Olympic Relay Riots

Tyler Donofrio

I. China Says Relay “To Go Smoothly,” www.bbc.com, Friday April 11, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7342024.stm

II. The Olympic relay of the lighting of the torch has been disrupted numerous times by rioting people. The riots have been about the people that are captive in Tibet. The International Olympic Committee explained that China was taking steps to make sure that the relay was met with more “cheers and smiles.” The relay is moving into Argentina now and officials believe they can do a better job to protect the relay runners. In the city of Buenos Aires the streets are going to be lined with thousands of police officials to make sure the relay goes by smoothly. Tokyo has expressed that it does not want Chinese police running next to their runner when the relay makes its way into Japan. The flame has already been extinguished 3 times in Paris and there were 37 arrests in London. Many political leaders are not happy with the idea of going to Beijing for the Olympics and leaders including, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy is debating on whether to attend or not. White House hopefuls John McCain, Barak Obama, and Hilary Clinton are pushing George W. Bush not to attend as well. Chinese officials are now trying to meet with the Dalai Lama, who is the Tibetan’s main spiritual leader. Riots in Tibet have not been uncommon lately, but are becoming more and more severe.
III. A) This article relates to the theme of interaction among and within major societies. This relates to this theme because major countries in the world are coming into harm because this relay is angering Tibetan’s and is causing dangerous riots.
B) The Olympics have been going on for thousands of years, starting in 776 BCE. The Olympic relay has been a long tradition starting circa 1936. There has never been problems as severe as the Olympic relay is experiencing now.
C) This article is written by a British writer and is a outside source. Although the writer is probably on site and has researched a lot about the topic he/she is still not there for the actions in Tibet.
D) I have a feeling that the author is putting the impression that what people are doing to riot are ridiculous. I can tell that this person is a big believe in the Olympic games just because of the tone of the article. Although the issue at hand is very important (riots in Tibet) I can tell that the author believes that the Olympic relay is more important.
E) The point of view of many people is missing. The main point of view missing is that of a Tibetan rioter. I want to see if the issue at hand is really as bad as it seems. I would also like to hear from someone who was up-close and personal with the attacks on the torch carrier.
F) I believe that the Olympic relay is very important and although the riots are severely important the Olympics is more important. The Olympics brings together people of all different ethnicity's and cultures. It is a great time for people to come together in the spirit of good competition.