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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Olympic Flag goes AWOL
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[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
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18 comments:
Are you 100% sure it is a flag of ROC? Maybe it is of Burma? Maybe China is punishing Burma for its opening to the democracy.
Of course, you are right. I am kidding.
By continuing to support the sellout Keep Marginalizing Taiwan (KMT) party, the Taiwanese are getting what they voted for. Sorry to say.
Not very helpful given that there's nothing to show when the photographs were taken. Still, it's not surprising if true - the ROC flag isn't an Olympic flag, so will almost certainly be taken down when a complaint is made.
I think Myanmar changed their flag a few years ago, to a green-yellow-red flag. Samoa might be the closest thing now.
I can understand the UK having to abide by IOC rules regarding the flying of flags at official Olympics venues - the swimming arena, main stadium, velodrome etc. But in Regent Street can't the UK fly whatever flags it likes? Come on Taiwan .... sorry Chinese Taipei, win lots of medals.
Raj, your own comment is, er, "not very helpful."
Here's a CNA report on the matter dated July 22, 2012.
And here's another CNA report on the matter dated July 24, 2012.
You should also take into consideration that the Regent Street Association is "a civic group, and ha[s] nothing to do with the London Olympic Committee," so it should be able to use whatever flag it wants to.
Tim Maddog
Oops! I don't know what happened to my first link. It should have been: "Here's a CNA report on the matter dated July 22, 2012."
I hope I typed it correctly this time.
Tim Maddog
Usual hyper-sensitivity and toadying to political correctness from local government. Hard to believe there was even a complaint from officials about this.
Tim, all I saw was two pictures without context.
I know it's not an official site, but it's still not surprising that the flag was removed. Although arguably there was no reason not to fly the flag, there was no requirement to do so. The issue is whether the Chinese embassy protested or someone else thought they might and removed it/asked that the flag be removed. We'll probably never know.
Mostly likely that as per the Philippines, this association was threatened with a boycott from Chinese tourists / shoppers. Personally I wish they'd boycott Taiwan, but I'm the sort of person that will now plan to travel to Boracay to take advantage of the relative peace and quiet there.
It could still get worse!
http://aje.me/N3XT4z
Leaving aside issues some of us have with that flag for a start, let's get this straight: This isn't just an IOC thing, nor is it confined to events abroad.
If Taiwan want to compete in almost any internationally-sanctioned event on home turf, it has to refer to itself under that ridiculous moniker and if China is involved, the authorities have, on more than one occasion, removed flags from public places to avoid 'trouble'.
During a Davis Cup tie v the PRC on home soil in 2007, the Chinese Taipei Tennis Association signed an agreement forbidding flag waving and 'displays of national pride' (which presumably extended to cheering '加油台灣!'
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/sport/archives/2007/02/16/2003349329
Although the official reason for this absurdity was that the Chinese team wouldn't show up without this guarantee, the CTTA hardly had the power to enforce the removal of flags from thoroughfares that the Chinese entourage were to come down.
Some of my Taiwanese friends in London and elsewhere are rightly pissed off with this debacle but I the current admin did the same thing in Taiwan a few years back with far less outcry.
@FOARP - I don't quite understand what you are saying. Who is being hypersensitive? Which local government?
@Tim Maddog: As Raj notes: not sure how you address his point. A CNA report with a date on it shows when those photos were taken? That's a good 'un ...
James wrote:
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@Tim Maddog: As Raj notes: not sure how you address his point. A CNA report with a date on it shows when those photos were taken? That's a good 'un ...
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Uh, James. There were two CNA reports. The first was from July 22, 2012, and its headline read [my translation]: "ROC flag flies over downtown London." The headline of the July 24, 2012 CNA piece read [my translation]: "ROC flag removed from downtown London." That was in reply to Raj's claim that Michael's post was "Not very helpful given that there's nothing to show when the photographs were taken."
But that's exactly what those two articles showed, so the links should have been quite helpful. Where in Raj's reply do you see him noting that I didn't "address his point"?
BTW, those flags over Regent Street weren't trees falling in a forest with no one around to see or hear them—they were seen by lots of people and discussed around the globe. It certainly would have been better if Michael had included some links, but people reading this post obviously have, you know, web browsers and are ostensibly interested enough in the topic to be able to easily check for themselves.
Tim Maddog
I would have liked to include links, but pressed for time that day.
Michael
Very sad. It's a price that Taiwan has to pay for having a "soft leg shrimp" president. He did not even care or dare to make a comment.
Tim, I don't have the time to go research every sodding news story someone blogs about. It didn't hit the 10 o'clock news headlines here, though there was coverage in the papers a little while afterwards. Just give it a rest.
This is the only time I, as a Taiwanese (meaning people of Taiwan, not people on Taiwan), am happy about what the PRC does to Taiwan. That damned flag represents only the illegal in-exile Chinese government, which has murdered thousands of Taiwanese and brutally oppresses democracy. Taiwanese atheletes are brain-washed to attend the olympic game carrying that damned flag. Both UK and PRC did a wonderful thing to take that shameful thing down from British streets.
Raj wrote:
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Tim, I don't have the time to go research every sodding news story someone blogs about.
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It took you more time to leave the original comment than it would have taken to search for it on Google or any of the social networks. Typing one or two search terms = "time to go research"? LOL!
Even if you were just too lazy to do it yourself, you could have asked Michael, "Got a link?" I'm guessing he would have gladly provided one.
You also weren't trying very hard when you said "We'll probably never know [why the flag was removed]." It took less than 24 hours for that answer to be revealed and discussed around the globe.
Tim Maddog
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