Vive La France!!!

[mstriumph]

yeah --- never thought i'd say it

but i just HAVE to respect the way the French Leadership is condemning China's civil rights abuses in Tibet and the French People are so openly expressing their displeasure at China's behaviour by doing their best to disrupt the progress of the Olympic Torch .....

... this is while others, including the Australian and Brit governments are being conspicuous by their silence

The Olympics is meant to be about fair play and sportsmanship --- it's a travesty that China [like dear Adolf before them] is permitted to brazenly use it to promote their own particular brand of arrogant inhumanity ...

it's even MORE grotesque that most of the 'rest of the world' eagerly gobbles up their lies in the name of diplomacy, greed and self-interest.

[MisterD]

They don't care about Tibet - all they care about is outdoing the Brits in the making-a-fuss stakes....bloody frogs have beaten us in the new Olympic sport of Flame Extinguishing 3-0.

[mstriumph]

gotta luv your competative spirit!!

[Clockwork]

Got to acknowledge, when it comes to protest the Frogs really know how it's done.

[ManDownUnder]

I'm looking forward to the new coverage when the torch gets to China LOL. Dancing girls, arranged parades, smiling officials... in stark contrast to so many other parts of the world where the protests have (rightly) gone ballistic.

Love it.

My mother was teaching English there a while back when SARS broke out. Internal media was reporting all is well, SARS is just like mild asthma and there's no need to worry. The rest of the world was donning masks, testing passengers at airports with infra-red cameras etc... and doing what it could to control the damned thing.

[Swoop]

They don't care about Tibet - all they care about is outdoing the Brits in the making-a-fuss stakes....bloody frogs have beaten us in the new Olympic sport of Flame Extinguishing 3-0.

Do they have to return to the start and relight each time???

The froggies are being brave because they know china isn't on their border ready to invade.
I bet they haven't even stocked up on white flags for this one.

[tri boy]

I never saw a naked French boob in all the footage.
Bloody poor effort. No ripped designer tops etc etc.

[avgas]

Got to acknowledge, when it comes to protest the Frogs really know how it's done.

I reckon,
They even have been known to sink ships

[Rogue]

Frogs only protest when it suits them
Dont forget the nuclear testing in the pacific or the sinking of the rainbow warrior, Algeria, Indo China, giving nuclear and weapon technologly to towel- head countries, beating the All Blacks in the World Cup the list could go on but I would run out of room
Up the French you just can't trust them
Free Tibet
I for one one don't give a monkeys for a lot of yak minders they are better off being part of China than going alone.
If it went alone it would still be a third world country, in a heap of debt to the world bank, let China pay their keep instead of us

[Steam]

Free Tibet
I for one one don't give a monkeys for a lot of yak minders they are better off being part of China than going alone.
If it went alone it would still be a third world country, in a heap of debt to the world bank, let China pay their keep instead of us

They are *not* better off being part of China.

The death toll as a direct result of Chinese invasion and occupation 1950 - 1979 is 1,200,000 Tibetans, as claimed by the Tibetan government in exile. So the real figure is probably quite a bit lower, since they have an agenda.
The Chinese Army only admit they killed 87,000 Tibetans, so the real figure is probably a lot higher, since they have an agenda.
Averaging those two gets us 600,000 dead.

They are *not* better off being part of China.

[Swoop]

An interesting bit from the Harold.

Hitler's hand in igniting Olympic torch relay
5:00AM Thursday April 10, 2008

Protests in US before Olympic torch run
There is a two-word answer to those who think the Olympic torch is a symbol of harmony between nations that should be kept apart from politics - Adolf Hitler.

The ceremony played out on the streets of Paris and London this week did not originate in ancient Greece, nor even in the 19th century, when the Olympic movement was revived.

The entire ritual, with its pagan overtones, was devised by a German named Dr Carl Diem, who ran the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Although he was not a Nazi, and was appointed to run the Olympics before the Nazis came to power, Diem adapted very quickly to the new regime, and ended the war as a fanatical military commander exhorting teenage Germans to die like Spartans rather than accept defeat. Thousands did, but not Diem, who lived to be 80.

He sold to Josef Goebbels - in charge of media coverage of the Games - the idea that 3422 young Aryan runners should carry burning torches along the 3422km route from the Temple of Hera on Mount Olympus to the stadium in Berlin.

It was his idea that the flame should be lit under the supervision of a High Priestess, using mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays, and passed from torch to torch along the way, so that when it arrived in Berlin it would have a quasi-sacred purity.

The concept could hardly fail to appeal to the Nazis, who loved pagan mythology, and saw ancient Greece as an Aryan forerunner of the Third Reich. The Greeks believed fire was of divine origin, and kept perpetual flames burning in their temples.

In Olympia, where the ancient games were held, the flame burnt permanently on the altar of the goddess Hestia. In Athens, athletes used to run relay races carrying burning torches, in honour of certain gods.

But the ancient Games were proclaimed by messengers wearing olive crowns, a symbol of the sacred truce which guaranteed that athletes could travel to and from Olympus safely. There were no torch relays associated with the ancient Olympics until Hitler.

The route from Olympus to Berlin conveniently passed through Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, and Czechoslovakia - countries where the Nazis wanted to extend their influence. Before long, all would be under German military occupation.

Despite its dark political overtones, the event was an unqualified success for the organisers and the ritual has been repeated before each Olympics since.

- INDEPENDENT

[Hitcher]

The Olympics is meant to be about fair play and sportsmanship --- it's a travesty that China [like dear Adolf before them] is permitted to brazenly use it to promote their own particular brand of arrogant inhumanity ...

All countries are guilty of inhumanity in some form or another. Australia has hosted the Olympics, so has the United States, Korea, and even Germany. The Poms get the next lot.

The only countries in recent times to host the Olympics without some sort of obvious slur on their character are arguably Greece, Canada and Norway.

Applying standards to the level that some advocate means that New Zealand (economic reality notwithstanding) could never host the Olympics.

Let they who are without sin cast the first stone.

[mstriumph]

All countries are guilty of inhumanity in some form or another. Australia has hosted the Olympics, so has the United States, Korea, and even Germany. The Poms get the next lot...............

..... actually it wasn't the inhumanity i was commenting on, but the way the host country was using the torch run and games as a platform to trivialize/legitimize it - sorry if that wasn't clear

Let they who are without sin cast the first stone.

cute! using a Christian gospel quote in commentary on a 1930's aspiration to pagan ritual

[Hitcher]

..... actually it wasn't the inhumanity i was commenting on, but the way the host country was using the torch run and games as a platform to trivialize/legitimize it - sorry if that wasn't clear

In more recent times, the torch run ritual is an event promulgated by the International Olympic Committee, rather than by the host nation. Technically it's the IOC's torch, not the Chinese's.

[mstriumph]

was probably MADE in China though?