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March 17, 2008
Crushing Tibet
Now that the Chinese are hosting the next Olympics and the Tibetans are starting to make some noise about the cultural genocide that the Chinese have committed in Tibet, maybe the Palestinian-obsessed media will start paying attention to the true horrrors in Tibet.
From Joshuapundit:
For those of you who don't know, Tibet was an independent country for centuries, until the Communist Chinese regime invaded and occupied them in 1950. The Dalai Lama was forced to flee the country, along with thousands of other Tibetans, many of whom settled in neighboring India and Nepal. The ones who stayed were subjected to harsh rule which was concentrated on dispersing the Tibetans, destroying their national and religious culture and subjecting them to what amounted to ethnic cleansing. Tibetans were forcibly removed from their homeland and settled in neighboring provinces while ethnic Chinese were brought in to settle in Tibet.
Due to the nature of Mao Tse-Tung's regime, the Tibetan's Buddhist religion was singled out for special repression. Something like 6,000 monasteries, nunneries and temples, and their contents were partially or fully destroyed from the period of the Chinese invasion and during the Cultural Revolution, and literally thousands of Buddhist monks were killed or driven out of the country. Human rights groups have confirmed the identities of over 700 Tibetan political prisoners in Tibet, although there are likely to be hundreds more whose names simply aren't known or confirmed. It's quite common for such people to be detained without charge or trial for up to four years through Chinese regulations calling for "re-education through labor."
It's interesting to compare the attention paid to the Tibetans, a truly oppressed and occupied people with the attention paid to the Palestinians, who are neither.
To read the complete article, please click here.
And this from the brilliant Yaakov Kirschen, Dry Bones:
Hat Tip: Soccer Dad
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at March 17, 2008 11:28 AM
Comments
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The atrocities in Tibet have been swept under the rug for far too many years.
I saw this weekend, as the story was breaking, that the IOC was quick to dismiss the idea of a boycott of the coming olympics.....of course, why let mass murder get in the way of some good corporate profit.
Does anything ever change?
Posted by: Lance at March 17, 2008 12:47 PM
Hopefully, the protests in Tibet will spill over into mainland China and the IOC's deplorable decision, (does it make any other kind?), to hold the games in China will end up haunting everyone involved.
China is getting a big pass from the news media because it's 1) not a Jewish country and 2) everyone in the world is convinced they "have" to do business with China and greed is taking over. Me, I would rather do business with Israel, a country that has more education and experience per capita than probably any nation in world history. Oh, and Warren Buffett agrees with me. I think he has more money in Israel than he does in China right now.
Human rights aside, the horrible air conditions in Beijing will probably lead to several athlete injuries. I don't see how they can even consider having the marathon there.
Posted by: Jake at March 17, 2008 01:12 PM
Yaakov Kirschen is typically brilliant!
Posted by: soccer dad at March 17, 2008 01:40 PM
the protests in Tibet will spill over into mainland China
Why would that happen? The Chinese don't give two hoots about the Tibetans.
Posted by: kishke at March 17, 2008 02:03 PM
No, I meant protests against the repressive China government, not necessarily related to Tibet.
Posted by: Jake at March 17, 2008 05:38 PM
If you want to confuse and tick off a liberal: mention - en passant - what an excellent job the JFK-DIRECTED CIA OPERATIVES did, extracting the Dalai Lama in the early sixties.
Posted by: Real Name at March 17, 2008 08:36 PM
i dont understand steven spielberg. i mean, kol ha-kavod that he withdrew as artistic advisor after realizing china's relationship with sudan. but what a moron to have accepted the position to begin with, not realizing that the china isn't a bastion of liberalism
Posted by: Lion of Zion at March 17, 2008 11:54 PM
For an accurate depiction of life in Tibet before and during the Chinese takeover, you can read the book "Seven Years in Tibet" or see the 1997 film by the same name.
Posted by: Joel at March 18, 2008 07:01 AM
"It's interesting to compare the attention paid to the Tibetans, a truly oppressed and occupied people with the attention paid to the Palestinians,"
The reason Palestine/Israel receives far more attention than any other conflict in the world is because of where it is (the holy land) and its potential to spill over into a much wider war that could have dire consequences for the whole world. In terms of casualties, Israel Palestine probably does not make it into the list of the worlds top 10 bloodiest conflicts. However as we know, for religious reasons both sides have millions of supporters all over the world that have a vested interest in the outcome of the conflict. This is not the case with Tibet whose supporters seek justice and recognition as opposed to any wider agenda.
The reality is, Tibet is not South Korea or Taiwan, nobody is going to go to war with china over Tibet.
Posted by: Ted at March 18, 2008 10:10 AM
The reason Palestine/Israel receives far more attention ...
That's your interpretation. Mine is that Israel is a stand-in for Jews, and anti-Zionism for anti-Semitism. It's a PC way to be anti-Semitic.
Posted by: kishke at March 18, 2008 10:57 AM
If the Tibetan dissidents really wanted support from Western "progressives," the way to get it would be to:
1)Use violence. Today's "progressives," despite their claimed antiwar beliefs, often have a strange affinity for nihilistic violence.
2)Blame the oppression of the Tibetans on the U.S. A claim that China took over Tibet in order to get resources to feed the consumer economy of greedy Americans should work very nicely.
3)Learn the right language. Your target audience doesn't want to hear about "freedom" or "independence." Find a postmodernist professor or two to tell you the right things to say.
4)Work on coolness. "Progressives" tend to adopt political beliefs based on what will get them status. Hire some Hollywood or music-industry agents to advise you on this.
Posted by: david foster at March 18, 2008 12:48 PM