Tag: protest

I hate malls.  And I especially hate what’s known in my area as ‘the mall’, although i live pretty much equidistant from two.  We only go when there’s a need.  And by ‘need’, I mean that we ‘need’ the right jewelry to go with our fancy party dress, or our ipod needs something specific that we can only get from the source.  These are relative needs, but if you’ve recently parented a 14-year-old girl, you’ll agree that ‘need’ is apt.  

So ‘the mall’ has decided to spiff up its image, courting some higher-end anchor stores to fill some pretty costly vacancies.  I understand that their need, also relative, is real.  The mall has been there for nearly 30 years, and those empty stores probably do cost us all in the long run.  I don’t pretend to understand such high-falutin’ economic principles….or the high-falutin’ anchor stores, for that matter…but I’m sure there is some truth to ‘the mall’ management’s need to fill those stores.

^{Screen Cap from SFGate}

Former mayor Willie Brown, football player Hershel Walker, and swimmer Natalie Coughlin, carry the torch on the final leg of the ‘surprise’ route.  Surrounded by a phalanx of Chinese security, police with batons,  and a motorcycle motorcade….with nary a protester in sight.   Yep – this is how San Francisco shows its Olympic spirit!

On April 9th the Olympic torch came to San Francisco – the only North American city on its route.  This was preceded by weeks of controversy over China’s human rights record, the situation in Tibet, and how this most liberal american city would  handle the event and the surrounding protests.   My parents (from Illinois) were in town that week so I took the opportunity to schedule a day off and go see the Olympic torch.  

Lots more pics below the fold.

Protests have already started in Australia before tomorrow’s Olympic torch relay. So far they have been peaceful, and protest leaders are renewing calls to use nonviolence in the waning hours before the torch takes its course through the streets of Canberra.

Australia Tibet Council chairman George Farley addressed protesters at a candlelight vigil in front of the Chinese embassy:

“The world believes the cause of Tibet is moral,” Mr Farley said.

But he warned world opinion could change if tomorrow’s protests turned ugly.

Mr Farley said the non-violent approach endorsed by the Dalai Lama was the only approach to take.

“If they (pro-China activists) spit on you, just wear it.

“If they attack you, run away. Do not approach the Chinese, do not interact with them.”

link: http://www.smh.com.au/news/bei…

This YouTube is from one of a small group of protesters walking 43 miles while on a hunger strike to join the wider protest in Canberra:

It’s not like there’s nothing happening on the Olympic torch front. There are already protests in Australia as the torch heads toward that country: http://www.news.com.au/heralds…

Lin Hatfield Dobbs, a social justice campaigner, has pulled out of the Olympic torch relay in Australia, saying of the torch, “For a lot of people it still carries the meaning of harmony but for an increasing number of the global community watching it’s carrying a lot of meaning around human rights.” link: http://afp.google.com/article/…

And the International Herald-Tribune reports that in Japan, instead of the torch relay starting at the enigmatic Zenkoji Temple, it will begin in a parking lot: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap…

But all of that really pales in comparison to an event happening right now, involving multiple countries, including the United States and China. It includes an act of non-cooperation by trade union workers. A political party has spoken out, expressing fears that its members would become the victims of violence.

And yet we are treated to the same response by the Chinese government, that this event shouldn’t be “politicized”.  

Non-cooperation is directed not against men but against measures. It is not directed against the Governors, but against the system they administer. The roots of non-cooperation lie not in hatred but in justice, if not in love.  —Mahatma Gandhi

Two thousand protesters staged a rival torch relay to protest the arrival of the Olympic torch in New Delhi:

While the protesters were being thwarted by Mayor Gavin Newsom’s high speed game of wack-a-mole with the Olympic torch through the streets of San Francisco, the Dalai Lama was en route to Tokyo and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was giving one of the most important speeches of his diplomatic career.

First to the Dalai Lama. In remarks this morning in Tokyo, His Holiness defended the right of protesters to voice their dissent, while returning to his calls for nonviolence:

Diarists’s note on the above YouTube: The Dalai Lama’s remarks this morning come immediately after the short clip of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The final part of this YouTube contains a photo that has raised no small amount of controversy on the web. I include this YouTube because it was the only one I could find with His Holiness’s remarks in English. I have no thoughts regarding the veracity – or lack thereof – of the claims surrounding the last photograph other than to say that this is just one example of why an impartial, international investigation into the riots in Lhasa needs to be held, so that the truth around these events can be discovered.

“I think this is just a preview. I think there will be a lot more than this city is prepared for.”

link: http://www.reuters.com/article…

This was one San Fransican’s reaction to yesterday’s breath-taking protest by proponents of a free Tibet who scaled the Golden Gate Bridge:

One World One Dream – Free Tibet 08

Screen caps from KTVU Video

This is the BIG story in the Bay Area tonight.  These 3 people on the bridge were truly brave souls and after 3 hours flying their banners and Tibetan flags, they were taken into custody and booked for felony conspiracy.  The city of San Francisco is ‘bracing for uproar’, iow shitting bricks, about what to do with the Olympic torch relay on Wednesday.  After London and Paris I can only imagine what will happen here. Tensions have been building for weeks now.        

From The Press Association:

Protesters have forced police to extinguish the Olympic torch amid heavy demonstrations as it set off across Paris.

Officers in jogging gear who had been escorting the flame put it out and took it on a bus, apparently to get it away from the protesters.

The flame, which started out at the Eiffel Tower amid tight security, was being carried down a road next to the Seine near demonstrators carrying Tibetan flags when the relay was stopped.

Sky News has footage of the security guarding the torch, including the police on rollerblades: