Originally posted by Rik Clay on The Cosmic Mind Blogspot (No Longer Available). Posted here as a tribute to Rik Clay and his work.

With the recent commotion over the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Olympics you'd be forgiven for asking why we even bother with it? Any responsible committee would have halted the parade after it became obvious it was being followed by violent protests. But no, we had to remain 'in the Olympic spirit' and presume that the keeping of a long-running tradition was so important that a little police brutality and a few hundred arrests were mere necessities.

Tibet's been in an international dilemma for nearly 60 years since China sent in thousands of troops in 1950. Over the decades, several uprisings have been violently quashed by Chinese authorities, with many monks arrested or killed. The latest of these was in March 2008 and the outcome was once again predictable. China accused Tibet's exiled "spiritual leader" the Dalai Lama of masterminding the violence – an accusation that should sound ludicrous for anyone who knows who the Dalai Lama is. The press then used the violence to aggravate global disapproval of China.