Gridskipper
The 2008 Beijing Olympics are still four months away, but they've already started with a bang. Activists who oppose China's occupation of Tibet have been holding huge protests as the Olympic torch makes its customary pre-games lap around the globe. In the past week, the torch toured Paris and London with an entourage of local policemen and Chinese security personnel. In spite of all the guards, protesters forced the torch to be extinguished for the first time in modern Olympic history. If you want to get in on all of the "Free Tibet" fun, the Olympic torch will be stopping in fourteen more cities between tomorrow and April 29th. The good people at Google have made a map showing all of the remaining cities along the torch's route. The tour includes such exciting destinations as San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and the hometown of everyone's favorite despot — Pyongyang!
There's still plenty of time to plan a trip to go protest the torch in any one of these great urban oases. Protesters get to meet other cute politically involved types and rub elbows with the world-class athletes who carry the torch, all while enjoying the fun of screaming and flinging yourself at angry law enforcement personnel. So why not fly around the world following the Olympic torch and going apeshit? It's all for a good cause. It's kind of like the civil rights movement, with sightseeing instead of big dogs and high-powered hoses.
Comments
Guessing that this schedule will be...um...modified.
Isn't it kind of pointless at this point to take the torch anywhere? I thought the whole point of the torch was that they take the same flame that was burning in Athens to wherever the Olympics are being held that year. Now that the flame has been extinguished, it's not the flame from Athens.
when they relight it they use a backup torch lit from the same fire in athens. so technically it's the same flame even if it's been put out and relit. as for pointless, that depends on whether you think there's any point in using a giant magnifying glass to light a fire at a ceremony involving women pretending to be ancient priestesses and earnestly carrying it around the world as if anyone cared.
The cowardly way the route was changed in secret at the last second is all to typical of the way the U.S. government conspires with the thugs who rule China to subvert our Constitutional Rights, this time the right to gather. Shame on the mayor of San Francisco for allowing London and Paris to once again upstage America and show the world how we are fast becoming a shadow-democracy where corporate profits trample over the voice of the people over and over until theirs nothing left and we're just like the big money tyrant communist Chinese. God help us.
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