2008.04.09
The Olympic Torch
Today the Olympic Torch will, in theory at least, be run right past my work. I’ll have an excellent opportunity to watch it from the safety of my fourth floor window. If it goes past, it will be the first time in my life I’ll have seen it.
Of course there are protests expected. China is not terribly popular on the human rights front and their suppression of Tibet isn’t winning them a whole lot of fans. Hint: hey China, just because your civilization has been around some 4,000 years doesn’t mean that any land you ever occupied is still yours. Things change despite your weird combination of conservative Confucianism and Communism.
That being said, I am curious why San Francisco is the single stop for the Torch in North America; I feel this is a kind of snub to our continent. I suppose it’s because we have a very large Chinese population here but that’s not a good enough reason we’re the only city on the continent to see the Olympic Flame. I don’t like the feeling that we’re the “token” visit for this worldwide event.
Any idiot knows that San Francisco is famous for protests of any sort. Hell, I bet they would protest odd socks coming out of clothes dryers if someone could put it in a framework that blames authority. So I’m wondering which city in the world will win the gold medal for protesting. Paris and London seem to be the obvious leaders right now. Today we’ll see if San Francisco is up to snuff (as in snuffing out the Torch). As much as I love this City, this is one contest I’d like to see us lose. The Olympics are, in my mind, something above and beyond politics. It’s just a shame I’m the minority in this view.
3 Comments Categorized: life
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3 Responses to “The Olympic Torch”
- Nob Hill Ken says (April 9th, 2008 at 15:33:34 )
While I can’t say I think the protests are wrong, I don’t think they’ll accomplish much of anything; that said, I think Beijing was an idiotic choice of venue – even if one discounts the human-rights abuses in China, there’s the far more pragmatic issue of terrible air quality for the athletes.
And yeah, I’m kind of surprised that there was no stop in Canada for the torch…I wouldn’t expect more than one stop in the U.S. (as no other country has more than one stop), but North America *is* large. Then again, San Francisco and Buenos Aires are the only two stop *at all* in the Americas. Go figure.
- Zapski says (April 10th, 2008 at 07:24:16 )
Umm… I understand that you’re upset, and I understand why you’re upset.
I feel however that I must point out that the Olympic Torch Relay is and always has been a piece of political propaganda for the hosting nation. It was started specifically as such by (and I’m not making this up) Nazi Germany in 1936 as a propaganda piece to show that there was an Aryan link between ancient Greece and the Third Reich. There really wasn’t much of the “Olympian Spirt” to the Torch Relay, nothing to do with sports or competition at all.
The Torch Relay has since become more, and has managed to shed much of its original purpose, but the Chinese one is really a throwback to that first one in 1936. They’ve made it the longest in history, complete with a pass over Mt Everest, in a way that is trying to showcase their political muscle.
I too wish it were otherwise though, and I’m sad you missed the torch this year. I would have liked to have seen it myself.
- Mookee says (April 10th, 2008 at 12:33:53 )
I personally would just like to see them RUN it around the world. Light it in Greece, figure out how long it will take to get from Greece to wherever it’s going (yes, they’ll probably have to overlap some countries because a true single run around the world would mean every year it was in Greece). Even if the relay has to start a year or two ahead of time … so? This whole, let’s put it on a plane to the next place is just stupid. It’s not a tourist.
