Friday, March 21, 2008

Tibet and the Olympics

As we all know the Olympics are being staged in Beijing China in this four year cycle.
And of course along with the Olympics we have political discourse to go along with it. If you are not sure what I am speaking of just turn to the front page of any major newspaper or online news source of your choosing and look for or search for the Dalai Lama or Tibet and I know you will find articles on what has been happening there. It seems that Tibet for some strange reason feels that they should have independence from China.
What started this whole thing was a headline I saw where China accuses the Dalai
Lama of stirring up unrest prior to the Olympics being staged there this summer. Well let me see here, you have a foreign power that is controlling a country not their own, a spiritual leader who preaches peace and a military that is shooting, beating and generally doing what they want to peaceful protesters. They (China) has tried everything in their power to not let that information out to the rest of the world i.e. shutting down You Tube and banning any news coverage of the events that would not look favorably upon the Chinese government. I follow the world news at large and seeing this is one of the greatest abuses I have seen from China since the Tiennamen Square massacre. China feels it can get away with these types of abuses because it is calling on the world at large to ignore what is happening there and not to make the Olympics a “political pulpit”. This has happened before as we all know with the United States and the U.S.S.R. Both boycotting Olympic games held in each others countries in the eighties. Those boycotts didn't accomplish anything. But with these Olympics boycotting would be the perfect way for the world to show their displeasure.
I am not sure if most people understand the orient and honor. China feels it is a great honor to host these games. If the world were to boycott the games the Chinese government would lose great face (honor) in the eyes of the rest of the world and that would be a great dishonor. Yes I feel the whole world should boycott these games to show the Chinese government that it is time to forgo the dictatorial type of government they have and to honor a countries sovereignty and allow either greater autonomy or free rule, as they are supposed to do to another area of China, Hong Kong.
The Chinese government places no value on human life and their human rights records show this. But this is the perfect time to show that they are willing to move forward and change.
As one of the world largest countries and economies they should be taking the lead in human rights and issues like that, but they still rule their country with an iron fist and attempt to control everything the people of their country reads, watches on T.V., and listens to on the radio . That is not freedom, that is being afraid of what your countrymen will see outside of their own country and want to know why they can't have the same freedoms as the rest of the world.
These are old men trying desperately trying to keep this huge country under their thumb and keep their people ignorant of what could be without their dictatorial rule.
They are so afraid of their own people they won't have democratic elections and let the people decide for themselves because they know they will lose their power over the largest population in the world.
China, it is time to move into the 21st century and allow you people to think and make decisions for themselves, not have the government do it for them. They do have minds of their own.

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