Morning:
Today I get to witness the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco! I am so excited seeing the crowds milling on the street with flags, and the crowded trains. There are loads of buses carrying police forces from nearby Richmond and Oakland areas. I feel slightly disturbed by the protests - to me, the Olympics is the human unifying spirit, and should not be marred by anything political. I already feel slightly dumb at not having brought my camera - but, my friend has, and I am sure we can take some pictures. I feel this is the closest I have ever gotten to anything "Olympic", and I am filled with a strange sense of excitement.
Hope the event passes smoothly!
Afternoon:
I
went out with my friends - I was so excited. The streets were milling with people - protests in different hues and flavours! Some people got up in the morning, and put on their protest hats, and began randomly protesting. I think they just forgot that the protest was against the Olympic torch. A majority of the protests could be classified against China, pro-Tibet, pro-Human rights etc. But there were some protests to 'End the war in Iraq', 'Darfur' and 'Free Burma'! Free Burma from whom?! This protest took the cake though : a bunch of stark naked guys turned up, apparently calling for legalizing nudity in an Olympic Torch relay ceremony!
Of course, by the time I post this, you all would have known that San Francisco city officials changed the route, and actually had the torch bused to another route, and had the relay pass the torch every fblock or so. The closing ceremony was cancelled citing the protests, and the whole episode was all-in-all a dampener!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/MNDS102IIM.DTL&tsp=1
The olympic torch hid behind the police, and was safely moved by bus from one point to another, and only made it out in the open to streets heavily armed with police as spectators, and did not even mark the event with a closing ceremony - this for the only run in the North American continent.
Evening:
Hard to describe my feelings since I did not actually see the torch - a once in a lifetime experience for sure, and was snatched away from the thousands of people waiting patiently for the torch to appear!
Today I get to witness the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco! I am so excited seeing the crowds milling on the street with flags, and the crowded trains. There are loads of buses carrying police forces from nearby Richmond and Oakland areas. I feel slightly disturbed by the protests - to me, the Olympics is the human unifying spirit, and should not be marred by anything political. I already feel slightly dumb at not having brought my camera - but, my friend has, and I am sure we can take some pictures. I feel this is the closest I have ever gotten to anything "Olympic", and I am filled with a strange sense of excitement.
Hope the event passes smoothly!
Afternoon:
I
went out with my friends - I was so excited. The streets were milling with people - protests in different hues and flavours! Some people got up in the morning, and put on their protest hats, and began randomly protesting. I think they just forgot that the protest was against the Olympic torch. A majority of the protests could be classified against China, pro-Tibet, pro-Human rights etc. But there were some protests to 'End the war in Iraq', 'Darfur' and 'Free Burma'! Free Burma from whom?! This protest took the cake though : a bunch of stark naked guys turned up, apparently calling for legalizing nudity in an Olympic Torch relay ceremony!Of course, by the time I post this, you all would have known that San Francisco city officials changed the route, and actually had the torch bused to another route, and had the relay pass the torch every fblock or so. The closing ceremony was cancelled citing the protests, and the whole episode was all-in-all a dampener!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/09/MNDS102IIM.DTL&tsp=1
The olympic torch hid behind the police, and was safely moved by bus from one point to another, and only made it out in the open to streets heavily armed with police as spectators, and did not even mark the event with a closing ceremony - this for the only run in the North American continent.
Evening:
Hard to describe my feelings since I did not actually see the torch - a once in a lifetime experience for sure, and was snatched away from the thousands of people waiting patiently for the torch to appear!
Posts
20 comments:
I was going to write a blog on this one..:).. Not specifically on the SF fiasco... I got to meet this person named KS Grewal last weekend in our "relay" party... Apparently, he is an Kenyan born indian who was selected to run for the 1980 olympics (marathon) representing the USA. Due to olympics boycotting, he couldnt run it. He termed that as one of his biggest disappointments and he stated that sports should never mix with politics... He lost his once in a lifetime chance. He did compete in olympic trials in 1984 but couldnt get to the olympics team....He was honored to carry the olympic torch twice in 1984 (for richmond and dublin). He is now in his 50s. He has run about 80-90 marathons and several ultra marathons (50 miles and 100 mile runs). Just 4 years back, he ran a 136 mile run all by himself in 24 hours raising fund for the american cancer society...He lives in fremont... If you fremont folks see an old sardarji, dont mistake him for an ordinary runner...:)
Yesterday's event was such a disappointment - typical paranoid mentality thinking.
I can't imagine how this person must have felt at losing the olympic opportunity. Seriously, there is a reason Sports needs to be above politics - it is a medium the whole world identifies with, and should maintain its purity.
@ Saumya: Wow that must have an experience...
@ Mindframes: I agree with you that sports should not be mixed with politics. It was disappointing to see the series in Pakistan go down with Australia refusing to tour. My guess is that was political too.
@mindframes: I'm not sure I understand fully the impact of the statement - "sports should not be mixed with politics". The reason is, if you isolate sports to just sports and politics to just politics it seems fine at the surface. But lets take the case of the olympics, hosting the Olympics is not just about sports and goodwill, its also about huge money being spent and earned. Now hypothetically assume the host country is a tyranical country. Now as a guest country, by participating and supporting the olympics economy you are allowing the host country to make money and continue what its doing.
So I'm not sure if thats ideal either....
@ Manohar: I see your point but that might be more relevant to a case like the BCCI or CA. But can we accuse countries of being opportunistic? The chances that a country, openly regarded as a terror to the society will never be in a position to hold the Olympics. Therefore, a country which bids and wins is expected to act in good faith.
@madmax: What if the said hypothetical transgression is after winning the big?
@ Manohar: hmm...then we have to start believing in Anarchy...now that is a state where I would prefer not to go to. Also the threat of withdrawal can always be enforced.
@madmax: Not exactly sure what you mean. All I'm saying is that, protests has its place.
@ Mano: Protests are fine, but not at the expense of the games. Impose sanctions, dont give them a place on the security council, do this and that. Does anybody gain by boycotting the games?
@madmax: Impose Sanctions??? Dude, that could imply people's livelihoods are lost... somehow sport is holier than livelihoods? :)
Ok, I think we might be highjacking Saumya's excellent blog. Nice blog saumya btw :)
@ Manohar: hmm. No my point was not to hurt people, but the threat of a sanction works mushc better in disciplining rogue governments. What is happening now is nothing but arum twisting.
But as you said an excellent blog is being sidetracked. Shame on you Mano. How could you do this :-) (ROFL)
Wow..lots of comments...
My big take... It is the olympic committee's responsibility to not pick a nation if they think it would result in controversies. It is not that China has somehow committed atrocities in the near past. They have a track record. So, why choose a country that carries all these baggage in the first place? Given that it is chosen, and given that it is only few months to olympics, why boycott now? Why didnt these protesters boycott the decision from day one and express it outwardly? That, at least could have had some impact... At this juncture, it is the elites in various areas of sports who get to suffer... If everybody starts protesting about their own political agendas, one will never see an end....Iraqis can start protesting and say that US war killed a lot of people there and boycott its presence... North Korea could be banned from participating... India could be banned for getting least medals/population-strength..:)..The list will go on and on...
Yes, money will be made... Only if people from all over the world attend olympics...What if they dont? The games can still go ahead and China will still not make the money if that is the concern...
@mindframes: I think we need a thanni session to discuss this machi :)
@Saumya,
Yesterday's Daily Show ridiculed CNN's coverage of the SFO olympic torch run. It was really funny. Looks like CNN covered it for 1hr & 42 min and they couldn't locate where the torch was. They showed a runner carrying it into a warehouse , after which it dissapeared and there were speculations as to whether it was carried in a bike or a van etc..In short, they covered the absence of the torch..:-)
@ Mano, Madmax, Mindframes,
This was a nice blog and Saumya's moment. So,lets leave it at that.
Wow! What happened here? I came back to check if there are any comments, and the comment spot looks like a mini warfield!
Anyway....thanks guys
@survivor: the comments are actually a tribute to saumya's blog.. its so thot provoking so to speak.
Interesting blog.
@Mindframes: Some of the valid (IMO) protests are for Tibet issue, which happenedrecently
According to me protests by individuals are ok to send a message (it is unreasonable if it makes my lovely wife disappointed :) )
But once treat this as political issue and try to send message through Olympics it gets ugly.
On a positive note, expect for 80 & 84 olympics I don't see too many getting affected.
Remember: Because 1980 was rejected by most, India won a gold medal again in Hockey.. Blessing in disguise??
@ Brainwaves: Hockey le India gold medal aaa...they did not even qualify yaar...sorry state of affairs..
@brainwaves: IMO, the tibet issue has been there for the past 50 years. Agreed that they get a lot of media attention now... But, the problem has always been there...
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