FREE TIBET NOW!!
Click to viewSo I made a new video about a Tibetian temple that I saw in Beijing. The historic Lama temple was really pretty and unique but there was a strong police presence. I decided that this would be the next video because it became really timely with the riots in Tibet and China's declaration of a "People's War" (the equivelant of a communist jihad) against Tibetians.
What started as a peaceful protest amongst buddhist monks was met with death squads and abusive amounts of force on the part of the Chinese government. As of today most estimate about 80 dead, but it is next to impossible verify as China has put about as much effort into stopping foriegners from being anywhere near the unrest as they have put into quelling the unrest.
The riots caught China unprepared as it geared for its moment in the national spotlight when it hosts the Olympics this summer. The current situation in Tibet can be seen as a response to efforts by the Chinese government to regulate Tibetian culture and encourage ethnic Chinese to move to the area to secure Israeli style legitamacy to its occupation of Tibet.
When I was in China I stopped at an English language bookstore and promenently display at the front where books justifying the Chinese occupation of Tibet in English. But it is also clear that, many Chinese, this issue is tied to the strong and unquestioned sense of Chinese Naitonalism.
Considering this, and the general unresponsiveness of the Chinese government to Human Rights issues, it is crystal clear to me that we MUST use the Olympics to pressure the Chinese Goverment to respect the right of Tibetians to self determination. As far as I can see the Olympics are the only way to hit them where they hurt and put the screws to the government. All the world community should ask is that China lives up to its human rights commitments that the country agreed to in order to secure the privelige to hold the 2008 summer games.
The unrest is spreading across China's vast frontier provinces it seems that athorities are spread thin two weeks before the beginning of Olympic cerimonies. These three (one, two, three) recent (within hours) accounts show us that monastaries are clearly the nucleus of the protests and I suspect we will see the presecution of monks shortly.
Offical Chinese new sources are hardly reporting on the riots in Tibet, except to anounce characteristically uninspired propaganda and seriously piss-poor reporting.
To hear what Condi Rice and the Dali Lama have to say about all of this click here for this CNN report.
More importantly I want to know what you think. Should democratic nations like the US boycott the Olympics? It not what other actions might be appropriate for NGO's and Democratic governments? Tell us with a comment or in your own blog?
Peace and Love