標題: Torch song trilogy 新聞來源: (需有正確連結) 經濟學人 http://myurl.com.tw/114e 我自己翻的 http://blog.pixnet.net/mlkj24/post/16598385 FOR nearly 50 years, since the flight of the Dalai Lama and some 100,000 Tibetan followers to India, their government-in-exile has ploughed a lonely furrow. It is still not recognised by any other government. But at least its colourful snow-lion flag is becoming familiar. That is among the many unintended consequences of China's catastrophic “relay” around the world of the Olympic torch. This week protesters have hung the snow-lion flag high above the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, and waved it through the centres of London and Paris. The torch's bad week started in London on April 6th, where hundreds of protesters dogged it, as it was passed from famous hand to hand. At one point, protesters were blocked as it was whisked to Chinatown to give China's ambassador the chance to clasp it for a while. China's flag had an outing too. Hundreds of Chinese students were bused in. Some protesters were unruly, and 37 arrested. The torch was guarded not just by the police but by a phalanx of Chinese men in blue-and-white tracksuits. Their jurisdiction was hazy, but their demeanour unmistakable. As Lord Coe, chairman of the committee organising the 2012 London Olympics, was heard to say, they were “thugs”. Their presence outraged even those who could not find Tibet on a map. In the next stop, Paris, the parade was a fiasco. A giant banner, showing the five Olympic rings as handcuffs, was hung from the Eiffel Tower and another on the façade of Notre Dame cathedral. The athletes carrying the flame were virtually invisible behind the Chinese guards and French policemen on rollerblades. In the end they moved the flame onto a bus. San Francisco responded by announcing a route that turned out to be a decoy. Protesters gathered on one side of town while the torch was rushed by bus to the other. For a few blocks the torchbearers ran, amid police three lines deep, along a mostly empty thoroughfare until protesters caught up with the parade. At that point the torch disappeared into another bus and left for the airport. Protesters everywhere have demanded that China talk to the Dalai Lama, or just get “out, out, out” of Tibet. The torch itself has become an issue —in particular the plan to parade it through Tibet in June. But China has shown no sign of wavering on either the international or domestic parts of the itinerary. At a meeting in Beijing of the International Olympic Committee, Liu Jingmin, of China's games-organising team, said he was confident the international component could be completed. The Chinese press has portrayed the disruptions as marginal, amid massive shows of support by ordinary citizens. State television aired a brief comment by Paula Radcliffe, a British marathon runner, endorsing the importance of the protesters' cause while condemning their methods. The Chinese subtitle, however, removed the endorsement. The Chinese press have called the thugs in blue and white “valiant and heroic”. It has reported that the squad is made up of officers from the paramilitary People's Armed Police, who have been training for this role since last August, including learning to give orders in five languages. The relay is still due to visit a dozen other countries, including India, home to the Dalai Lama and the government-in-exile. With each protest, the pressure mounts on Western leaders not to attend the opening ceremony for the games in August. This week, France's president, Nicolas Sarkozy, spelled out his condition for going: fresh dialogue between China and Tibet. Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, managed to say both that he was not going and that he was not boycotting (maybe he had recalled an important EU meeting). Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the Democratic contenders for the American presidency, said George Bush should stay away. Kevin Rudd, Australia's prime minister, talked in a speech in Beijing of significant human-rights problems” in Tibet. Just as damaging for China in the long run, however, may be the effect on ordinary citizens. One place the Tibetan flag no longer flies is in the window of a bed shop in the English city of Sheffield. Its owner is a Tibetan sympathiser, who displayed the flag last month. Two young Chinese, apparently students, visited and made threats. That night his windows were smashed. A celebration supposed to mark China's emergence as a friendly global power has made some people think for the first time that its rise is something to fear. -- http://blog.pixnet.net/mlkj24 --

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