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Richard Gere and Archbishop Desmond Tutu teamed up to lend their support to the people of Tibet at a protest rally in San Francisco last night in anticipation of today's Olympic Torch sprint through the city. "We must tell the leaders of the world, 'For goodness sake, for God's sake, for the sake of your children, our children, for the sake of the beautiful people of Tibet, don't go,'" said Mr Tutu, who urged Bush to abstain from attending the Olympic opening ceremony during his address to the crowd. Gere, like the Dalai Lama, stressed the importance of peaceful protest. "I hope that a point is made, but non-violently," said Gere.
Meanwhile Tibet's Chinese-appointed governor warned of "severe" punishment for protesters who cause "trouble" on the torch's journey through the Himalayas to Mount Everest next month. "For these separatist forces, the Olympics in Beijing will be a rare opportunity," Governor Champa Phuntsok said in Beijing (as reported by The Daily Mail). "Therefore they wish to create major troubles or incidents. I don't doubt they will create trouble during the torch relay in Tibet....During the torch relay in Tibet and in climbing Mount Everest, if anyone should attempt to disrupt or undermine the torch relay, then they will be dealt with severely according to the law."
Such rhetoric only serves to heighten the irony that China is hosting the games. They are clearly missing the point of an event whose stated goal is to "strive for a bright future of Mankind. In spite of the differences in colors, languages and races, we share the charm and joy of the Olympic Games, and together we seek for the ideal of Mankind for peace." Clearly we could do with sending China to "charm" school in order to optimize the "joy" of the Olympics.
The torch's trip around the planet, which has raised much proverbial and literal hot air (and a projected 11 million pounds of CO2 by journey's end), is serving a greater purpose than could possibly have been anticipated, with the flame shining a global light on China's unacceptable attitudes to human rights, though, given our own recent transgressions, human rights violation is certainly a sport that we could seriously compete with China in for the dubious honor of gold.
HERE to view protest footage.
