I’ll have a much more in-depth post about the teaching session with the Dalai Lama later, but here’s a quick observation based on the protestors outside the venue as we were leaving. The vast majority of them were Han Chinese, carrying/waving PRC flags and a variety of signs calling the Dalai Lama a liar, that “CNN must apologize”, that media needs to be unbiased, that the Dalai Lama didn’t free Tibetan slaves (that one got a “huh?” out of me), that Tibet was always and always will be part of China, etc. etc. etc., as well as several pro-Beijing Olympics signs.
Now, I don’t know about you, but when I see video of the Dalai Lama decrying violence — that non-violent protest is fine, but should not be violent — that he welcomes dissenting opinions, that he would love to talk with the Chinese government again but his invitations have been rebuffed, that he is very much in favor of the Olympics, well, I don’t really see where most of the protestors’ reasoning is coming from except from Beijing’s Ministry of DoubleSpeak.
And I have to wonder, how many of these Chinese citizens here in the US, primarily on student visas as they attend US universities and graduate schools, are True Believers in the Communist Party line, and how many were there because they were told they’d better get out there and demonstrate against this Enemy Of The People’s Republic of China, or something very bad and very permanent might just happen to their families back home in the PRC?
“Here, hold this sign and yell slogans at the Buddhists, or we’ll shoot your lovely, kind old grandma in the back of the head and blame it on Tibetan separatists.”
For as much as I disagree with CNN’s editorial slant on occasion, I’ll take their reporting over the state-controlled media outlet of *any* nation-state, at least as far as accuracy is concerned.
Let’s see… a guy who has been the veritable poster boy for non-violence for 60-odd years is now suddenly reversing course and calling for murderous riots and violent disruption of the Olympics?
Okay, Mr. Mouthpiece-for-a-government-with-a-great-and-verifiable-record-of-offing-its-own-people, I’ll believe you…
Right after monkeys fly out of my ass.
The guy just wants his people to be able to live their own lives the way they had for centuries before the ChiComs decided they needed to exorcise yet another something different from their corner of the world. And *he’s* the monster?
I think not.
I’ll put the ChiComs right up there with the Taliban and the rest of the Islamic extremists on the spectrum of people who will force the world to fit their narrow vision rather than open their eyes wider to embrace the marvelous differences that exist.
It’s the differences that give us opportunities to learn and grow. Forcing sameness induces stagnation, and creativity withers and dies. In the case of the ChiComs and the Taliban in particular, they’ve taken the “stifle creativity” idea to heart, actively eradicating it whenever and wherever possible.
Sigh. One lone voice, crying in the wilderness. Maybe we can get a chorus going.
AutoJim's Brain Dump Zone V2 
(humming the same tune)
But the US and Europe are kissing the collective ass of China because … they are a potential market for sales of numerous things. Sarkosy is in a particularly awkward position following the anti-China/pro-Tibetan protests in Paris during the passage of the Olympic flame. He wants to protect France’s economic opportunities, but he has stated conditions for attending the Opening Ceremony of the Games. He is giving a whole new meaning to “kow-tow”.
please replace “they” with “it” in the first sentence.
Well, yes, the Chinese market has huge potential, but there’s a price to be paid, namely you can pretty much kiss any intellectual property (IP) rights goodbye on anything you send over there for production. There have been numerous factories paid for by Western businesses where they work one or two shifts a day “officially”, and after all the regulars go home, an underground 3rd shift comes in and produces product *on the original tooling and fixtures* that will be sold as counterfeit goods, where the IP-rights-holder (the Western company who paid for the factory and the tooling) sees not dime one of the proceeds. I am in the position of working in an industry that is simultaneously a) looking to open the Chinese market to sales of our products, b) looking for low-cost production capacity because our customers *here* are demanding lower prices, c) trying to protect our IP, d) trying to maintain profitability and “American-ness” with a large union workforce that is, quite frankly, a major stumbling block to being able to produce profitably in the US. Throw in a dollar that’s in bad shape relative to other currencies and a severely damaged international reputation thanks to some “cowboy diplomacy” that would have real cowboys looking for some rope, and, well, good thing we’re now an attractive tourist destination for international travellers. Compound this with unilaterally unbalanced trade practices by many of our international trading partners (we are relatively open to their goods, they have onerous “local content” requirements or amusingly Byzantine product-acceptance-regulations that are effectively impossible to meet without local production by local ownership) and is it any wonder the US is now in a trade deficit with, oh, just about the entire industrialized world except for maybe the UK and Australia?