Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kuros]

Ettefagh

[daskalos]

Tibet. I know I should do a lot more study of the subject, but it's hard for me to get worked up about it. I know, I know, all people want to be free, safe and secure within their own borders to order their lives as they will (a principal as applicable to an apartment building as it is to a nation), but I can't help but think that the only reason the idea of a free Tibet has the cachet it has in the world today is that Tibet has, in the person of the Dalai Lama, a really good PR department.

Off the top of my head I can think of a dozen areas in the world more deserving of sympathy and sentiment than Tibet. Are Tibetans starving or being slaughtered en masse? (A hundred shot in a protest they could have avoided isn't quite equatable to tens of thousands of rapes in Darfur or as many babies starving in North Korea to fund a madman's egomania.)

Outrage is a funny thing. I know it's among the most subjective of emotions, but I'm very often bemused by where people choose to direct it. (A bemusement I don't exempt myself from, by the way.)

[ultra]

I like the following response to the Iranian author:


Tenzin:
I totally agree, why don't Iran give up their independence and become a part of China?

After all, Iran would be much more prosperous, and they would enjoy lots of subsidies and infrastructure investments (railroad from Beijing to Teheran). I am sure lots of Chinese people would also like to settle in Iran and Iranian culture would be enriched by Chinese culture.

This would be a poke in the eye to those western imperialists!

April 24, 2008 4:42 PM

[bigverne]

[quote="Kuros"]Ettefagh

[Kuros]

[quote="bigverne"]

[Typhoon]

Of course not. The people in Tibet are Chinese right?

[Kuros]

[Nowhere Man]

The Dalai Lama doesn't support independence:

http://www.tibet.com/NewsRoom/hhchinesemedia1.htm

Nor does the outfit that bears the moniker:

http://www.freetibet.org/info/facts/fact16.html

I suppose some of the student organizations do:

http://www.tibetanyouthcongress.org

http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/section.php?id=69

But I'm not sure that protesting the Olympics automatically puts one in the latter camp.

I think most pro-Tibet people back the Dalai Lama, and I doubt any group carries any significant weight without him on board.

The writer labeling the Tibet protests as some "politician's short-term agenda" also seems off-base.

[Kuros]

[Typhoon]

[pugwall]

I support more autonomy for Tibet but the wheels are in motion already as there are talks planned. Any more protesting just plays into Beijings hands as it incites more nationalism giving them more chips at the bargaining table http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200804c.brief.htm#016 Article 16

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Typhoon]

Yes it is more complicated than I stated. However, Tibet was a separate free country prior to the Chinese invasion in the 1950s. I was just stating a basic principal of why countries (large groups of ethncities) of a right to forum their own countries. Or does China have the right to invade any country they want and call the people living there Chinese?

[ultra]

Actually it is a simple matter of following the Golden Rule. Those who posess the most gold make the rules.

To change the rules. many must sacrifice their lives, as in the case of independance of India.

[Adventurer]

I believe the Chinese Government should meet the Dalai Lama and try to find common ground with their citizens of Tibetan ethnicity and give them more religious freedom and be a little more tolerant. Perhaps, the Chinese Government should in a volte-face move give more leeway for the Catholic Church in China while giving the Tibetans more room. I know the government is scared of that in a way. The Dalai Lama is not seeking to confront China, and he isn't against the Chinese people at all or the government.