It would be interesting to know who paid for the buses.

Amazing organisation, and completely missed by the MSM, which focussed only on what the Tibetans were doing in preparing for the relay.

Hundreds of buses (as reported by truckies on the highways) did the interstate transporting overnight, and were parked all around Canberra suburbs during the relay, disappearing by the end of the day. Every Chinese demonstrator carried a red flag, thousands of which must have been issued on the buses by some central organising system, and these flags visually obliterated any other flag, Tibetan or Australian, at the relay. A sea of red flags indeed.

It was all a bit weird and scary. A Russian friend of mine said he felt like he was back in the USSR. We Canberrans certainly got to feel just a little bit Tibetan.

Streets were sealed for blocks around the route, which had been sharply cut back by worried organizers and officials, leaving the runners able to jog for just a few seconds before handing the flame to the next person.

The public were allowed nowhere near the relay, and crowds amounted to just several hundred young people sitting on bleachers wearing T-shirts of Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola and several hundred members of India’s Chinese community.

It seems the Tibetan protesters were swamped by hordes of red flag waving aggressively nationalistic Chinese students (from the SMH coverage) which is emblematic of what’s happening to Tibet.

Although the event was instantly declared a success there were some incidents. It seems the police were able to contain the crowd, but not control them.

According to the route it’s four more stops then home to China and breathing easier, though June 20-21 in Tibet could be interesting.

Hopefully that will be the end of these rallies at least through other countries. Apparently we started it by sharing it with the Pacific, but Greece then opened it up to the world.

The relay of the flame from Greece to the site of the modern games had no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem, with the support of Joseph Goebbels, at the controversial Berlin Olympics as a means to promote Nazi ideology.

so i dont know why anyone would want to participate in the stupid thing anyway??

Comparing China’s myriad human rights abuses with the US’s - however egregious - is a comparison that will only shame China.

Whatever your problems with the States, putting these two as some kind of ethical equivalency is specious and frankly sickens me a bit, as a monument of both your ignorance of China’s human rights abuses, and your apathy in caring about the suffering the engender.

Furthermore, why does this relativism bullshit have to come into play every time someone criticises China? It seems the only way to defend China is to try and find someone worse than them (a valiant exercise, anyway).

China’s human rights are deplorable and indefensible. Comparing to other countries doesn’t come into it. Let’s argue about the countries that are hosting the olympics, shall we?

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What is interesting is that these people do not choose to boycott items when such an act will have a direct impact on their own hip pockets.

Much easier to loudly target someone else’s I guess.

It is time to end nationalism in the Olympics. It is also time to eliminate all the problems with purportedly banned drugs and the expense and hassle of testing for them.

Athletes should compete as individuals, or form teams representing their preferred pharmaceutical companies.

Engagement with countries works better in shifting them to more acceptable policies than isolation. China was isolated for many years. Worked well for the Tibetans eh?

Having got into work an hour or so early, and driven a bit of the torch relay route, I can report that there isn’t much action out there yet. There is one large group of Chinese-flagged supporters on Commonwealth Avenue, but apart from that there are only a few scattered die-hards braving the three degree Camberra morning. So far there seems to be a lot more pro-China than pro-Tibet folk out there – the later only represented by a few small groups or lone individuals holding home-made signs. Unfortunately I’m pretty much stuck here at work, so wont be able to provide any further reports. But if the crowds are coming, they aren’t here yet