Olympics

[Furr]

Anyone else find the torch run today highly entertaining

 

[Ch3tan]

The Chinese really do believe that everyone will turn a blind eye because it's sports. Well done those that made it painful for them today. The celebs and Brown should have at least boycotted todays event, even if they do not boycott the games themselves.

 

[n00b]

GO TIBET !!!

I hope there will be protesters everywhere the torch goes and that countries actually boycott the olympics, wrong country to hold them in imho.

 

[Calaen]

Disrupting a sporting event because of politics is fucking horse shit.

Some of these will athletes have been training for years for the opportunity to represent their country and win a medal. Making them feel bad because a bunch of jobless losers who have nothing better to do than protest is crap.

So what China have human rights issues, they will change them in their own time should they choose to. If countries spent more time looking at their own problems and stopped worrying about everyone elses the world would be a better place in a much shorter space of time.

My views are always the same with these protesters, the job centres should trail the streets and ask why the bums are not looking for work instead.

 

[DaGaffer]

I thought it was great. I also think this is pretty much the ONLY way to protest against China's Tibet/Human Rights record because they've got us by the balls economically; so yay protesters I say. I'm with Sarkozy on this one; boycott the buggers. Make the Chinese people look around and ask why no-one turned up. Because, Cal, most Chinese people don't even know what's going on in Tibet, and don't really know what else is going on in their own country, and we condone it by supporting their economy. China doesn't need to change it's Human Rights abuses because the rest of usually politely ignore them. Compared to that, who gives a fuck about a few athletes earning a bit of shiny metal?

 

[taB]

My views are always the same with these protesters, the job centres should trail the streets and ask why the bums are not looking for work instead.

I've been on protests before - not China or Scientology related I would add - and hold down a good job.

Your generalisations are so bad I might hold a protest about it.

Make the Chinese people look around and ask why no-one turned up. Because, Cal, most Chinese people don't even know what's going on in Tibet, and don't really know what else is going on in their own country, and we condone it by supporting their economy

Even if noone turned up I doubt the majority of Chinese people would even be allowed to be aware of it. They certainly haven't got a clue about what is happening on the torch protests and I doubt they have a clue about Tibet either...

 

[Pfy]

I've been on protests before - not China or Scientology related I would add - and hold down a good job.

Your generalisations are so bad I might hold a protest about it.



Even if noone turned up I doubt the majority of Chinese people would even be allowed to be aware of it. They certainly haven't got a clue about what is happening on the torch protests and I doubt they have a clue about Tibet either...

Chief leaflet printer is NOT a proper job.

On a side note, I always believed the Olympic games was supposed to be more than 'just a sporting event'.

I disagree with what I've seen of the protests on the TV (snatching the torch etc) but not the protesting itself.

 

[Furr]

International sport is always going to have a political edge, always has been and always will be.

On the Tibet thing, I'm not going to trouble myself with it, as nothing will change. But the protests liven up the News and is much better viewing than bloody Diana or that fat man pig woman Karen Matthews.

 

[DaGaffer]

On a side note, I always believed the Olympic games was supposed to be more than 'just a sporting event'.

It is. Its a huge money-making machine designed to empty cities of all their cash at four-yearly intervals, before moving on to the next set of gullable dumbasses. I always imagine the IOC as a sort of pirate-ship-cum-all-you-can-eat-buffet.

 

[Damini]

I always harboured suspicions that those chinese guys escorting the torch were rock hard martial arts types, and watched the whole thing in the hope that ninjas would jump out and try to steal the torch, and then everyone would start going Jet Li.

They held hands when threatened. What the hell was that about? Fighting stance, people! Fighting stance! It looked like a hybrid of kabadi and british bulldog. I was not impressed.

 

[Mabs]

On the Tibet thing, I'm not going to trouble myself with it, as nothing will change.

and thats EXACTLY why it never does, cos noone can be arsed to make an effort

catch 22

 

[pez]

I don't really know enough about this tibet situation to fall on one side of the fence and the other and i doubt 95% of those protestors do either. I can't help but feel it would be like a bunch of Americans giving a UK team hassle and chanting 'Free Northern Ireland!'

 

[Furr]

China is not going to relent on the whole matter, plus its neighbours won't give it any grief as they too have separatist regions. Russia and India being China's immediate and arguably most important neighbours both have separatist problems of their own and both have used and still use force to quell any uprisings. The Tibetan plateau was long ago carved up between India and China anyway. China annexed most of it while India absorbed Ladakh and Sikkim. So meh, nothing is going to happen.
There is going to be a lot of noise made outside of China. The games will go ahead and any trouble makers at the games will firmly dealt with, Westerns who try anything will be detained, roughed up and then expelled, locals will "vanish". The Games themselves will be expertly and efficiently planned in a way that only communist countries seem to be able to do, they'll win shit loads of medals. Then once the games are over the Chinese government will quickly reintroduce restrictions on media freedoms and use an Iron fist to reassert their dominance in Tibet and other regions and return to focus on the ChIndia scramble for Africa.

 

[DaGaffer]

China is not going to relent on the whole matter, plus its neighbours won't give it any grief as they too have separatist regions. Russia and India being China's immediate and arguably most important neighbours both have separatist problems of their own and both have used and still use force to quell any uprisings. The Tibetan plateau was long ago carved up between India and China anyway. China annexed most of it while India absorbed Ladakh and Sikkim. So meh, nothing is going to happen.
There is going to be a lot of noise made outside of China. The games will go ahead and any trouble makers at the games will firmly dealt with, Westerns who try anything will be detained, roughed up and then expelled, locals will "vanish". The Games themselves will be expertly and efficiently planned in a way that only communist countries seem to be able to do, they'll win shit loads of medals. Then once the games are over the Chinese government will quickly reintroduce restrictions on media freedoms and use an Iron fist to reassert their dominance in Tibet and other regions and return to focus on the ChIndia scramble for Africa.

Agreed. Which is why I think protesting against China should be done on general principles. This is going to be the "Chinese Century" and that's not a good thing.

 

[taB]

Is standing on a post box outside our office wielding her Javelin for a photo shoot.

Pretty Girl

 

[Scouse]

This is going to be the "Chinese Century" and that's not a good thing.

True. But it could just as easily be Bankers For World Domination, or Capitalists for World Rape or somesuch and it'll pretty much amount to the same thing...

 

[ECA]

Agreed. Which is why I think protesting against China should be done on general principles. This is going to be the "Chinese Century" and that's not a good thing.

I can see why you might think that but I kind of disagree

The one child policy is causing crazy male/female ratio imbalance, along with the differences in living standards in cities/rural areas, and the problems with the government system which allows decentralised power to be corrupted pretty easily.

China has a lot of problems and it isnt likely to threaten the rest of the world for quite a while.

Although if it started invading countries like Sudan to "stop" the humanitarian disaster while imposing a puppet goverment to rape its oil, it might be a bit more interesting.

 

[Jeros]

guys....

they are KILLING PEOPLE!