“Light the Passion, Share the Dream”
In the shadows of my failed attempt to get a glimpse of the Olympic flame on Tian’anmen Square this past Monday, I’ve stopped licking my wounds and have come to terms with my ignorance in not knowing that I needed an invitation, and then not having actually received one. I have to keep reminding myself that no one ever said that this was going to be fair. I should feel grateful at having been allowed to be in Beijing at all. And I do! Lord knows I do!
So as not to dwell any further on this snub, I will quietly consider the route the flame will take on its way around the world before it lights up the 29th Olympiad in Beijing on the evening of August 8, 2008.
The first stop on the longest Olympic flame route in history was Almaty, Kazakhstan where President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is believed to have transferred at least $1 billion worth of oil revenues to his private bank accounts in other countries, assured the world “that Kazakhstan is faithful to the Olympic ideal,” before trotting out on the Medeo ice rink in a sporty white leisure outfit, red tie and heavy security on the initial leg of the international 30 day, 137,000 kilometer journey, which optimistically has been dubbed “the journey of harmony.”
In a first for the Olympic torch, the flame has been split in two. The one that the Kazakh king of corruption ran around with today will be the one that will actually make the month-long, five continent trip, to “light the passion, share the dream.” The other, the flame-in-waiting, will head southwest into the Himalayas in May to await fortuitous weather for its trip to the top of Qomolangma (Mount Everest). Or, as Xinhua puts it: “The holy fire of the Olympics will also reach Mount Qomolangma, the world’s highest peak.”
This one worries me. Those guys could die up there, and if they were to die and the flame were not to make it, I fear that someone will pay dearly for the letdown. A failure of this magnitude has the potential to be worse than China’s men’s football team not making it to the next World Cup after having sworn an oath promising to qualify.
In not-so-harmonious Olympic torch news, The LA Times reported that on Tuesday
… the [San Francisco] Board of Supervisors took a stand that seemed anything but welcoming, voting 8 to 3 for a resolution to greet the torch “with alarm and protest.” The board shelved a competing resolution to welcome “in the true spirit of the Olympics” the Beijing torch and two others that arrive here next week — a world human rights torch and a Tibetan freedom torch.
Tomorrow, Istanbul.
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