THE 'TORCH' TUSSLE MOVES TO THE SAN FRAN BAY



Ineffective crisis management could potentially harm China's hard-won reputation built over recent decades.

It is no rocket science that recent pro-Tibet campaigners are quickly disrupting the normal proceedings of the much anticipated Beijing Olympics. A vehicle which China is desperate to capitalise on to declare its political and economic superiority.

However, as more and more oppositions and global protests overshadow the Olympic games - creating embarrassing headlines as we've seen on the streets of London & Paris during the Olympic torch journey through these Capitals (36 people were arrested, two protesters were held for trying to put out the flame which one man tried to grab the torch out of a celebrity carrier's hands. The images splashed across newspapers were one of shock and chaos. I couldn't actually see the flame amidst the 2,000 police uniforms, China's blue track-suited "guardians of the flame" and hundreds of protest placards)



The question is couldn't the Chinese government have prepared something to combat these embarrassing images which has already casted a shadow over the sporting tradition? Surely, this crisis could have been identified before it happened hence a better response to the situation could have been applied.

Perhaps, I'm been naive and the Chinese government couldn't have predicted this outcome. I will not share my personal views on the current situation - I am neither a politician or a sporting athlete, what I will say is how China communicates with all stakeholders is vital.

China needs to communicate exactly what it is going to do, in a timely manner to all stakeholders - the Olympics board, sponsors, governments, Tibetans, the press, sporting associations, athletes and many others.

In the meantime, the mayhem is almost certain to continue in San Francisco later today. This will be the Olympic torch's only North-American stop in the 85,000 miles journey en route Beijing. San Francisco was chosen because of its large Chinese-American population.

BRUNO IS SOOOOO LIKE 2020!



Sacha Baren Cohen has done it again. First, he put Kazakhstan on the map (although not depicting the entire truth about the country) now he's turned his talents into fashion and the result is Bruno (sometimes written as BrĂ¼no), a fictional homosexual character. Bruno has no surname (like Madonna, Cher - get it!) and he claims to be a reporter from an Austrian television station and interviews unsuspecting guests about topics such as fashion, entertainment, celebrities and homosexuality, with an emphasis on the latter as each interview progresses.

Following the success of Borat, Universal Studios acquired the rights to make the Bruno movie. There are rumours that the film is currently in production and due for a September 2008 release date.

Just pure genius. In the meantime, here's a snippet of what to expect.

VENUS COME BACK & KICK ASS

I'm deeply saddened by Venus Williams infinite absence from Tennis, the Six-time Grand Slam Champion recently said at the Bausch & Lomb Championship “I’ve just been having some issues that I need to resolve, so I’m working on that at the moment and I’m hoping to be back playing as soon as possible,”

The reasons behind the hiatus is unclear although after her last week's defeat to Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Sony Ericsson Open, she had hinted that she was dealing with a medical issue.

At Renaissance Man, we love Venus. Venus is ace. We certainly like her more than Serena eventhough we think Serena's strategic attempt to become Ms. Common was all a hoax to get favourable coverage from us.

In the words of Bruno -
ish-no-think-so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!