March 25, 2008
Et Tu, David?: Eggers Pens NYT Op-Ed Piece About SF Olympic Torch
In our continuing Beijing Olympic-boycotting coverage, Dave Eggers--the scribe ever well-educated San Franciscan loves to hate (because he's successful at what he does)--wrote a piece in this Sunday's New York Times about the Olympic Torch's run in San Francisco. He claims that the protests that will occur during the run will be a strong statement, especially since it's the torch's only run in Northern America and its an election year. China’s "complicity in the genocide in Darfur" and the Sudan are the focus of his article. Let's dive in, shall we?
My friend Valentino Achak Deng, a refugee from Sudan, just got back from southern Sudan last week where he was beginning construction on an educational complex in his hometown. He reports that along the southern border, there have been weekly clashes between the Sudanese Army and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, a rebel group that fought a long and protracted war with the government in the 1980s and ’90s.Hundreds have been killed, and a good portion of the residents of the south fear there will again be war. If this happens, it could make the conflict in Darfur look like a skirmish.
He ends by asking "[w]ill the demonstrators lining the parade route bring the topic back into the campaign and into the public consciousness? Is it audacious to hope?"
Boom. The end.
Since there's no commenting capability at the end of this op-ed piece on the NYT site, which we found a bit strange, we'll let readers answer here. So...is it "audacious to hope" that torch protesters will have an impact? Discuss.
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Is it audacious to hope that the protest won't consist of drunken assholes and people dressed up in frilly pink halloween costumes?
In all seriousness, I admire athletes who dedicate so much of their time to becoming the best in their field with an ultimate goal of competing in the Olympics. I believe protests against China belong in front of the Chinese Consulate .... not along the Olympic Torch just because it is ultimately going to the host country that happens to be China. If you're not over at the Chinese Consulate protesting these same issues on a regular basis - and they're always here in San Francisco for you to protest - I believe it is fair that San Franciscans label you an attention whore and extremely disrespectful of athletes from around the world.
Why not just check the Muni street-closure bulletins? Seems like a likely source of at least part of the route details.
Why not just end it with "....... OBAMA!"
Isn't the premise of the olympic games about looking beyond our differences and meeting as people who share a love of sport, and once you agree on one thing, hopefully we will be more humane towards one another? Sure it's hippie pie in the sky dreaming. Is there an olympic motto?
"Why not just end it with "....... OBAMA!""
Seriously. Why evoke Barry here? I don't get it.
I think they should protest the hell out of it, and draw attention to any and all issues they deem necessary. Olympics have always been awarded, judged, and attended through the prism of politics. To naively pretend that it is a bastion of unfettered amateur competition is to overlook the many useful political statements that have been made at the Olympics going back to Jesse Owens.
Who the hell even watches the olympics anyway.
if anything we should be protesting the new weight-regulations in womens gymnastics. that's some crazy shit right there.
RinconHillSF:
...or they could have done something smarter with their life. I've always thought that it's scary how these people impose this kind of discipline on themselves and destroy their bodies just to compete in that ONE event. This kind of life always seemed kinda naive to me, too naive to be a role model.
Wrong. The Chinese government is the attention whore here, trying to use the (once-clean, now-ridiculous) image of the Olympic Games to bring positive attention to itself.
I don't really give a shit about the Olympics, but I might turn out to protest the torch. Parading around an event held by an oppressive regime? Not in my house.
>> once you agree on one thing, hopefully we will be more humane towards one another?
Don't you know anything about SF politics? It's all about, "we disagree on one thing, so f*** you". Don't you know anything about SF politics?
It is all too obvious that folks considering protesting the Olympic Torch do not give a shit about the Olympics.
The ultimate reason to watch the Beijing Olympics is to see all the athletes turn green and keel over from trying to compete in a place where the air quality makes LA look like a pristine mountain lake out of a Thomas Kincade abortion. I feel sorry for the people who've dedicated their entire lives to becoming the best athletes in the known universe only to be told that, guess what?! You get to compete in a giant ash tray! Unfair. It's like some insane reality show with a totally arbitrary and unfair competition thrown in.
Alright buddy, that's two instances in one thread of commentary straight from the flaccid yellow pages of Newsweek. Where does it stop?
I'm as cynical and jaded as anyone if SF, but I also enjoy watching people excel at something they enjoy be it shot put, archery, basket weaving you name it. The fact that two people from different political backgrounds can have a great game of ping pong is a statement in itself. Someone mentioned Jesse Owens. If there was ever an Olympics to boycott it was Berlin in '36, but Owens winning became a much greater political statement.
(This is off topic but I don't think San Franciscans love to hate Eggers because he's successful at what he does. They just hate him because it's the right thing to do.)