Marco Torres, a proud Filipino, is one of the selected expat torchbearers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China. Here’s an update from Marco all the way from China:

Hi guys, I’m sure all the news are reaching you. It had quite a controversial run or trot or jog in London (where someone tried to grab the torch while another waited for it with a fire extinguisher) and Paris (where a man attempted to grab it from a girl on a wheelchair who is now so popular here). In San Francisco, they had to re-route the relay to the dismay of both the pro-China and pro-Tibet revelers. As my mom whose based in Sacramento says, “Chinese people I know who traveled all the way to see the torch in San Francisco felt robbed.”

It was peaceful though in most other cities like Buenos Aires, Argentina and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania as well as in Muscat, Oman.

It’s sad that all the disruptions are causing the IOC to think twice about having the international leg in the future. They are considering limiting the torch between Greece and the host country. This means, unless the Philippines hosts the Olympics (which may not happen for many lifetimes), the torch will not pass our country again. As well as many other countries other than the UK, France and the US where they had the most widespread protest.

Anyway, last week, immediately after the SF leg, I got a request from National Public Radio (an affiliate of BBC radio) for an interview. It’s interesting because the interviewer was in English and based in Shanghai, I did sense some bias in her questions. It was like she wanted me to say, how disappointed and distressed I was, that BJ was censoring the news in BJ, that I was afraid for my safety to carry the torch.

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