Days to contemplate

Stuck at home , yesterday, I had time to contemplate, my naval mostly, but also the current world news has struck home forcefully. The Olympic torch struggled its way around London surrounded and mostly obscured by policemen and women on foot, bikes, horses and in vans.
This symbol of sporting excellence was the object of enormous protest. According to a spokesman for the Olympic Committee it shines the light into the China illuminating the problems of human rights.
Small comfort, methinks, to the activist who is currently serving three years in a Chinese jail or to his small child whose father has been taken away for the early years of childhood. Nor is it helpful for the dead and injured in Tibet.
In France the torch will again be surrounded by police on motorbikes and some on rollerblades. It seems the various forces are trying to outdo each other in methods of guarding this shrinking symbol of international peaceful competition.
The edited pictures shown in China will be of happy smiling runners holding the torch aloft while we, in the West, see the jumble of police and protesters clashing on the streets of London and probably Paris.
It's difficult to understand why this facade was played out. Why not surround the torch with electrified barbed wire and armed police and march it through the streets with no spectators allowed? At least we would see the situation for what it really is.
The hijacking of an ideal by a repressive regime.
Of course the athletes want to compete, it's what they train all their lives to do, so what about an alternative competition for those who wish to demonstrate their opposition to this venue.
The Olympics will go ahead but stuck in my mind are images of the Chinese Ambassador being hussled away, the demonstrators being wrestled to the ground, police horses advancing on demonstrators and the forced smiles of the runners as they attempted to inject some joy into a desultry spectacle.