San Fransico Olympic Torch Protests a Washout

The eyes of the world were focussed on San Fransisco’s leg of the Olympic torch relay yesterday to see if we would get more protests like we saw last week in Europe, but the relay turned more into a game of hide and seek than anything else.

I was watching the relay on CNN, and I have to say it was the most bizarre torch relay leg I have ever seen. At first I was glued to my television and expecting to see some action, but shortly after they lit the torch, the Chinese runner disappeared into a security warehouse and basically vanished for the next 40 minutes or so.

As the protestors waited, the minutes just kept ticking, and ticking, and ticking. After a half an hour or so I was about to give up, but finally we see some action, as a row of vans and security leave the warehouse. Finally we see that they have driven the torch a mile or so from the warehouse and are preparing to run an altered course.

What came next was just laughable to me. To see the Olympic Torch being carried while surrounded by a literal swarm of policeman just seemed to completely negate the whole idea of the relay. I tried to count how many policeman I saw circling the torch, but they just kept coming and coming. A great picture of international unity for sure. And once again I had the vision in my head of a world that is about to explode, and America trying to do the policing of tensions. Ironic if you think about it considering the current state of the world.

Then I started to wonder how this would treat China? What are they thinking? But, considering that the Chinese people are not allowed to see the news (other than what the government feeds them) I suppose they are pretty oblivious to the tension around the world over their country.

The only thing I think that could really have an impact on the way China acts is if world leaders boycott the opening ceremonies. A few already have stated that they will, and a couple others (George Bush included) have stated that they are not sure, or will have to check their calendars. Check their calendars? Come on now… you can come up with a better stall tactic than that.

Regardless… the whole event turned out to be rather boring, and unless you were actually there on the ground I doubt you had much excitement from the event. Check out Laughing Squid’s post. He was there and had some really nice ground level coverage.

Will the torch relay continue? We should find out shortly whether or not officials decide to stop the relay this year or not. Would be ironic… the torch relay started in 1936 by Nazi Germany, and now is in jeopardy of ending by Communist China. We will find out later this week.

If you enjoyed this post, get all my posts with my my Email feed!

Popularity: 68% [?]