Did anyone else catch the skywriting this morning? Image here is from the ArtWranglers blog:
[ED - Beckumer actually got in with this story first adding "I heard a rumour this was done by the Greens" but Crazybrave won out by providing the picture.]
UPDATE – ED – Probally worth a post of it’s own but news.com.au has this article about clashes between pro-China and Tibetan demonstrators with some VERY interesting SKY NEWS footage and commentary showing AFP officers pulling the Chinese “flame attendants” away from the torch.
FURTHER UPDATE: A mashup of the Nine and ABC evening news coverage can be seen thanks to YouTube:
Also this comment by Toadstool is worth more attention:
A very shaken work collegue has just come into the office. She was walking across Commowealth bridge when she came across a group of Chinese attacking a lone Tibetan on the north side of the bridge. When she tried to intervene, she was attacked too. There were about 30 Chinese attacking two people, so she fled. Did anyone witness this? Where were the police? What has happened to the poor tibetan guy
FURTHER FURTHER UPDATE: The Tibet Infomation Office – An official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile – has posted numerous stories on Canberra and the torch relay
[Ed. seems that the ill will between supporters and protesters was not isolated to the incident above. Sal Paradise sent in the following experience]
This morning I protested with my Tibetan national flag on the Olympic torch relay route.
At 9:15am I had to go to work, so handed my flag to a young lady to carry on through the morning. I received a text from her at about 10:30am that a group of China supporters took the Tibet flag from her and threw it in Lake Burley Griffin.
It’s unfortunate to see this people acting in this way – that China supporters cannot accept Australians’ right to protest. When you think about it, that group of China supporters ganging up on a lone protester were faithfully carrying out there own government’s modus operandi: using force to prevent a others speaking freely.
Cool.
Bet that was done for free – to my knowledge sky writers aren’t cheap
free tiget…?? where I wouldn’t mind some free tiget – if i only knew what it was.
Anyone notice the UFO in ther bottom right hand corner?
not sure how many he squeezed out – I photographed a “free tibet” then and extra “free” for good measure. will post later.
Nice UFO action, makes you realise how easy u can fake! al-foil + arm
did just then. conspiracy? ufo’s/torch relay/people offering free tiget? something funny is a foot.
All seriousness aside you could easily photogshop it and really make it look like a ufo.
I noticed this skywriting this morning in the reflection on the back window of the car in front of me while I was sitting in the joke known as the GDE. The regular 30 minute drive to work down Northbourne was now a 1hr 15min drive down the GDE. How about they run the torch again at 4:30 to 5:30 just for shits ands giggles eh?
According to the SMH Sen. Brown paid for it.
http://news.theage.com.au/torch-relay-underway-amid-tensions/20080424-287r.html
Bob Brown commissioned this. Good work.
Apparently there are a few scuffles and lots of protesters, but the tv coverage is mostly showing the runners, who are totally segregated from the crowd.
And who gave sunrise the coverage – this is an important live international event, and they are interspersing it with their pathetic infomercials and tacky fashion shows etc.
I was there with the Free Tibet protesters outside Parliament House. It wrote Free Tibet and then ‘Free’ again later.
Excellent effort by the police so far…
A very shaken work collegue has just come into the office. She was walking across Commowealth bridge when she came across a group of Chinese attacking a lone Tibetan on the north side of the bridge. When she tried to intervene, she was attacked too. There were about 30 Chinese attacking two people, so she fled. Did anyone witness this? Where were the police? What has happened to the poor tibetan guy?
Walked out of my office in Northborne Avenue this morning to have a look around, almost thought I was in China with all of the red flags and pro-Chinese chants, except the gum trees reminded me where I was.
A few of my staff wandered out with “Free Tibet” signs for their own little protest.
Shortly afterwards a guy turned up with a sign saying “Enslave Tibet” and he joined the red rent-a-crowd of students who cheered his arrival. The rent-a-crowd clearly didn’t get the Australian sense of irony.
After a short moment the AFP turned up and quietly took his sign away despite the fact he was upsetting nobody. Maybe I really was in China?
toadstool said :
Shaken, but not stirred?
Kind of makes you happy that you don’t live under the communist yoke…
Who were the group of guys dressed in black masks holding up a sign at the boundary fence?, there was a tussle between them and the Chinese too apparently early in the morning.
Thumper said :
Your re-education will begin next week, Comrade Thumper!
Rather disappointed that I saw no “Canetoads For a Free Tibet” signs about anywhere Surely some Crikey readers would have been out there.
There was one young dude standing amongst us that had a sign saying “Only Here To Pick Up Asian Girls”. It was amusing.
My friend took a Tibet flag down to the Commonwealth Ave bridge, for a peaceful silent protest – pro-China supporters ended up taking it off him and throwing it into the Lake. They weren’t violent, he wasn’t hurt, but they weren’t very friendly…
Credit where credit is due. I didn’t think Stanhope and co could pull this off without mayhem.
but they did…
The worst they did to me was pop my Save Tibet balloon when I was coming back over the bridge from Parly House. They werent acting violent, but it was still uncomfortable walking with them.
Bully-boys. a friend said there were two bunches of rival groups walking on to C’Wealth bridge. They spotted each other and went racing toward each other, but then stopped facing each other and yelled abuse at each other.
Cops were warning Tibetans to stay with the main bunch and not get separated, sounds like some did, from the above report.
Not sure I like the stand-over behaviour being reported.
Tibet couldn’t handle being free.
I saw a couple of aging women with a small sign saying ‘free Tibet’ be absolutely mobbed on Northbourne. It was shameful.
I also was warned by a photographer that another woman had been attacked a few minutes earlier.
But we still held that sign up, hey tap. F-k I’m still adrenaline-pumped after being mobbed by that red-flag-waving army.
well im not sure what the chinese were saying to the Tibetans, but i assume it wasn’t very nice. overall i thought the chinese were very aggressive and was not impressed by their behavior at all. i did leave at about 8.20 though so im not sure how anyone conducted themselves later in the day. I saw one police office take a flag from a chinese girl after he had repeatedly told her to move away from the Tibetans. I though it was quite funny as she complained to all her friends. I mean if she was in china protesting with Tibetan flag she probably would have had her head removed instead.
On the ABC website: Pro-China gang ‘assaulted relay spectators’
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/24/2226324.htm
“To be allowed to dissent, to speak freely, are markers of our democracy,” said ACT Chief Minister John Stanhope.
“We do not muzzle dissent, just because it might embarrass us or embarrass our friends. We hope our friendships are robust enough to bear a little plain speaking,” he said.
LEGEND!
aaah the beauties of patriotism.. brings out the absolute best in people eh!!
I was told by an SBS employee who was at Reconcilliation Place, that Pro-China people were spitting on the Pro-Tibet supporters.
It seems it was the red army that the Police should have been more focused on after reading everyone else’s comments.
Loose Brown, agree. When I read Stanhope’s comments, I figured that at least he looks and sounds like a statesman. It was well-said.
BenMac, from what i saw you are correct
Unfortunately it seems like the police have acted to get the Tibet supporters away from teh main areas (and the tv cameras). for their own safety it sounds like. but the ned result is still the police ‘assisting’ the chinese to carry they day.
Still I bet they are glad it is over and nothing really drastic happened.
Were there any Taiwanese flags / protesters?
And kudos to all protestors who were peaceful.
AussieGal83 said :
Kind of like walking to the MCG surrounded by Essendon supporters I guess. I was going to say Collingwood, but they’d be being violent as well.
Oh, the quote for today on my bunch of dates calendar thingy reads…
“Let a hundred flowers bloom. Let a hundred schools of thought contend.” -Mao Tse-Tung
Spooky.
All these pro-China people are starting to make many others anti-China. There’s patriotism and then there’s crossing the line, as we’ve all witnessed here as well.
At the very least it was a well-written, prepared comment but as it sounds like it was written by a Protocol Officer, and as you say you read it I’ll not side with Loose Brown\ant in either the “very well spoken” or “statesman” pro-Stanhope comments.
In plain English: your logic is flawed.
Indeed Skid, sounds like something Aiden Bruford would say.
And, by the comment son RA, and from what I saw and heard, it was the Chinese contingent who were causing trouble, not the Tibetan supporters.
v_man_returns, that crossing the line is called Nationalism
From all reports most of the violence and tension came from the pro-China supporters who were bussed in for the occasion. Seems they are just doing it the Chinese way.
Yes but if you watched the live tv coverage, all you saw was crowds of Chinese red flags waving. No violence was shown.
sepi said :
And won’t Beijing love that – makes us look like we all support their regime!
Do we have a number on exactly how many buses came in?
I have heard 100 twice, but I have also heard 80 and 200.
Bearing in mind there are about 50 seats per bus, this is a rent-a-crowd of between 4000 people and 10,000, brought in for the purposes of intimidating anyone not providing support to the burning stick.
neanderthalsis said :
Although I’m having trouble deciphering Skid’s mangled writings, I’ll paste in what it said in the SMH:
(starts)
Earlier, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said he upheld the right for people to demonstrate peacefully.
“I uphold utterly the right of anyone to use the leg of today’s relay as an opportunity to have their voice heard, to be allowed to assent, to speak freely as a mark of our democracy,” Mr Stanhope said.
“We do not muzzle dissent just because it might embarrass us or embarrass our friends.
“We hope our friendship can bear a little plain speaking.”
(ends)
SMH is also starting to print reports from people of violence from the Chinese towards anyone holding pro-Tibet material. I expect more reports will be aired, and a very ugly picture will emerge. People who were sanguine about the Tibetan issue will now see what the people in that country are dealing with.
To those Canberrans who went to protest today – you foolish people put yourself in harm’s way, so you deserve everything that’s thrown your way. People had a choice to stay away from any potential conflict, but nooooo, you have to stick your fat noses in to protest about something that has nothing to do with your own country. Oh, you just HAD to walk over the bridge did you? Well, whooppee dooo. Excuses, excuses. Fools.
Do you protest about issues relating to your own backyard??? I doubt it.
Where were the police you ask? FFS people. If you walk over the road and step on a tack, do you say, where’s the ambos. Police can’t be everywhere at every moment of every single friggin day!!!
Foolish sticky-beaks. Nothing more.
CanberraResident, Some people think human rights have something to do with all humans, regardless of what country they are in. What would you like to see happen here? The world to ignore human rights abuses because it isn’t happening in their own country? Would that make you happy?
How are your psychic powers today? Did you know i would say that? ooooooohhhhhhh aaaahhhhh.
There’s a difference between being well-spoken (as in delivering the line well, with enough spontaneity to be believeable and appropriate) and simply reading off a prepared line.
Stanhope tends to sound like he’s reading rehearsed lines at the best of times.
Nor does having protocol officers write speeches doesn’t really qualify anyone for Statesman status.
At the very least, wait until you either see & hear him (either in person or on news coverage) before you go singing his praises.
He is afterall, a politician and therefore a sleaze.
Apologises for the double negatives, Wordnazis.