Word: torches
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...traditional global relay carrying the Olympic torch to the site of the Games is supposed to convey the inextinguishable vigor of the Olympic spirit. But the Chinese are finding it instead a symbolic disaster. The running of the torch in London Sunday was marred by attempts by human rights protesters to extinguish its fire, but on Monday in Paris the ceremony became an outright farce: security officials doused the flame twice in the face of demonstrations to block its progress, and wound up driving it to the end-of-day handoff ceremony at Charléty Stadium on the edge...
...More than 3,000 French police and security forces formed what was touted as a "hermetic bubble" to protect torch carriers from any intrusion, but the relay came under immediate pressure from well-organized protesters. Just minutes after the 17-mile relay began at the Eiffel Tower, demonstrators carrying Tibetan flags and chanting anti-Chinese slogans moved in so tightly around the torch that officials took it into a bus for protection. Its flame was ultimately extinguished at least twice for what French officials called "technical reasons." Efforts by police to back activists away from the Olympic cortege at times...
China is dealing with visible and invisible opposition in the months before the Beijing Olympics begin. The visible was front-and-center in the world media as the OIympic torch made its way through various countries on a circuitous route to the Games. Everywhere Chinese security is on guard against activists prepared to disrupt the flame's progress to protest China's human rights record in Tibet and in the enormous province of Xinjiang. In London, a protester tried to grab the flame away from its official bearer; at one point, the torch had to make its way through...
Last week, as protesters waved “Free Tibet” signs and “Genocide Olympics” banners in Harvard Square, the Olympic torch began its journey around the world. As Beijing officials prepare to welcome both the Games and the world on August 8, activists from across the globe are stepping up calls for countries to boycott the Games. Yet such calls are both unrealistic and futile in effecting positive change—not only does a boycott fail to improve the plight of those affected by China’s actions, but such...
...trying to really push it this time,” she says. “At eight we’ll have a toast to the Fogg. We’ll also talk about our plans for the future, because it will be the night that the torch of leadership is passed to Nora and me.” Though supporters of the museums lament the closures of the Fogg and Busch Reisinger, they add that 32 Quincy St. building is badly in need of repairs. “I think it’s a shame that a generation...