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.

Chinatown Will Not See Olympic Torch

The Olympic Torch is on it's way to San Fran giving the city the honour of being the only North American city to host the legendary flame. But it is unlikely to go through Chinatown Mayor Gavin Newsom was reported to have said in the San Fran Chronicle.

This, he said, is due to the narrow streets and congestion and nothing to do with the prevailing political unease against China. Or the arson attack on the Chinese Consulate last week or the request that during the ceremony a city official publicly records a protest at China's human rights record.

Certainly Chinatown's streets are smaller and the pavements are a crush of people and stalls. And when the flame came to San Fran in 2004 it did not go through Chinatown.

But how do the Chinese community feel about this as the Games are in their homeland?

I wandered through and spoke to traders and shoppers. Their responses surprised me especially as this is the oldest Chinatown outside of Asia. Call me naive but I am new to San Fran and have not browsed in Chinatowns around the world.

I had great difficulty in getting my question understood. My first encounter set the scene for what was to follow. Two older, smartly dressed ladies who had been chatting on the pavement struggled to interpret my words. Finally, between them they smiled encouragingly at me:

'I've no idea at all.... you go ask the police!'

After that other people gave me blank looks and stares, the occasional shake of the head mixed in with such phrases as 'No speak English,' 'I speak Chin-eesey,' 'I'm sorry, no English.'

In one shop a customer joined in with staff to try to help. As we stood there, fat white dumplings steaming behind the counter, the three women made an effort but gave up with apologetic glances. Even a girl handing out leaflets for a new Chinese health centre wasn't able to converse in English.

Some said blankly, 'I don't know about it.' One said, 'I don't care,' while another lady's offering was that the previous procession had been in another street. Did she mind? She didn't seem to know. All of which conversations were conducted with linguistic difficulties and gesticulations.

Finally, I met a friendly couple in a healthfood store who easily understood my question. What do the people of Chinatown think about not having the Olympic Torch in their streets?

'Some people would like it but some don't know about it,' said the woman. The man smiled broadly. 'I would like to stand outside the door and see it!' he said.

Did I ask anyone in Chinatown what they thought of Tibet? There was no point. They wouldn't have spoken in Chinese either!

The Olympic Torch processes through the streets on Wednesday, 9 April.