Tiger Moth Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 The Olympics are supposed to be a sporting event that brings some harmony (a Buddhist sentiment) among countries. One of the great failures of Jimmy Carter ( a person I admire) was boycotting the Olympics. Very sad for athletes who work extremely hard for 4 years and usually have only 1 chance (since there is always a new crop of young athletes to take their place) and end up never having a chance to fulfill their dreams. Many other actions can be taken rather than boycotting the Olympics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Fears of another Tiananmen as Tibet explodes in hatred The Olympics, just months away, will not stop Beijing cracking down on riots that may have left more than 30 dead VENGEFUL rioters returned to the streets of the old Tibetan quarter of Lhasa yesterday, defying the gunshots and tear gas of Chinese troops surrounding the centre of the city. They broke into the few remaining shops untouched by a rampage of destruction on Friday and tore them apart, wrecking interiors and flinging debris into narrow alleys. The main Tibetan exile group in India put the death toll in Tibetâ??s worst outburst of popular violence in two decades at 30 confirmed and more than 100 unconfirmed. China said 10 people, â??all of them innocent civiliansâ?Â, had been burnt to death in the mayhem. It was impossible to verify the contending claims at first hand in Lhasa. While gunfire was heard, no bodies could be seen on the streets within the Chinese troop cordon. The rioters appeared impervious to increasingly shrill calls for order issued by the Tibet autonomous regional government, which set a deadline of midnight on Monday for them to surrender. By yesterday afternoon, China still had not regained control of the centre of Lhasa and as world attention focused on its reaction to the uprising, its leaders, gathered for a self-congratulatory meeting in Beijing, faced the â??Tiananmen dilemmaâ? â?? whether to use overwhelming force. China is conscious that with the 2008 Olympics just five months away it could face a new public relations disaster on a par with the Tiananmen Square massacre, in which hundreds died when the party sent in tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in 1989. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rogueyam Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 China has always claimed that Tibet is geographically and historically part of China. There could be strong arguments made against this but what would be gained by independence? East Timor would be in great danger of losing it's "World's poorest Nation" status. I was in Tibet when the yak shit hit the prayer wheel in 1987. It was ugly and heartbreaking. The Chinese can claim whatever they want. Like all commies, everything they say is lies. Tibet and China are two different places. The Chinese are occupying and committing genocide. If the Tibetans had some sort of limited autonomy and economic self-determination they could make their way just fine based on adventure tourism alone. The Chinese would benefit as well. But the Chinese are too racist and nationalistic and just plain chauvanistic to cut a deal. So after 1400+ years the Tibetan culture is doomed and for no good reason whatsoever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khun_khon_neua Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 China has always claimed that Tibet is geographically and historically part of China. There could be strong arguments made against this but what would be gained by independence? East Timor would be in great danger of losing it's "World's poorest Nation" status. They are not asking for independence. They want limited autonomy and economic self-determination, but mostly for the Han Chinese to quit trying to colonize the place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robaus Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Just my two bobs worth: My feeling is that â??realisticallyâ? China is never going to allow Tibet or Xingjiang to be independent, because a lot of other areas would want the same and itâ??d be bye bye to China. But who knows.. the Soviet Union eventually disintegrated. My view of history is: the only way you have permanent peace is when you make your enemies your friends. Why doesn't the Chinese government currently flush with billions of $$$ of trade surpluses, absolutely flood both troublesome regions with clinics, hospitals, free cradle to grave care for minorities. Plus free education to Uni level, with positive discrimination, and job preferences for the locals. (What are we talking about - 70m people out of a total 1.3 billion?) Ask the locals "What can we do for you, to improve your lives - roads, running water, electricity - you name it". But donâ??t interfere with or swamp the locals' culture and religion... I was appalled when I visited the region last year that the government had overrode local worshippers' wishes to allow visitors into the mosques in Xingjiang. I'm an atheist. I don't give a hoot about religion, but why upset people needlessly, why throw fuel on the fire? Same with the Tibetans' choice of their religious leaders. If they played their cards right, and with relatively little expense, China could have the restless minorities looking over the fence at neighbouring independent countries where megalomaniac dictators and poverty rule, and quickly come to the conclusion that theyâ??re far better off under Chinaâ??s prosperous umbrella with some sort of limited autonomy. But as is always the way in history, it looks like itâ??s going to be repression and bloodshed until one day enlightenment dawns. So short sighted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Some of my wife's mother's family came to northern Thailand over a century ago from Sip Song Pan Na, now part of China though still inhabited by ethnic Thais. She went on a tour there with some of her friends a couple of years ago. She said she the languages are still close enough that she could speak with the people using Kham Muang (Northern Thai). But if Chinese officials were around, the people were afraid to speak to her in their own language. The Chinese wanted them to speak only Mandarin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elef Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 Don't forget that China occupies 2 indian regions since the war 1962. Link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buffalo_bill Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 J2, my remark was only meant to be tecnical : to call the Chinese educated and sensitive is the joke of the century . They are about in the same league as their newly aquired close friend Mugabe from Zimbabwe , another sensitive one . BuBi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted March 16, 2008 Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 China has always claimed that Tibet is geographically and historically part of China. There could be strong arguments made against this but what would be gained by independence? East Timor would be in great danger of losing it's "World's poorest Nation" status. I was in Tibet when the yak shit hit the prayer wheel in 1987. It was ugly and heartbreaking. The Chinese can claim whatever they want. Like all commies' date=' everything they say is lies. Tibet and China are two different places. The Chinese are occupying and committing genocide. If the Tibetans had some sort of limited autonomy and economic self-determination they could make their way just fine based on adventure tourism alone. The Chinese would benefit as well. But the Chinese are too racist and nationalistic and just plain chauvanistic to cut a deal. So after 1400+ years the Tibetan culture is doomed and for no good reason whatsoever. [/quote'] The Chinese empire also made the same claims, much the same as the USSR claimed the same lands as Tsarist Russia before them. However both of the latter regimes were about as Communist as you are. It's called Totalitarianism or a Kleptocracy if you like and they share about as much of the wealth with the people as the Republicans do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2008 China blocks popular YouTube.com video Web site over Tibet protest videos China blocked access to YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos of recent protests in Tibet appeared on the popular U.S. video Web site. The blocking added to the communist government's efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule. Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos, and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad. There were no protest scenes posted on China-based video Web sites such as 56.com, youku.com and tudou.com. The Chinese government has not commented on its move to prevent access to YouTube. Internet users trying to call up the Web site are presented with a blank screen. BP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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