Olympic torch through London et al

The whole thing was on News 24 for about 10 hours. It was a farce.

At one point the torch carrier was surrounded by a ring of Chinese assasins, a second ring of bicycle helmet wearing police in yellow vests, and two rings of police ninjas wearing black. :unsure:

I lolled at the commentator when he said that a protestor had come within inches of snatching the flame because he was disguised as a normal bloke :glag:

Anyway, what a waste of everyone's time :dabs:
 
another idiotic regular hiding behind a second account are you? why do i bother?

go back to school and learn the difference between thugs and protesters!
 
Squeamous said:
I'm not sure 'the nutters in society' all read FST so prolly not.

See what this boils down to is the ridiculous way some people like to exaggerate very mild events to prove a point. Like the way people often compare modern Western leaders to Hitler. Which I know you hate.
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Ah! So now you think I'm exaggerating the assault on young Miss Huq... so you admit there was an assault then ? And this assault was committed by a decent respectable upright citizen wasn't it ?
 
manicgeek said:
And who unfortunately, due to some thugs, have achieved absolutely nothing for the people of Tibet... no greater publicity or recognition of their plight... not even a spotlight turned onto the behaviour of the Chinese state...

I'm surprised that the protesters themselves aren't angry at the thugs, I would be.
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I didn't see any thugs. Evidently your definition is different to mine.

The English word thug, meaning a violent criminal, comes from the Hindi word thag (and originally from the Sanskrit word sthaga), meaning a thief or villain.
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The word 'thug' implies a destructive ignorant/indiscriminate force, which the Olympics protestors certainly were not. I can only assume you're using this term to stimulate debate and rile people. Well, one out of two ain't bad.

I'm not sure how you can assume that the protests have done nothing for Tibet MG. As a scholar of history you should know that small events build into more cohesive protests and can effect change decades down the line. You have a very short-sighted approach to civil unrest.

As to the world's media spotlight and what it's on, it's on the protests against China, which is exactly what the protestors wanted.
 
Alien5 said:
in the west we believe in freedom of speech and human rights, china had to cut the live news feeds to hide the truth from its people.
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If you're going to try and sell attacking a symbol of the Olympic ideals as a freedom of speech argument I'm really hoping you're not representing anyone in any kind of court case ever!

And in the news today is reports of attacks upon the symbol, nothing about China, other than in relation to the attacks upon a symbol that isn't even theirs and that in many ways represents everything China does wrong.

So China cut a news feed, just as Western Governments attempt to control the news... so what's new... that's Government for you.

Oooo just caught your edit... No I'm sorry they behaved like thugs, with no sense of decent behaviour towards other individuals, that's why the news outlets are discussing their behaviour instead of running articles about the behaviour of the Chinese state.
 
Squeamous said:
The only people I saw injured in scuffles were the ones launched upon by the police. They are also the only assaults I witnessed. I'm starting to think you were watching Ghandi or something, not the news.
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Now come on Squeamous, you missed the opportunity to make a joke out of my dislike of seeing a young woman attacked on the streets of my country... I'm sure you can find a way to make that funny can't you ?
 
Alien5 said:
another idiotic regular hiding behind a second account are you? why do i bother?

go back to school and learn the difference between thugs and protesters!
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No I only have this one account... I feel no need to hide anywhere.

Oh! And I know the difference, and I know that grabbing that torch in that way could constitute assault in law.

Maybe you should go and read something about protesting, you'd probably learn that the most effective protests are those that have been done with the absence of violence and with the absence of direct action... like grabbing a torch.
 
I personally think there is nothing we can do to change China politically, we will have to wait for market forces to do that, we can encourage those market forces to become the primary driver of China by means of trade though.

Whilst China remains in the political state it is in (and has been in since the cultural revolution) Tibet has no chance of ever gaining any kind of freedom at all, and even after a political change there will be a period of time before a state the size of China sorts itself out to a point where the Tibetans will have any chance... in other words I don't think it'll change in my life time, but if they're lucky it might happen in my childrens lifetime... assuming we've not all melted by then ;)

And for all of the fun I've had on this thread I do think the protests are a valid and good thing, if only because it shows support for the Tibetan people themselves.
 
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