What's With the Beijing Olympics Protests?

I, like Gilda Radner's Saturday Night Live character, Rhonda Weiss, have never much gotten into protests, finding them kind of "pushy and whiny." I've also--though politically plugged in and interested--not really researched human rights issues in China (or sorry, Darfur either). Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the things that go in in these countries and others are deplorable, hideous and wrong. They've just for some reason been a little bit off of my radar.

That's why I find all of the protests about the 2008 Beijing Olympics just a little mystifying. It seems so organized, so together. . . Why haven't these people been mounting such effective attacks against George W. Bush and his administration over the past seven years? We get Code Pink and Cindy Sheehen--protesters that get snuffed out like birthday candles by the right. And, by the way, who are we to be protesting human rights abuses anyway? We do not currently have a sterling record in that area.

That said, the above poster is--graphically speaking--both effective and very creative. Kudos activist protester people! And, I promise, from now on I'm going to try to let a little more of this stuff seep into my brain.

[Excerpt]

Reporters Without Borders stages major protests for Olympic torch relay in Paris despite massive police presence

Reporters Without Borders hails the extensive demonstrations in support of human rights and press freedom that were staged today in Paris as relay runners carried the Olympic torch around the city.

The press freedom organisation managed to unfurl gigantic flags with its Beijing 2008 campaign motif of the Olympic rings turned handcuffs in seven locations: the Eiffel Tower, Avenue Marceau, the Champs-Elysées, the Pont des Arts, the Quai Malaquais, the facade of the cathedral of Notre Dame and near the Charléty Stadium (headquarters of the National Olympic Committee). . .

Read more at: Reporters Without Borders