[Opinion] Olympic Torch Plays Hide-and-Seek

It was Adolf Hitler who invented the idea of the Olympic torch relay. Though it was in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Games that the torch was introduced, Hitler, in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, directed 3,422 Aryan youths to run the relay over a distance of 3,422 kilometers from Mount Olympus to Berlin, bearing the torch. It was the Nazis` way of incitement and demagoguery, aiming to show that German Aryans were reconstructing the glory of ancient Greece.

Since then, the Olympic torch relay has become a way for the host nation to showcase the development of its ideas and technologies. Before the 1948 London Olympic Games, the torch was carried across the English Channel on a boat. And before the 1952 Helsinki Games, it was carried on a plane. For the 1976 Montreal Games, it was transferred through radio signal. The signal began in Athens, was aired to Canada through an artificial satellite, and then turned into a laser beam that lit the torch in Montreal. For the 2000 Sidney Games, a diver bore the torch under the sea so as to publicize the threats that the underwater ecosystem faces.

But never has the Olympic torch played hide-and-seek. The 2008 Beijing Olympic torch, which left Greece on March 24, is to arrive in China in time for the opening ceremonies after traveling over 137,000km through six continents for 130 days. This time, however, what awaited the Olympic torch at cities as it passed by was not a warm welcome but hoards of people protesting against China’s suppression of Tibet. In Paris, the torch was snuffed out three times, and in San Francisco, the torchbearer had to run into the warehouse of a building. Seeing international opinion worsen, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared they would not attend the opening ceremonies.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, says, “What we want is not independence but an autonomy that can preserve our spirit and culture.” What the Tibetans want is China’s acknowledgement of Tibet’s unique culture and spirit, the origins of which are different from those of China. The Chinese government chose “a journey of harmony” as the theme for the torch relay. As international opinion turns more unfavorable for the Chinese government, which has chosen to ignore the human rights of minorities, a spirit quite far from the slogan of “harmony,” its torch relay is turning into a hurdle race in which the bearer has to jump over groups of protesters.

Editorial Writer Chung Seong-hee (shchung@donga.com)