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14 April 2008

Get Your Own Damn Platform, Dammit!

We are counting down to the 2008 Be1jing Olympics and the torch relay started off with a shit load of incidents.

I can't tell for sure if the T1bet riots were timed to happen just before the start of the torch relay. How convenient to have it at a time where global media coverage is at its most? What better time and place to "tell the whole world" where eyeballs are at its max?

Frankly, I haven't made any effort to want to understand the Ch1na-T1bet portion of the current affairs and as such, I have no authority to say who is right and who is wrong.

However, what I do know is that mixing politics with the Olympics is wrong.

To me, the Olympics is a celebration of friendship through the discipline of sports. This is the one event where people from all over the world come together to pit their best against each other in friendly competition. It is a celebration of the human spirit. Friendships are forged in the name of peace and sportsmanship while goodwill, knowledge, ideas and inspirations are exchanged.

Instead, we have countries threatening to boycott the games on account of Ch1na human r1ghts issues. I mean come on, which country can claim a white slate? It's the biblical "...He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her... (John 8:2-11, KJV)" ! Every country has a blot somewhere. So quit being all holier-then-thou about the whole darn thing!

The whole torch relay too was a shame. A shame not on the organisers and runners but a shame on the protesters. A shame that the relay was cut short in Paris. A shame that the torch had to play the most undignified game of cat-and-mouse in San Francisco.

Get your own damn platform to shout your messages, dammit!

It was supposed to be a peaceful run across the globe as a symbolic act of linking everyone on earth together as people of one united planet. Instead, we have thoughtless protesters disrupting the torch relay, thereby risking harm to the runner, organisers as well as to themselves. The act of disruption is violent although not to the extend of risking lives but to me, it is still an act no different to that of a terrorist.

The runners are just relaying a torch and these protesters jumped them out of nowhere. So tell me, how are these people any better?

So when protesters jump out of nowhere screaming and yelling their messages like fanatics, what do you think the security authorities are going to do?

That's right, they will take them down because no one knows what the f*ck these maniacs were going to do. Drop their pants? Chant their slogans? Flash their boobs? Stab the runner? Steal the torch? Or detonate a bomb?

So fearing the worst is definitely the most logical approach and when the over zealous protesters start to struggle, it would take perhaps 3 or 4 security personnels to overcome each one.

Guess what? All these will be captured by the media and these protesters will turn around KPKBing how they were violently manhandled and thus justify their point about human right abuses.

Well, to that I flip my bird to them. That has got to be the most blatantly attempt to bait the relevant authorities into taking action against the protesters. I mean come on, the security pounced on the protesters not as a pre-emptive strike but as a reactive response to  the protesters' threat.

So to turn around and act like helpless victims is just entrapment.

Sorry dudes. I am so not going to fall for that.

I am not saying that the protest is wrong. Again, as I have said, I know not enough to make that judgment. What I am saying is that the time, place and method of the protest is wrong.

If there is unhappiness about the Ch1na-T1bet issue, take it up with the relevant departments. Get your grass-root leaders to represent you, or get your senator, your congressman, your MP, your PM, your President, your Queen, your Emperor, anybody who has access to the "global microphone". Get them to represent you at an appropriate occasion e.g. country-to-country dialogue, the United Nations Assembly, the APEC Conference etc.

Just not the Olympic Games, please.

- Voxeros

1. CoWg0eSm0o left...
Monday, 14 April 2008 2:01 am :: http://cowg0esm0o.liquidblade.com
eh......flashing of boobs' perfectly alright. Pls keep the pants on though. There might be trannies among the protestors for all we know....
But seriously, I find it quite ridiculous sometimes that certain key 'power' figures like the EU are siding the protestors and ignoring the deeper meaning behind the 'once-every-4yrs' Olympics... Not that freedom of speech's wrong, but as u've mentioned, the wrong use of platform for these stakeholders to voice out their concerns and make themselves heard.


2. Faith left...
Monday, 14 April 2008 10:54 am
Well said! It really got to me when these politicians try their best to stir shit. Human rights? Well, stop calling the pot black, kettle! And yes for those in the West that are protesting, pull out the huge plank in your eye before telling others that there's a speck of wood in the eyes of others. Why put the Olympics and the country that's hosting it down? Think of the athletes that have trained so hard just for the games and then....what? Just pull out?


3. JayWalk left...
Monday, 14 April 2008 11:10 am :: 
CowGoesMoo: Be careful what you wish for. Man-boobs.... not pretty......

Faith Sim: There are two groups of people here and I feel that we need to make a distinction. First, there are the politicians and then there are the activists. Politicians always have an agenda while activists while their cause is that of a noble one, can undertake approaches to matter that I would think as distasteful.


4. Pam left...
Tuesday, 15 April 2008 4:07 am
I think the protesters needed such a platform to make 'noise' as it were, only because their agenda's not been taken seriously till now. People have protested about Tibet for ages and no one's ever done much about it. Whether they'll do anything about it now that they've protested at the Olympic Games is debatable, but at least it's raised awareness. Afterall, as you said it yourself, you didn't really have a clue what the issues are, but at least now, you're reminded about it, and may be bothered to check it out... ? Just a thought...
on a separate note, you going home in a month? will you back there in August?


5. JayWalk left...
Tuesday, 15 April 2008 8:00 am :: 
Pam: It is just sad that the activists had to resort to guerrilla tactics. You can't really get an objective view on T1bet issue as this is a very unique case of very polarised bias reports from either side. Western media aren't as objective as you think. Look at all the western media reports justifying the US invasion of Iraq on the grounds of Weapons of Mass Destruction and then look how it turned out at the end of the day?

Just a thought here and I may be wrong. The issue of T1bet has been ignored for years is because there isn't any enough concrete ground to substantiate a case and as such no country would want to take the risk to spearhead this grey-area issue? I mean if it were really so bad, let's see the UN assembly vote to sanction against Ch1na then. But it didn't happen, now did it? Ever pause to wonder why?

When the Myanmar riots broke out, sanctions were meted out by the various countries targeting the Junta but you don't see any of these with the T1bet case? Why? No case? Or perhaps Ch1na is just too powerful to offend?

And no, I will not be back in August. There is a very very remote chance I may be back for the Formula 1 races at the end of Sep though.
 

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