Olympic torch-lighting protest

[faceless]

[web]https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7310654.stm[/web]

Good on them for getting through the security. All this pomp and ceremony counts for nothing in the face of the approximately 130 people killed in Tibet last week.

The talk about countries boycotting the opening ceremony is pretty laughable too - I don't believe for a minute that disappointing these poor little sportsmen and women who might miss out if there was a total boycott is by any stretch of the imagination a justification for taking part. It seems clear to me that the reason countries won't boycott the games is purely economic - they're worried about China making deals difficult for them in the same way as the USA takes action against countries who deal with Cuba.

Personally I love the Olympics, and would prefer there wasn't trouble, but sometimes you just have to say no.

[Mandy]

This is a bad precedent. I am unsure how many prior protests there were on the Olympics, but I can now see that in future that the Olympics would be a cause of friction / protests / fighting .. which is the opposite of the Olympic ideal which is to rise above politics.

I can now even see the Olympics split up, so that different "spheres of influence" have their own mini Olympics.

[faceless]

So we should just keep our mouths shut and blindly ignore what's going on in the background? Meanwhile the Wizard of Oz is ordering Monks to be battered and killed.

[Mandy]

No ... not at all. But there are places for demonstrations, and places when it is inappropriate to demonstrate.

This shouldn't be a jungle out there.


p.s. You mention Monks being killed. I am unsure how peaceful the demonstrators are. There are some harrowing images of them being like a wild mob.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/wor ... 302062.stm

https://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=48 ... =351020404

[Mandy]

Good on them for getting through the security. All this pomp and ceremony counts for nothing in the face of the approximately 130 people killed in Tibet last week.

The article said

Beijing claims 22 people have died in the clashes but the toll, while Tibet’s exile movement said Monday that at least 130 Tibetans were killed. The claims are impossible to corroborate because Chinese authorities have restricted access to Tibet and other areas of China with Tibetan populations.

So faceless, you have chosen which side to believe. If these exiled groups are anything like the exiled group from Iraq, you know who I would believe.

Also, the Tibetans have managed to get video out, so why can't they prove the number of deaths (e.g. photos and names of the dead). Even if claims are impossible to corroborate, there is evidence which can be provided which helps prove it.

[faceless]

I believe the representatives of the protesters before I'll believe the Chinese government, who we all know have a fantastic human-rights record. I wonder if Galloway hadn't stated his position if you would still have the same approach?

I will not accept charges that the protesters were the cause of the trouble, when they are people going up against a massively equipped and inhumane regime. Did those people who died at Tianenmen Square deserve what they got?

[Mandy]

Did those people who died at Tianenmen Square deserve what they got?

How many did die ? There were lots of cameras/videos on the square, so some proof should be also available.


p.s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_ ... ts_of_1989

[faceless]

You're determined to be obtuse and it's getting fucking dull. Can't you just give a straight answer?

[nekokate]

I don't really care whether the protests were totally peaceful or not. Even if they were smashing things it doesn't justify killing them.

[Mandy]

I don't really care whether the protests were totally peaceful or not. Even if they were smashing things it doesn't justify killing them.

Just like with the shooting of demonstrators who were demonstrating against Chavez, we don't know who was doing the shooting and why. In Chavez's case, it appeared the shooting was stage managed by Chavez's opponents to act as a catalyst against the government. A "false flag" operation.

The most memorable memory of Tiananmen square was the single protestor against the tank. It didn't seem to me that the Chinese government wanted to shot the protesters.

Until I see independent proof of the shootings / killing, I will take all reports with a pinch of salt.

I am more likely to believe the Chinese government reports more than the British/US neo-con government reports .. look at the history of false information we have been fed.

Quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_ ... ts_of_1989 :

"The Chinese government has maintained that there were no deaths within the square itself, although videos taken there at the time recorded the sound of gunshots. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and State Council claimed that "hundreds of PLA soldiers died and more were injured""


The above sounds like a Western backed violent uprising against the Chinese.

[faceless]

This is nothing like the situation in Venezuela. Some people there are just pissed of that they've lost the elections over and over, whereas in Tibet people are pissed off because the bastard Chinese People's Army have stolen their country and won't give it back.

CHINA - GET THE HELL OUT OF TIBET!

[Mandy]

CHINA - GET THE HELL OUT OF TIBET!

Might as well as CHINA - GET OUT OF CHINA

https://www.index-china.com/index-english/Tibet-s.html

Tibet is part of China for more than 700 years

(You may have heard a lot about Chinese invasion of Tibet or sympathetic about Tibet Independent movement in Western media. Do you know that China has 56 nationalities and is never a racist country in history. Do you know that Tibetan immigrated to Tibet several thousand years ago from other part of China? Do you know that when Red Army entered Tibet in 1951, they also recovered other part of China (Chinese army invaded China????). Do you know that before 1951, the feudal lords in Tibet who constituted only five percent of the population possessed 95 percent of the means of production. Do you know that Buddhism was brought into Tibet from China Proper before being developed into the current state? Read the Tibet history before passing your judgment about a nation you have been misled in centuries.)

British and America working hard to separate Tibet from China since 19th century.

[faceless]

Scotland has been 'part of' the United Kingdom for 300+ years, does that mean that the Scottish are not Scottish any more, but British? You could apply the same to Northern Ireland too - and while I realise you're only saying these things because you are in cahoots with Galloway, it doesn't make him or your sheeplike obedience correct.

[faceless]

Here's the best pic I've seen yet of the incident that this thread is about. I hadn't noticed the handcuff motif of the Olympic rings before...

[luke]

that image isn't displaying faceless, just a broken image icon - if you right click and view pic it trys to download it ... heres a pic of the handcuff logo, clever idea that! ( from a design point of view - i'm not that up on the china/tibet situation )