24-hour satellite TV, the phrase, the “whole world’s watching you” takes on a different meaning.
It forces participitants to examine their consciences, and turns ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ actress Joanna Lumley into a sure candidate for the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.
Fresh from delivering her flowers at Prince Philip’s sick-bed, the gorgeous Joanna told the world, care of the BBC, that through the ages light can have the power to break through the darkness. The Olympic torch, she told us, is already working in mysterious ways, as it makes its progress through the world, shining a light on China’s human rights record.
As the FT exclusively revealed last week, the Chinese have enlisted the support of a PR company to limit the damage to its reputation of its brutal record in Tibet and elsewhere.
They should get a simple world of advice. Start loosening the political straitjacket, and engage constructively with the Dalai Lama, while reminding the world of China’s status as a major political and economic power-one the world cannot afford to boycott.
the protestors in london annoyed me greatly (the violent ones) who provoked an equal reponse from the police who were bound to protect the right of the athletes to carry the torch through london.
These hippies and wierdos should get on a plane and fly to China and protest there in the same way. That would earn them my respect. Many protestors in London made their voices heard without diminishing their message by ludicrous attempts to attack either the carriers or the torch itself.
Their fraudulently “brave” attempts were never going to be showed in China and therefore, i feel that if they seriously want to throw their bodies and lives on the line to stop the Olympics - they should join the real protestors slogging it out on the streets of Beijing!
Posted by: Karl Effenbergsson | April 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm | Report this comment