The Olympic flame continues its six-day journey through Greece, despite continuing protest efforts to disrupt its journey.
Yesterday’s lighting ceremony was marked by the unfurling of a banner highlighting host nation China’s crackdown on demonstrators in Tibet and neighbouring provinces. The protesters were quickly arrested by Greek police.
The demonstrators are angry that the route of the Olympic torch runs through occupied Tibet amid record levels of Chinese security, claiming that this makes a mockery of the spirit of the Olympics. Some observers, however, said that Beijing Games chief Liu Qi did that yesterday at the ceremony when he said: “The Olympic flame will radiate light and happiness, peace and friendship, and hope and dreams to the people of China and the whole world", apparently without a trace of irony.
Since leaving the Temple of Hera, the flame has so far successfully escaped the protesters’ traps - including phoney diversion signs leading to a rickety bridge, a grand piano suspended from a cable strung across a gorge, a fake tunnel painted on a rock face and being chased by a Tibetan monk on rocket-powered Acme roller skates.
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