Protests

I was pretty stoked when I read an article in this mornings Bangkok post about Chinese students protesting the French grocery chain Carrefour. If you are a regular reader, you are probably aware of my dismay over mispriced items at said retailer. For a few seconds I thought that the entire Chinese nation had rallied to my cause; that they, like me, were outraged about the inability to correctly match products and price tags on a shelf.

My elation soon turned to disappointment, as I read on to discover that these Chinese students were protesting Carrefour to demonstrate anti-French sentiment over France's criticisms of China's treatment of Tibet. Now, I'm not one to dismiss criticisms of the French out of hand, I mean it is good sport. One of my favorite lines in all of comics was in Marvel's Ultimates series, when the villain tells Captain America to surrender, to wit the good Captain responds "[d]o you think the A on my forehead stands for France?" Okay, the French aren't really that bad, but its still fun.

The Chinese protesters were chanting slogans against Tibetan independence. They didn't quote the protesters, so I can only imagine some of the slogans.

"You can have my lama when you pry it from my cold dead hand."

"Chinese don't kill Tibetans. Chinese soldiers with guns and tanks kill Tibetans."

"Two, four, six, eight, don't let Tibet separate."

"George Bush stole the election from Al Gore!" (sorry, couldn't resist that one, its a favorite protest line of so many)

"Kill defenseless monks? Haven't you ever seen a martial arts movie? Those guys are dangerous."

"Free the hamsters first!" (a shot at Dalia Lama supporter Richard Gere who was the subject of scurrilous rumors about hamsters and his butt)