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Poor torch. :(
Poor torch. :(
Special cartographic thanks
Special cartographic thanks to Mark for including a map of the real historic boundaries of Tibet, not just the truncated Tibetan Autonomous Region. I remember making a map of those very boundaries for the Tibetan Rights Campaign of Seattle back in the mid-Eighties. Some of us have been shouting about "Free Tibet" for some time now.
Jana C.H.
Flying Sasquatch Productions
Seattle
Thanks, I was wondering if
Thanks, I was wondering if someone would pick up on that! (In case you can't tell, I love getting maps into the animation.)
Glad you liked it.
-Mark
Maybe there is not
Maybe there is not everything good in China.... maybe they still have to learn alot about human rights etc. But if everyone is now shouting "free Tibet", let's not forget all the other problems.
What about "free Guantanamo"? for example...?
I guess you didn't see the
I guess you didn't see the whole animation. Guantanamo and "extraordinary rendition" to torture got their just due.
Good one! Poor tired torch.
Good one! Poor tired torch. Diana
Chinese Communist regime
Chinese Communist regime loses their promises (of improving Human Rights and opening up Internet) made for wining the bid as an Olympics games first. People cannot blame protests afterwards. People should blame Communist eating words. Of course I don't support violence in any sense.
I guess if you can have a
I guess if you can have a symbol of a tortuous death (a crucifixion) as a religious symbol, you can have a symbol of seeing in the dark as a symbol of tortuous governments.
Remember, the swastika was once a symbol of peace and power…
- SPT
That thing about the Nazi's
That thing about the Nazi's inventing the Olympic Torch is a MYTH!!!!
It's a fact that they were
It's a fact that they were the ones who came up with the around-the-world torch tour. Master marketers, those nutballs.
-MF
I just posted this week's
I just posted this week's animation, "Burning Out." There was a big hunt for the Olympic torch here in San Francisco today.
-Mark Fiore
...which ended with the
...which ended with the torch skipping San Francisco.
I personally thought that was a travesty.
Forgive my stating the ultra-obvious, but the torch is a symbol only because people have given it to symbolize something. The wonderful thing about symbols is that free-thinking people get to pick what they mean until the symbol becomes hopelessly corrupted (such as the swastika, as has been pointed out).
Yet in most cases I dare say that the corruption of a symbol is entirely voluntary. Case in point: the Olympic torch. The torch has always stood for positive things: the indomitable human spirit, the drive for excellence, the passion of sport and competition. Few people care about its dubious origins.
And so the Chinese want to corrupt it into some debased, twisted symbol of their national 'progress'--let them, and ignore them. What better way to show contempt for their charade than to completely and utterly ignore it?
And likewise, if the armchair freedom fighters in San Francisco want to corrupt it into the very same thing that the Chinese do, let them. Shell out 40 grand from the municipal budget so they can have their 'free Tibet' do-nothing ticker-tape parade, and meanwhile carry the torch through the city as a symbol of hope and courage for those still sensible enough to consider it a symbol of hope and courage.
I can't understand why so many San Franciscans want to turn the torch into another swastika. Most athletes spend their entire lives training for the Olympics; we owe it to them to keep the symbols pure, despite any hatred for the Chinese government. Heaven knows, this world has far too few positive symbols left.
I say the torch is too far
I say the torch is too far gone-- let's pile all our symbolism on the torch tour, go nuts politically, then leave the games themselves alone. That's where we can come together and ignore politics. (Um, until the doping scandals start.)
-MF
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