In what has essentially become another private Olympic torch event - the route kept secret until television news ‘SkyChopper’ helos spotted the security column skirting any potential scenes of demonstrations – Leg 6, the American leg, was as removed from the public as The Flame’s initial presentation on Tian’anmen Square, though there they bussed both the audience and the Olympic symbol of all the abstract feel-good qualities you can possibly think of.
Rolling street closures rippled through the streets as an alternate route was used to bypass any dissenting demonstrations . A whole new strategy is born? Not really. The privileged use of public space to foil protestations has reached the level of art form in the US during the Bush presidency. The public is not so public anymore. Today’s escape route probably has a secret number. After 9/11 and 3/14 you just can’t be too careful.
To be fair, though, in San Francisco there was more of a public audience, reluctant though that public may have been as they sat in halted traffic and watched the bus that carried the torch go by. I’ve yet to hear if any of the gridlocked were able to see the faintest glimmer of a flame as the stealth column passed. Developing.
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A torchbearer’s account - from KCBS, San Francisco:
After being passed the Olympic flame, Majora Carter pulled out a small Tibetan flag that she had hidden in her shirt sleeve. “The Chinese security and cops were on me like white on rice, it was no joke,’” said Carter, 41, who runs a nonprofit organization in New York. “They pulled me out of the race, and then San Francisco police officers pushed me back into the crowd on the side of the street.”
Great PR move. No doubt everyone will know the name of her nonprofit before noon tomorrow. You have to admire creative advertising and entrepreneurship. Chances like this don’t come along all that often. Throw in a 501c3 tax write-off possibility just before tax D-Day, and you’re looking at brilliance. The tricky part was getting her name on the list. We’ll hear more about this later, I’m sure.
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Xinhua headline: Olympic torch relay concludes in San Francisco without major incidents. It’s about the best headline they could hope for.
The relay ran for two and half hours along the San Francisco area with the closing ceremony being held at the airport.
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The relatively smooth run of the San Francisco relay stood in striking contrast [to] those in London and Paris where Tibetan separatists repeatedly disrupted the torch relay to the indignation of locals and Chinese communities.
Well, I should think so. London and Paris tried to keep to the public course and run the one the public believed they would. San Francisco, on the other hand, remained malleable, open to other suggestions. In what could have been boldest move to date – the canceling of the relay for citizen safety reasons - The Flame made its way through the streets of San Francisco (I wonder where Michael Douglas was on this one?) without so much as a hitch, that we know of.
More on all of this later, I’m sure.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Del3 // Apr 10, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I am a little confused now. One blogger calls this Tibetan Fatigue Syndrome (TBS). I am not sure what I am supposed to think right now. I remember when I was a child the Olympics filled me with excitement. Hearing Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. I especially liked watch the ski jumping events and gymnastics. But since then it seems like I lost interest in the Olympics, the drug scandals, the dishonest judge scandals, the excessive media hype, seems like the LA summer olympics where especially bad for media hype, the money, the posturing by countries and cities to get selected. Now we have the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The citizens of PRC say this is like a big comming out party for China. Unfortunately I have been jaded by previous olympics. I’m not sure exactly what the PRC expects me (an average citizen of a western nation) to feel now. It seems this one world one dream planning was aimed internally at citizens of the PRC. The olympic planning committee did not provide me adequate training or media preparation in the US. What am I supposed to think or feel about the torch relay or the games themselves. Am I a) proud of the PRC, b) shocked and amazed by the PRC, c) scared of the PRC, d) jealous of the PRC, or e) all of the above. Maybe I am just supposed to send money and then smile politely when the torch relay passes through my nation. The protestors disrupting the relay seem silly and ineffectual. The Chinese protesting the protestors seem silly. Most of the people suggesting a boycott don’t seem to know much about the Tibet Autonomous Region and or why a boycott would make a difference.
Seems like the PRC has built up the expectations for the Olympics so high that it is impossible for it to live up to expectations. In the end it will just be another olympics and beijing will have a lot of empty 5 star hotel rooms and empty sports complexes this fall.
The IOC will be hard at work taking the travel ing international sports franchise to the next city looking for a global economic stimulus shot.
2 An English Teacher in China » Weekly Roundup: Olympics, Torches, Learn Chinese Lead // Apr 13, 2008 at 11:32 am
[...] Absurdity, Allegory and China has been following the torch relay closely. His latest post about the San Fransisco leg is quite interesting and so are his earlier posts. They are enjoyable and interesting to read. [...]
3 Weekly Roundup: Olympics, Torches, Learn Chinese, Lead // Nov 9, 2008 at 9:32 pm
[...] Absurdity, Allegory and China has been following the torch relay closely. His latest post about the San Fransisco leg is quite interesting and so are his earlier posts. They are enjoyable and interesting to read. [...]
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