Tuesday 8 April 2008

Olympic protest

The "Free Tibet" campaign is being "headed" by the Dalai Lama who for years has campaigned in a non-violent way in line with his Buddhist beliefs and the dominant religion in Tibet. The people who use violence to try and disrupt the passage of the Olympic flame are doing Tibet a disservice as they are giving China an excuse to say look at what we are dealing with, all this violent and disruption surrounding normal events. I assume most of the protesters are not Tibetans as I won't have thought that there are many ex-pat Tibetans around the world so I say to the protesters if you want to espouse a cause look at the customs and culture of the people you claim to represent and act as they would.

This is not the first time that the torch has been used for protest. It was started for the 1936 Olympic in Berlin when Hitler had the idea for over two thousand Germans to bring the torch from Athens through countries such as Austria and Czechoslovakia to show off German strength, might and virility prior to invasion and annexation several years later.

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