Wednesday 6 August 2008

Derring-do from Free Tibet protester


You can't have missed the escapades of Edinburgh man Iain Thom today as he scaled the heights of a lighting pole near to the Olympic stadium in Beijing. He then unfurled a banner calling on the Chinese to get out of Tibet before phoning the BBC from his mobile phone! Forget John whatsisname at Glasgow Airport, this is my new hero.

Despite his modesty in saying any fear he felt was nothing compared to how Tibetans living under Chinese occupation no doubt felt, he must have been scared. Not only was he hundreds of feet up in the air but he was in a country where he doesn't speak the language protesting about that country's government and in particular protesting about human rights abuses. They weren't likely to be happy with him. He was of course arrested and he'll now no doubt be kicked out but I hope he returns to a hero's welcome for showing an incredible amount of courage. In fact we should invent a new Olympic medal for what he did.

The dictionary definition of derring-do incidentally, is this: valiant deeds in desperate times. Very apt!

PS What IS that Airport guy's name again?! How fickle we are with our heroes!

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