THE WRITING IS ON THE WALL

American pastor Eddie Romero has put an interesting new spin on protesting during the Olympic Games. Eddie checked himself into two “high-class downtown” hotels this week in Beijing and filmed himself painting the walls of his rooms with slogans such as “Beijing 2008 Our World, Our Nightmare” before disappearing…

The good peeps at the London based ‘Free Tibet Campaign’ have also come up with a clever way of getting around the ‘Athletes can’t speak out about human rights’ rule by urging them to make a simple “T” sign with their hand to show their support of Tibet. “Athletes competing at the Olympics have been told they must not mention human rights or Tibet, but no one can stop them making a simple signal that they care,” the group said. “’The T for Tibet hand signal is a quick, easy way to send a clear message: It’s time to free Tibet.” The group is also lashing out at China’s support of the Sudanese government, which has allowed widespread ethnic violence and severe rights violations in its Darfur region…look for athletes wearing black wristbands in support of Darfur and German athletes sporting green and blue bands for support. You can also get involved with the Free Tibet movement and upload your own “T” photo on their website. Many people, including REM frontman Michael Stipe have already signed up. Check it out HERE.

Others are taking it one step further with their protests, most notably (for today anyway) are Mr. Thom and his friend Phil Bartnell who climbed lighting posts near the “Bird’s Nest” stadium around 5.30am and unfurled banners saying “One World One Dream Free Tibet.” Mr Thom spoke to reporters from the top of the pole by telephone, saying he was a long-term activist on the Tibet issue. “This is a really critical time for Tibet,” he said. “The Olympic Games are being used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese government to whitewash their human rights record.” (See the video and full story here)

But perhaps the biggest stone in my shoe this morning in an article on Yahoo Sports by Dan Wetzel. His enticing headline: ‘Will Kobe, Lebron pass on Darfur?’ Now I understand the importance of getting as many hits as possible, so props to Dan for creative writing. (And I’m not talking about Kobe). But come on, “Will Lebron pass on Darfur”? He already has-more than once! Wetzel also wrote: “They have been among the most outspoken of the major American athletes on the subject.” WHAT? Am I the only one not kissing Bron-brons ass because he can shoot hoops? Sure, Lebron mumbled something back in May about Darfur in efforts to promote his oh-so-wonderful image, but seriously, he doesn’t even speak out about stuff here in the States, so why is he suddenly going to lend his voice to Darfur or Tibet? Pa-leeze. USA Men’s team coach Jerry Colangelo in Wetzle’s piece: “Let me ask you this, what carries more weight?” he said. “One of them making a comment about what’s happening in Tibet or Darfur or two nights ago in Shanghai when our players helped raise $430,000 for the earthquake relief program where 70,000 Chinese died? I think that’s a little bit more important.” Ah…not. I tend to think both are important, but since Jerry is into numbers, he may wanna think about the fact that 400,000 Sudanese people have been murdered…

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Delinda Lombardo
delinda@athlebrities.com