A few weekends ago, as you all may already know, the beleagured Olympic torch made a brief tour through Seoul here in South Korea. I happened to notice a blurb about it on the news that morning and ventured out to take in the sights and sounds. Not sure the time of the parade exactly, when I saw everyone carrying Chinese flags and wearing red and gold heading the opposite direction in the subway station, I thought for sure I had just missed it. It was reminicent of the giant crowds downtown for the last World Cup here or during the World Baseball Championship with throngs of suited up fans mingling jollily through the subway stations. Fortunately, upon alighting from the stairs, I was overwhelmed with the tens of thousands of cheering and jubuliant supporters. The entire Seoul City Hall court was awash in red and gold. I have never seen so much singular support for one country here in Korea, besides the obvious enthusiastic support for the home team. I bought some batteries, grabbed a drink, and pushed off into the crowds. I was curious to find some interactions between the Chinese, mainly student, supporters and Tibetan, mainly white 'never been to Tibet-type', supporters. To my dismay(?), I came up blank on that account. [The next day's new reports of several scuffles, rock and bottle throwing, even attacks with Chinese flag poles proved that while I may not have witnessed it, there were certainly high tensions] Eventually I bellied up to the street I thought might have the best odds for seeing the actual flame. Skip forward three hours of waiting around and finally the torch itself arrived. I guess I don't know what I was expecting, but the row upon row of metropolitan police, horse-riding officers, bicycle cops, undercover agents, mysterious figures, and even special forces complete with what to the untrained-eye (mine!) could have been fully- or semi-automatic weapons, well, it certainly took away from the festive, humanitarian, 'we are all brothers and sisters' feel that the Olympics typically trancends to and imparts on humanity. Oh well, I kept shooting hoping to get a clear shot of the guy carrying the flame, check the evidence for yourself, I'm posting the clearest shot I had out of 20-25 I snapped furiously while he past. All in all, not bad for my second viewing of the flame, was it April I saw it with for the '96 Atlanta games there in Tumwater near the Dairy Queen? Anybody...?
More posts to follow... :)
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