Jhender

i guess it’s a big thing here: liberty. they like as much to meddle in other’s affairs as america does. the olympic flame is arriving in paris on monday, the Mairie de Paris (er i guess that equals to something like government administrative unit of paris? crap it’s hard to translate stuff without a page of explanation) is officially going to do something about it.

Here’s what their website says:

Flamme olympique : «Paris défend les droits de l’homme partout dans le monde»

La flamme olympique fait étape à Paris le 7 avril prochain : une traversée de la capitale sur 28 km qui aboutira au stade Charléty (13e). Une banderole rappelant la défense des droits de l’homme par Paris sera déployée sur l’Hôtel de Ville.

[translation:

Olympic Flame: "Paris defends human rights everywhere in the world"

The olympic flame will be in Paris on 7 april: a 28km crossing of the capital blah blah blah. A banner reminding of the defense of human rights by Paris will be displayed on the Town Hall.]

… [to read more]

well i was kinda of expecting Reporters Sans Frontiers to do something, ie. to hold a demonstration or to grab some publicity since they’ve already been at it at the lighting ceremony. and also the french have been somewhat vocal on this topic, compared to other nations, and sarkozy was forced to say that a boycott of the opening ceremony is possible. But, I did not expect such a strong showing by the government, to actually hang a banner on l’Hôtel de Ville. coolness! i am waiting for monday.

i also want to say that it is such a disgrace that the olympic flame is not coming to singapore, because it is going to KL. and the sg gouvernement likes to make such a big deal of China. *rolls eyes*, obviously beijing doesnt think the same way. they’re more interested in having the flame enter china after taiwan (to make taiwan seem like part of china), and similarly with tibet. (really, it doesnt sound unplausible that it was purposely organised like that)

in case you’ve really been out of touch with planet earth, this is to protest the mistreatment, cultural and religious suppression and use of violence against Tibetian protesters by the big China.

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and while i was happily and Finally doing some work, tim came to disrupt my cosy peaceful world with news of unrest outside his window this afternoon. apparently the Lycée (… = High School) teacher revolt has now spread to the students, with 10000 students protesting against reducing the budget for number of teachers. ohlala.

and i am also informed of another demonstation, on sunday, for the cause of Ingrid Betancourt. i dont suppose she’s world news, i dont know. anyway here’s the facebook event. no it’s a real-life event taking place in paris.

Life here is indeed exciting, no?