Always good to stay hot off the press . . .

Zimbabwe court rejects MDC demand

Zimbabwe strike gets muted response

Putin accepts key party position

China bunkers down behind its great wall

By the time the “sacred” flame reaches Beijing for the opening ceremony of the Games on August 8, where the protests will no doubt continue with 30,000 foreign reporters looking on, every group with an ax to grind against China will have had an opportunity to air its grievances to a worldwide audience.

And while these criticisms may be based on legitimate concerns about the repressive Chinese presence in Tibet and the ugly human-rights record of China in general, their expression has led to a surge of nationalism among Chinese that has strengthened, not weakened, authoritarian Communist Party rule.

Two heroic stories perhaps best illustrate the great divide between Chinese and Western sensibilities over the rough passage of the flame. On the Chinese side, we have Jin Jing, a 28-year-old amputee now widely revered as the “wheelchair angel”. After losing a leg to cancer, she has become a national hero for her defense of the flame during its perilous Parisian sojourn. According to state media, Jin, formerly a member of Shanghai’s wheelchair fencing team, fought off waves of deranged demonstrators to keep the flame alight during the Paris leg of the relay. Photographs and video footage of her successful battle with one assailant lit up Internet chat rooms with nationalistic fervor and outrage.

Reuters pictures – 4 days ago: Jin Jing, a 27 year-old amputee and Paralympic fencer, displays a torch for Beijing Olympic Games during an interview with Reuters in Beijing April 11, 2008. The wheelchair-bound Chinese torch bearer has rocketed to national fame after fending off Tibet protesters in Paris, with a torrent of Internet messages feting her as a patriotic symbol of revulsion at the relay mayhem.

the circumstances were not for the faint hearted

Jin was the third torchbearer during the Paris leg. On the early morning of April 7, she received a text message from a friend, who told her to be extra careful, because in London, some attackers tried to grab the torch.

So she prepared for the worst and insisted on holding the torch with her own two hands instead of following the original plan and placing it on a special support device connected to her wheelchair.

After she received the torch from the second bearer and before the torch was lit, several attackers rushed to her and tried to grab it.

She held onto the torch tightly and guarded it with her body. During the struggle her chin and shoulder were scratched.

Police, her guards and surrounding Chinese students helped her and the torch never left her hands during the scuffle. Despite the anger and the hurt, Jin says she tried her best to hold back the tears.

“I think if you know they will grab your national flag and insult it, everyone would do the same thing I did.”

Jin sent a text message to her mom after the incident.

“You can be proud of me”.

At 9, Jin lost part of her right leg due to a malignant tumor in her ankle. She survived the ordeal and worked as a telephone operator in a local hotel.

Her colleagues recalled that she took the bus to work by herself, saved her money to buy fashion magazines, and liked shopping with other girls. She was always cheerful and upbeat, despite her disability.

During a speech contest in 2001, Jin met a coach who invited her to join in the local wheelchair fencing team.

A big fan of fictional swordsman Zorro, Jin agreed, thinking fencing was something symbolizing justice and integrity. She picked it up quickly and won silver and bronze in the 2002 Busan Far East and South Pacific Games.

Although she did not win the chance to compete in this year’s Paralympics, her optimism and cheerful personality won her a coveted place as torchbearer.

People are calling for a boycott of French Goods. But. It gets funnier . . .

OPEN QUOTE

On another side of the world meet Majora Carter, 41, an Olympic torch-bearer in San Francisco who used her moment in the limelight to unfurl a small Tibetan flag that she had hidden in her sleeve.

While the ordeal of the wheelchair angel went on for a reported 15 minutes, Carter and her Tibetan flag were quickly muscled out of the relay and into the hands of the San Francisco police by the Olympic torch’s now notorious paramilitary phalanx of Chinese escorts.

A spokesman for Coca-Cola, which sponsored Carter in the only North American stop for the relay and obviously wants to sell a lot more cola in China, expressed the company’s disappointment.

Has anyone calculated how many innocent civilians in Occupied Iraq and Afghanistan will die a violent death while the Olympics are going strong?

Mind you, 374 is a LOT of executions. I’m not saying it ain’t.

According to Iraq Body Count, in 2007, we’re talking about

14 Deaths per day from vehicle bombs

plus

39 Deaths per day from gunfire / executions.

Just in Iraq. So 22 vs 53. A day. Times 17 days . . .

While the Olympics are transpiring in Beijing, the US Occupation in Iraq will have killed

901 people

most of them innocent men, women and children

More from the Zimbabwe Dis-Disinfo Campaign

Zimbabwe and the Power of Propaganda — Ousting a President via Civil Society

OPEN QUOTE

“Zimbabwe is a strategic country for the United States because events in Zimbabwe have a significant impact on the entire southern Africa region.” (US Agency for International Development, 2005)

“And while these criticisms may be based on legitimate concerns about the repressive Chinese presence in Tibet and the ugly human-rights record of China in general, their expression has led to a surge of nationalism among Chinese that has strengthened, not weakened, authoritarian Communist Party rule.”

Oh Christ, has it ever… Just had a debate about just how useful boycotting carefour (French supermarket) really is. They are such an insecure people… 5000 years of history (as they love to continually say) and they still play the “so really though… what do you think of me?!?” game..

Although, I did get an applause in class when I told my students that the Tibet “issue” is really none of the USA, France, or anyones business except Tibet and the Beijing govt.

I did leave out my usual, and its none of your business either part that I usually add for the local Nanjing people.

But I was teaching a class of university girls. So that kinda affected me a little..

Uber, next class, give the ‘no ones business’ speech, end with “So the USA and France should mind their own DAMN business!! FREE TIBET!” and see how they react, because they will be all excited and emotional because they are nationalist idiots, and I bet they wont even notice the free Tibet part at the end. I am going to try it next class…