Global Human RIghts Torch Relay

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay made its appearance in San Fran today. It was received in Union Square amid a riot of cololurful balloons, flags, banners and slogan tee-shirted people protesting over China's abuses and the Olympic Games.

The event, from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, had a festive appearance despite the seriousness of the campaign and at times harrowing testimony of China's actions.

A young female from Falun Gong and a Tibetan spoke movingly of their imprisonment and torture, and former Olympians including John Carlos of the 'black power salute' of 1968, politicians and campaigners gave voice to criticisms of China.

The Torch was received by city Supervisor Chris Daly, on behalf of the Board of Supervisors. He has been responsible for the resolution that the Olympic Torch be officially received with 'alarm and protest.'

He said the Global Human Rights Torch exhibited the principles of San Francisco.

'San Franciscans are not about abuses,' he said. 'We will respond with alarm and protest.'

He added, 'I think I speak for most San Franciscans that we would rather not respond with alarm and protest...we would rather there had not been a brutal crackdown...not been persecutions of the Falun Gong practitioners...we would rather there be a free press...for students to have the ability to democratically participate...we won't support genocide in Darfur...'

Throughout the rally the statistics were horrifying: from the days of Mao...the deaths of 77 million Chinese and 1.2 million Tibetans, 100 labour camps used against the people of Falun Gong, the genocide of Darfur and the harsh regime of Burma.

There were also criticisms of corporate America and the government turning a blind eye for profit. Mention was made of sweatshops providing cheap goods for American companies.

Mixed in with the horror and, for some, the desire that China had never been awarded the Games, was the repeated assertion that criticisms were against the Chinese government and not the people.

Also, were the statements that the protesters were not campaigning against the athletes. Their call was for a boycott of the Opening Ceremony but not the Games themselves.

A more detailed report will be posted soon with more pics.

Click here for the first album. Click to enlarge.

Olympic Torchbearers

San Fran residents are waiting excitedly for Mayor Gavin Newsom to release the final names of the 80 people who have been chosen to be Olympic Torchbearers, according to a report in the San Fran Chronicle.

Almost half have already been chosen by a novel method: writing an essay. The essay title followed the theme of the Torch relay, 'Sustainable Journey.'

The idea behind the essay was to give as many people as possible the opportunity to take part. Writers were given broad scope within the subject.

They could submit prose on what sustains them on their personal journey, how they are making their community, country or world more sustainable, or how they are helping San Fran's sustainable journey.

Those who triumphed with their pen include a 75-year-old Russian Jewish refugee who is about to make his fourth Torch run, a Franciscan nun, a blind woman, a professional skateboarder, a cancer survivor and several former Olympians.

In all, 536 people hoped to be a torchbearer. After Wednesday's ceremonies, which are expected to attract thousands of human rights protesters for what is becoming the most controversial Olympics ever, they will be able to keep their torches.

Hillary Speeds Past!

We were sitting absorbed in the internet in our favourite bakery, Panera Bread, last night when police motorcyclists stopped outside and blocked off the major intersection.

Blue flashing lights coloured the street. And I remembered the evening newscast that Hillary was in the Bay Area. Not San Francisco, but nearby.

Could it be?

As I hovered at the window two young guys were at a table next to me.

'Could be Hillary,' said one. 'All the bigwigs stay at the St. Regis. I work near there. I see these caravans all the time,' he said with nonchalence.

Suddenly a cavalcade of cars passed. Red and blue lights here and gone in seconds.

'That was impressive!' I said. 'If they have had to organise a route like that that crosses roads and traffic lights for quite a distance.'

'That's the Secret Service,' said the second guy sounding equally cool and knowledgable. 'They do it all the time. They're very good at it!'

Half a minute later, and a cluster of patrol cars were outside the window.

'You don't normally see those in the city,' said the second guy continuing his commentary for my benefit. He was referring to a certain type of patrol car.

I reflected on the way home: are fame and power worth it, especially today when security risks are so high? To not even be able to be driven at normal speeds in a car surrounded by police and Secret Service personnel?

But was it even Hillary?

Yes! The early news broadcast this morning from NBC11 told us Hillary was due at a fundraising breakfast in the financial district at 8 am. The bomb squad had been checking out the area at 5 am.

Last night she was at a private function in Menlo Park. According to google maps she was about 32 miles south of the city and it would take a normal motorist about 39 mins to drive here, or 55 mins in traffic.

How long did Hillary take? Five minutes perhaps?!! Whatever, it was a magnificent, dramatic display.

Olympic Torch Protests for Tibet

A young Tibetan man handing out protest fliers on San Fran’s streets in advance of the Olympic Torch run still bears the scars of the beating he received courtesy of Chinese police.

'Wills' fled over the mountains into Nepal six years ago, leaving behind his mother, sisters and brother. His father had already died.

‘My purpose in leaving Tibet was to help Tibet. I am simply saying, ‘Free Tibet,’ he said. ‘Here they can’t touch me. I carry the scars on my body from when I was beaten.’

Surprisingly his beating was in Nepal. 'The best time to escape is in winter,’ he said, of the Himalayan trek. ‘Once you are over a border and in another country, you think you are safe and relax.’ What he discovered, though, was that Chinese police cross the Nepalese border and organise groups to wait in warmer, sunnier climes to take those fleeing by surprise.

‘Justice…Freedom…Truth is our Only Weapon’ are the words emblazoned across the bright-yellow vests of him and his co-protester.

Not liking to ask their names, though they would probably have given them, I have honoured them as ‘Wills’ and ‘Harry.’ Harry is American but of Tibetan heritage.

And, it seems, neither are they completely free of the Chinese government even in San Francisco.

‘Yesterday we were up there’ – Wills indicated past the cable cars in Powell Street towards Union Square – ‘and a guy and a girl were taking pictures of us.’

He added that since March 14 he has been unable to get through to his mother on the telephone. After six years of regular calls, the number was suddenly ‘not working.’

As protest groups amass for the Olympic Torch run on Wednesday, they are part of the Peace Ride for Human Rights in Tibet and carriers of the Tibetan Freedom Torch. In six days they have cycled 517 miles and given out 12,000 fliers.

They are preparing for a rally and candlelight vigil organised by SF Team Tibet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Gere and Tibetan leaders at the Civic Center plaza on the eve of the Olympic Torch ceremony.

I told Wills of the horrific story recounted by Times columnist, Alice Miles, of a Tibetan exile she had met in India. The lady had been caught in the hills carrying a picture of the Dalai Lama by a Chinese soldier.

She was imprisoned, raped many times and hung upside down. Her children disappeared and her husband was forced to marry a Chinese woman.

For Wills, this was commonplace. ‘There are 150,000 Tibetans in exile, all separated from their families and 90 per cent of whom have been raped and tortured,’ he said so calmly he might have been giving out weather temperatures.

Over 1.2 million Tibetans have died at the hands of China’s military rule, says one of their fliers.

How come America and Britain have not done anything about this? I asked Harry.

‘The economics of this country have a lot to do with China. The majority of the market is with China,’ he said, citing Target and Walmart as examples of corporate America. Also, he has just discovered that 80 per cent of America’s garlic comes from China. There is the need of trillions of dollars to pay for the Iraq war.

‘As an individual I don’t mind if they (USA) are spending money on poor countries,’ he said, including Mexico, India and Sri Lanka on his long list. But it is much better to do that than spend ‘on a Communist country that is so organized and oppresses its people.'

‘China is like a criminal mob, an organized family, so it is not good for anybody’, he continued, adding his concern of ties with nuclear-ambitious Iran.

However, he was disappointed with the response to the Olympic protests from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

‘As a city San Francisco is very liberal and open-minded but there is a problem with the mayor who has chosen for some time to ignore us,’ he said.

Now that the Torch route has been revealed, however, it is not only the mayor but China as well who are worried about the possible strength of protests. For in the protest spotlight are also Darfur, where China is giving weapons to the Sudanese government for use against its people, and Burma.

Harry thought there could be 10,000 protesters along the route on Wednesday. There were rumours that the San Francisco Police Department were going to hire private security firms and that China would send in crowds to show a pro-China stance, he said.

Protesters will be spending the night along the route to make sure of their places.

‘But we are a non-violent protest,’ he said of his organization.

China’s human rights abuses are continuing apace, even with the eyes of the world upon them. Wills said that it had been confirmed that 140 Tibetans had been killed in the last two weeks. But he was confident the actual numbers were higher than that.

‘The Olympics are a great and beautiful thing but they – China – have to face the truth. They can’t hide things any longer. They can’t bury things in the past,’ he said.

Torch Season in San Fran

The Olympic Torch is not the only Torch to visit San Fran.

Two other Torches are calling here with rallies, a 6k run, concert and candlelight vigil marking their visits.

At the candlelight vigil, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Gere and Tibetan leaders are guest speakers.

The Global Human Rights Torch Relay is here on Saturday, April 5, and the Tibetan Freedom Torch reaches us on Tuesday, April 8.

The GHRTR began in Athens last year on August 9 and is visiting 6 continents, 37 countries and 150 cities. It is in North America during April and May.

Their events include a 6k run/walk, a concert and a rally starting in Union Square in the morning.

Torch supporters are around the streets of San Fran handing out a free newspaper providing information on the Torch and abuses of China. They urge people to write to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge to demand of China that they improve their human rights record.

Film director Steven Spielberg and actress Uma Thurman are featured for their opposition to China. Spielberg withdrew as artistic advisor to the Olympics over China's involvement in Darfur.

The Torch was started by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, where organ harvesting is big business.

But it also symbolises a fight against suppression of Christians, Uighurs, Tibetan Buddhists, rights advocates, journalists and defence lawyers and Chinese action in Sudan, Burma, Zimbabwe and North Korea.

The Tibetan Freedom Torch Relay arrives in the United Nations Plaza at the Civic Center on Tuesday. SF Team Tibet are gathering in the morning. In the early evening there is a rally and speeches, music and finally the candlelight vigil.

Over 2,000 Tibetans a year, including many children, flee the country to find refuge in Nepal and India, say their literature.

'The Chinese government is using the Olympic torch relay as part of a massive propaganda effort to clean up its public image and cover up its brutal occupation of Tibet and atrocious human rights record. China is carrying the torch to the top of Mt. Everest in a purely political move, designed to legitimise its claims to Tibet.'

San Fran Divided over Olympic Torch

When it comes to the Olympic Torch, San Francisco is a city divided against itself.

A city official, known as a 'supervisor', successfully carried a resolution yesterday that called on Mayor Gavin Newsom to accept the Olympic Torch with 'alarm and protest.'

The report, in the San Fran Chronicle, quotes Supervisor Chris Daly as saying, 'The eyes of the world will be on San Francisco, and, let's be honest, if there is not alarm and there is not protest in San Francisco when the torch arrives here, that too would be news, and that would be San Francisco complicit in the human rights violations that are happening in China and around the world.'

His resolution before the Board of Supervisors also called for an international investigation into China's treatment of Tibetan dissenters and was passed by a vote of 8-3.

The television channel NBC11 showed a round of cheers erupting from protesters as the result was announced in the Civic Center.

However, a spokesman for Mayor Newsom was afterwards quoted as saying, 'It is highly unlikely the mayor is going to let Chris Daly put words in his mouth.' He also said that the mayor had discussed the situation with Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the Dalai Lama.

In other words, it is a short term political victory but will not carry through to Wednesday's event.

Mayor Newsom who regardless of his views on human rights is also the figurehead of the only North American city to have the Torch, was seen on televison and quoted in the Chronicle pleading with protesters to not disrupt the Torch procession but to remember that the Olympics are about athletics and not politics.

'Don't protest the torch bearers,' he said. 'Please separate your condemnation from the person who's running or in a wheelchair carrying the torch.'

The Chronicle also reported on a letter from the Chinese American Association of Commerce signed by 105 city-based Chinese organizations.

The letter called on officials to 'prevent the city from being kidnapped by a few political extremists who want to make use of the Olympic Games to advance their own political gain.'

The Chinese Consulate, too, opposed any official city protest.

Olympic Torch Route

The Olympic Torch route was revealed yesterday to the delight of protesters who have been pressurising for details.

The opening ceremony of the Torch will be alongside the baseball park, home of the San Francisco Giants south of the city. It will then be carried along the Bay front, past the Embarcadero, up to Fisherman's Wharf and just beyond where it will loop around before returning to the waterside.

Bearers will carry it back to the Embarcadero where it will be received by Mayor Gavin Newsom in the Justin Herman plaza opposite the ferry building

It is a route of six miles estimated to take about one-and-a-half hours, details of which were released by the mayor yesterday afternoon. He had delayed publicising the Torch route because of protests.

About 10,000 protesters are expected and protesters are planning their protest points and strategies.

By early this morning NBC11 were broadcasting an interview with a senior city police officer who said with confidence that the police would be able to handle the situation on Wednesday.
The SFPD were well experienced at managing big events, he said.

This evening NBC11 interviewed the city's police chief who said that police leave on the day of the Torch run was cancelled and extra officers would be on duty.

It sounds as if everyone is getting nervous.