PARIS — China dubbed its Olympic torch relay the “Journey of Harmony,” a 21-nation promotional tour for the most expensive Games the world has seen and for a host nation eager to showcase its rising wealth and diplomatic clout... Passing through Paris under armed guard, the torch was extinguished several times, and police officers moved it aboard a bus to protect it as demonstrators swarmed the security detail. Chinese Olympic organizers abruptly canceled the last leg, as well as a stop at City Hall, where a banner proclaimed, “Paris Defends Human Rights Everywhere in the World.”
I love following the Olympics (though I think the Winter Games are far better than the Summer), so this torch controversy is pretty interesting as an attempt to politicize the games - or rather, to reveal their politicization. But for me, the alpha and omega of the current torch troubles is the modern origin of the torch relay: the 1936 Summer Games, which were staged, of course, in Berlin and used to glorify Hitler's Third Reich. The modern torch relay has been political from the first.