The Flame of Tibet

So. The Olympics torch is carrying on with its journey round the world. Yesterday, I read that the relay passed off "without incident" in Delhi, the city that many thought would cause more "trouble" than Paris or San Francisco. I'm sure the Red brigade in China would've heaved a sigh of relief.

But what many consider trouble or incidents are, to me, Tibet's rallying cry to appeal to a callous world. I believe their protest should have had a better outcome on the minds and motives of powers-that-be across the world than the muted murmurs of sympathy we get to hear.

About China, the less said the better. Here's a country that's had indisputably bad human rights violation record - one that's contaminated the simple and noble lives of lakhs of buddhist monks through repression, mindless economic expansion and other dubious means. Here's a country that's caused unspeakable suffering and environmental destruction in its march for modernism. Here's a country that's bent on displaying its might on the lofty pedestal of the Olympics by hook or by crook. And what do the great democracies, leaders and thinkers of the world do? Most of them worry about the "nuisance" or "irritation" caused by the pro-Tibetan protesters to the Chinese authorities. Many are sh*t-scared about disturbing their relationships with the world's fastest rising superpower.

In this mad scramble for seeing the Olympics torch through, who will carry the flame of Tibet that's in danger of getting completely extinguished?