New York – When the Olympics torch has finished the global relay and is scheduled to return to China on May 4th, New York residents decide to rally to show their support for the games. According to a document from New York police, thousands of people are going to gather at Foley Square this coming Sunday to cheer Olympics.
The theme of rally, according to the coordinators, is going to be “Peace and Olympics”. A post from the official homepage of the rally says “Sport is sport. No politics”.
Apparently, many people have been turned away by the month-long political farce surrounding the Olympics torch: Tibetans in exile seeking the opportunity to voice their political stipulates; the Paris city hall indulging violence toward torch bearers; the Western media questioned for their sided stance in reporting the Tibet issue. For the first time in decades the hype surrounding the Olympics is not regarding the torch or the games, but the geopolitical battle involving some of the world’s superpowers.
Now New York decides to ditch the politics and welcome the Olympic spirit. Or at least thousands of the New Yorkers do. So far more than two thousand people have responded to the rally, according to the coordinators. 1200 people have registered with the rally’s Facebook group. All these people, a lot of them of Chinese background, are going to appear in the May 4th rally. Speeches, balloons, songs, souvenirs will be available, according to sources.
The rally is completely non-political, initiated by individuals without political background, sources say. All organizing work was done by Internet posts and mailing lists.
As of Apr 29th the Olympics torch has traveled 19 cities around the globe. At the first two stops the torch was ambushed by professional and well prepared protest groups, and their hired mercenaries. In all of the following relays Beijing supporters outnumbered protesters.
05/01/2008 at 14:20
“the Paris city hall indulging violence toward torch bearers” – please explain.
“For the first time in decades the hype surrounding the Olympics is not regarding the torch or the games, but the geopolitical battle involving some of the world’s superpowers.” – this takes some swallowing. The Olympics have always been a two-faced affair. The official face, which is non-political and is involved in sports only, and the unofficial face, which is the exact opposite as it has been used and misused by almost every political body with an axe to grind.
“and their hired mercenaries.” – this is an allegation not an established fact.
“In all of the following relays Beijing supporters outnumbered protesters.” – and beat up a few of the others.
fridayinlove, there is nothing wrong in the essence of your post but you spoil it by mixing in loaded and biased assertions. If you’re not careful you will end up on a par with CNN.
I do hope the party/rally of the 4th goes well.
05/12/2008 at 20:42
You are sharp Clive (hope it’s correct
, I did try to write this in the CNN style – actually NY Times. I laid out 3 NYT articles and read them 3 times each before writing this, trying hard not to lose the style. I basically tried to pick only things favoring my point, and for some of them I I exaggerated just a tiny bit.
This post was for catching eyeballs anyway. I won’t continue to write like this, so relax
I had fun on May 4th though. That was an interesting huge event, even FOX TV had to give it a 10 second coverage, although they started with their usual “Despite the human right record of Beijing”.