China, Tibet and the Olympic Torch

Before I go on about what happened on Monday, I have to tell you that on Sunday while running a bath, the telephone rang. Normally it only rings when I am in the bath. However because of this my bath was more full than I intended. Also that meant that my cat “Trouble” (that's her name) was able to sneak into the bathroom and as I was trying to gently lower myself in to the Bath, so she suddenly leapt on to the edge of the bath making me jump, and in my desperation to avoid her slipping in I slipped and crashed down onto my bum. Well the big slosh sent the cat running but I knew that I was going to be bruised.

The reason for telling you this is that on Monday, I was bruised and it made sitting for any prolonged period a little uncomfortable. Not good as I had a meeting in Newcastle with one of the publishers interested in producing the Badger book. So my journey in to the city on the bus was less pleasant than it normally would be. I also had the problem of having to sit through the meeting.

Because of my fidgeting, trying to get comfortable, the publisher thought that I was not happy with the money I was being offered. Thus, instead of signing a contract as we had both expected, the woman I was talking to, decided that the offer was not good enough. Therefore, she will be talking with her partners to see if it cant be increased.

So my bruised butt may have improved my financial status. As was planned I was also taken out to lunch. I told her the reason why I was uncomfortable (so this is not news to her, here) and she had a good laugh both as me, and with me. You could say that I was the Butt of the joke!

Also, as the publishers office is in one of these business units where many small businesses are located, there were other people in the Café who were also from these studios. Further I saw people that I knew. Anyway, this lead to a nice long leisurely lunch, plenty of coffee and some interesting chat. I was then asked if I wanted to meet up again latter at the pub.
That meant that I had most of the afternoon to kill. So I went and wandered around on the Town Moor. I had wished I had taken a camera with me as I could have gotten some good images.

In the pub, it was good to catch up with people that I had known more years ago than I care to remember. One aspect that was uncomfortable, and I am not talking about my bum, was a woman that was/is the partner of one of the people from the publishers. She got tipsy quite quickly and kept on wanting to touch my hair. Further, she kept on saying “I Really Like your Hair” All this in front of her partner. Fortunately they left to get some food.

Once that discomfort was gone, I ended up having a nice long chin wag with some really nice people. While I talked a little about what I was up to, I was more interested in what other folks were up to. This lead to one man saying that he had been in London protesting about Chinas Human rights record in Tibet during the procession of the Olympic torch. Now while I was tempted to say something at the time on here, I didn't see much point in just repeating much of what others were saying. However, I suggested that rather than trying to disrupt the procession that the way to protest was by booing and by everyone turning their back on the torch procession would have been a far more eloquent message to send to the Chinese than the violence that actually happened. I could not believe the way this split people. Some agreed, but far more seemed to think that the torch should have been stopped by any means.

Now I know that not everyone agrees with non violent protesting, as it doesn't always grab the headlines, but I feel that it helps win greater support in the long run than does any aggressive action. As in this case in particular, it would have shown the Chinese what feeling the majority have about their treatment of the peoples of Tibet and that protests don't need to be or end up with violence.