Determination
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I had breakfast with a friend who is not at all political, but by his estimate has followed the Olympics very closely. He remarked that there had been very little in the way of protests. He watches corporate controlled broadcast television. One need go no farther than Harvard Square to know that they are not telling the whole story.
The Tibetans have spent evenings in the Pit since at least March 15. Seeing this peristance first hand inspired the title. [More pictures from April. It is incredibly bad form to explain a double entent1. For example, to say that the Tibetans show great determination in the quest for self-determination would display bluntness worthy only of an underemployed physicist library doorchecker. ]
Democracy Now! has had a number of reports of repression of Pro Tibet protest. Reporters sans Frontieres2 offers a chronology of repression of the press. Students for a free Tibet have spawned a website specifically for the Olympics and a video blog Free Tibet 2008 TV.
1I was dissuaded from using double entendre by the Wikipedia entry for it, since there is nothing obscene about self-determination. In fact, I will argue that the lack thereof is obscene.
2My French desparately needs pardoning, but doesn’t “sans frontieres” sound way cooler than “without borders”?