Posted by skyfox
on Fri 10 Apr 09, 5:13 PM to skyfox's blog.
"Free Tibet". What utter nonsense! The phrase should be "Free China". The Tibetans suffer no differently than any other Chinese minority culture or even the Han Chinese who are the general "ruling class" majority. I don't give a rat's arse if Tibet "has always been a part of China" or not. I'm not even sure if the Dali Lama is a better option than the communists or not. But the fact remains that every citizen of China is victim to censorship, one-party rule, and all manner of human rights violations. I am sick of all the "Free Tibet" BS you see at every Chinese event. It's a red herring. It detracts from the real crime: the crime of a authoritarian regime of a country of 1.6 billion people.
And *finally* an opinion article I agree with on the topic. Tibetans are only as oppressed as all Chinese are. What a breath of fresh air! If you are not a member of the communist party, your future is extremely limited in China. It's a crime. It isn't right. China is a wonderful country, and the Chinese are wonderful people, but their government - the shame. I long for the day when the Chinese are free to speak their mind without fear of persecution.
| 10 Apr 09, 5:39 PM DaddysTouch UK(RG), 3 yrs  |
My flatmates got so fed up of this guy in our building prattling on about how we need to free Tibet that they had t-shirts printed with "fuck Tibet" written on the front. It's only hubris if I fail. | |
| 10 Apr 09, 6:22 PM Conan_The_Librarian UK(S), 3 yrs  |
The future of Tibet is tied to that of China. People may not want that to be so, they can protest, campaign, collect signatures for petitions, listen to lectures from Sting, Bono and Gere, but, until the Chinese government's Tibet policy changes, Tibet will stay welded to China. The Free Tibet protesters need to be clear about what they are fighting for. If it is for human rights and democracy, then, as has been suggested here, their campaign is needed in China just as much as Tibet. If however they are motivated by a romantic, mystial, mythical view of Tibet as a real world Shangri-La and a desire to return Tibet to the pre 1950, priest-riddled, feudal, backward, anti-democratic place it was, then, the campaigners, may as well stay at home. They are doing the people of Tibet no favours at all. The world will be a better place with one less communist government, but, it will also be better without one more theocracy.
Here comes a whizz-bang, and I think you know what I'm talking about, woof! | |
| 10 Apr 09, 8:02 PM Tenderdom2 4 yrs |
There is a difference here between political repression in China generally, and cultural imperialism in Tibet. Han Chinese are pouring into Tibet and swamping the indigenous people. Sadly, Tibetan culture will disappear or become a kind of vestigial rump, very similar to Native Americans or Aboriginal Australians. I have Chinese friends and I like China and the Chinese people generally. But I've yet to meet anyone from mainland China who isn't depressingly chauvinistic; so settling large numbers of Han Chinese in Tibet can only have one result, regardless of what kind of government there is in Beijing. Whatever it is, I'm against it! - Rufus T. Firefly | |
| 11 Apr 09, 1:46 AM DancesWithPussycats UK(TW), 7 yrs |
Tibet has no oil, and China has nukes. International man of mystery | |
| 11 Apr 09, 10:53 AM Tenderdom2 4 yrs |
Yep. A lot. Whatever it is, I'm against it! - Rufus T. Firefly | |
| 11 Apr 09, 1:28 PM Conan_The_Librarian UK(S), 3 yrs |
I never realised that all of the 1,600,000,000. Chinese people were happy and content. You must spend a lot of time over there to be able to speak for them all. The 3000 people butched by the PLA in Tianamen Square must of been complaining that things were too good, that they were too content with life. A century ago you would of been saying the same things about India during the Raj. Happy natives, content with having a government they can't change, delighted that every now and again the authorities shoot a few of them to keep the rest in their place and ecsatic at being second class citizens in their own country. Here comes a whizz-bang, and I think you know what I'm talking about, woof! | |
| 11 Apr 09, 11:58 PM Conan_The_Librarian UK(S), 3 yrs |
You must be a uniquely lucky or an incredibly blinkered traveller to have only met happy and content people on your jaunts to a country like China. I would of thought a trip to any country in the world would of involved meeting at least one or two people who were at least slightly cheesed of with some aspects of their lives. And well done for quibbling with the numbers murdered at Tianamen Square instead of trying to explain why the goverment ordered the deaths of so many of its own 'happy and content' people. Arguing numbers is a classic CPC distraction technique. If you do decide to live in China you'll go far. I have never visited China. I don't feel this disqualifies me from having a valid opinion of the place. I've never been to Antarctica, but, I know, from books, that its chilly down there and covered in snow. I have notice that some tourisits come back from China with an unrealistic, patronising and romantic version of the place which is at odds with the written experiences of many of the Chinese themselves. Here comes a whizz-bang, and I think you know what I'm talking about, woof! | |
| 12 Apr 09, 12:31 PM Conan_The_Librarian UK(S), 3 yrs |
'People who think bad thoughts?' Sums up your attitude to your own country perfectly I think. Your negativity toward Britain will soon become negativity towards China once the scales fall from your eyes and you realise it isn't the 'happy and content' paradise of your chauvinistic fantasies. Then you can find another society and culture to patronise and mis-understand in the grand and ancient tradition of 'happy to be blinkered' Westerners who head east in the hope of finding an earthly paradise. My advice would be to find the reasons within youself why you despise your own country and the people in it so much (projection maybe?) before you pin your hopes on China curing you of your negativity. Have a mediocre day. Here comes a whizz-bang, and I think you know what I'm talking about, woof! | |
| 7 Jun 09, 12:56 PM skyfox UK(EH), 5 yrs  |
Shame Danica Talos deleted their profile, I'm always interested in what the propoganda has to say. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. |
