Jealous neighbors!

It looks like the torch for the coming Olympic games in China is getting a hard time on its way to China. The scenes of Chinese security protecting the flame by fighting with the protestors, and getting the flame extinguished in the process, are almost comical! This reminds me of the wedding of the daughter of a newly rich guy. This is a great chance for the father to show his friends and neighbors how successful he has become, and he spares no cost in preparing for a very lavish event. He invites everyone in his neighborhood, some he really does not know that well. Everyone accepts the invitation. But the human nature is such that, many secretly hope that something will go wrong at the wedding to put the rich guy in his place. Sure enough, on the wedding day, the rich man finds two policemen at the doorstep of his mansion. They are there to enforce an obscure city law against large crowd assembly in private residences! Obviously, a jealous neighbor has tipped them off. Like the rich guy in this story, China is a nation who is rapidly becoming one of the richest nations in the world. The 2008 Olympics was going to be a showcase of their wealth and efficiency to the rest of the world. Now it looks like it is going to be disrupted and tainted with protests about their human rights violations. I suspect that like the neighbors of the rich guy, the rest of world gets a kick out of the travails of China!

(I am curious if President Bush will be bold enough to boycott the event. It will like biting the hand that feeds you, as we need China to fund our extravagant spending - by buying our Treasury bonds!)