HARMonious Journey … Or Else!
“HONG KONG, April 8 (Reuters) - Protest and controversy have surrounded the Beijing Olympic flame since it was lit in Greece two weeks ago — and so has a phalanx of large and physically fit Chinese men in blue and white track suits. The hand-picked team of crack security operatives look like a cross between marathon gold medalists and secret service agents, trotting beside the flame with stern faces and earpieces, along the most ambitious torch route ever attempted, dubbed by Beijing the “Harmonious Journey“.
The flame is supposed to symbolise peace and unity and the relay is meant to be a celebration…
Torch bearer and former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq described them as aggressive. “They were very robotic, very full on, and actually I noticed them having skirmishes with our own police and the Olympic authorities before our leg of the relay, which was confusing,” she was quoted as telling BBC Radio 4. “They were barking orders at me, like ‘Run! Stop!’, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, who are these people?’,” the Daily Mail quoted her as saying.
“They kept pushing my hand up higher when I was holding the torch, so they were…interesting (Interesting is a Brit Charm School word meaning A**holes).”
Its members were picked from the ranks of the People’s Armed Police, the security force spun off from the army that is responsible for riot control and domestic stability. Tens of thousands of “wujing”, as they are called in Chinese, have been deployed to Tibet and neighbouring areas to quash recent unrest. “These men, chosen from around the country, are each tall and large and are eminently talented and powerful,” their leader Zhao Si was quoted as saying.
One online report said the shortest among them stood 1.9 metres (6 ft 3 in) tall. “Their outstanding physical quality is not in the slightest inferior to that of specialised athletes,” Zhao said. ”
Another obvious trait of these tenni-runner enforcers is that they eat bananas and smell really bad.
“Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australia, not China, would provide security for the flame when it heads there later this month, but The Age reported there were still plans for Chinese “torch attendants” to accompany it through Canberra.”
Short translation = Kevin Rudd said we will surrender when they get here.
