Chinese forces killed two more Tibetans in eastern Tibet. A nun named Sonam Yungzom is reported to have been shot while shouting slogans in Kardze town on August 10th. One source says she yelled out: “There are no human rights in China, there is brutal oppression in Tibet, still the Olympics go on in China.” She was hit by 5 to 6 bullets and then her body was thrown in a vehicle and taken away. An unidentified man is reported to have been shot and killed a few days earlier in the same town after he brought a photo of the Dalai Lama and protested.
We can’t get confirmation of these events because people in Kardze are terrified to speak by phone or to talk to strangers. Chinese police lay traps, posing as undercover journalists and asking people how they feel about human rights and then making arrests if a Tibetan dares to answer honestly. Reports indicate there are up to 10,000 troops deployed in the area and no media is allowed. So what do we do?
Hearing these stories I have to fight feelings of helplessness, and sometimes even despair. But last night I had some serious help in this battle. When I saw this beautiful light banner unfurled in Beijing and heard how the authorities got so frustrated because they couldn’t stop it from glowing, I felt truth triumph over oppression and lies. For just a moment there was justice in that part of the world; for all Tibetans and for Sonam Yungzom, there was justice. May she, and the unidentified man, find a speedy rebirth.
Dear Readers :
First of all I want to thank to Lhadon, her tirellesslly work for her nation. I read your blog almost every another hour which really encourage and insire me but same time sadness and emotions come to my feeling. Because I lost my brothers and sisters. I feel extremelly bad for Chinese killing their brothers and sisters.
This message is to China.(Hu) I highlly appreciate your power. basically it took all this years to become China today, so many people sacreficed and lost their lives. From now on we humanbeings understand each other and make everyone’s life peacefull and stable. we are so much better than animals, we are two footed beings. we have special sense and we have use it in special way.
Lobsang.
Tibet.
The brave tribes always lose. There is but one China.
I want to apologize for abandoning the blog for a while. I was in school and studied the Bible, among several other books. Let’s just say that the Bible is one great piece of literature, but it is really a history book of the Jews, spanning from ancient times to today.
That aside, I want to say that Lhadon, protests are not useless. I don’t know who these people are that are saying this but protests during the torch-rally, and now in Beijing are completely relevant and sensible. And the launch of SFT TV is a great idea. What a great central node to disperse ideas to Tibetans everywhere. Diasporic Tibetans cannot do anything about situations in Tibet, and what I mean by that is that accusations made by people who say that we don’t know anything about that is happening in Tibet is not important. I hope people see that diasporic Tibetans are fighting for their right to their own country. The issue is quite simple, and whether we know about conditions in Tibet or not is beside the point. Just because we are Tibetans, we have the right to do what we want concerning Tibet, and no one has the right of accusing us for doing that. We can be critical of Tibet; we can hate Tibet; we can love Tibet; and we can fight for Tibet. Being Tibetans, we are free to do what we want regarding Tibet.
Since I don’t consider myself American although I have a passport, my views may not be the most patriotic towards America. I hope that people can see the world today in the context of the past. China today is not the most evil country that ever existed it the world. And Tibetans are not subjected to conditions that detainees at Guantanamo face. It bears repeating once more that Tibetans have the right to their own country, and that is the bottom line for all the things that SFT is doing, and what all these different Tibetans are doing. There is no need to drag the history books about anymore, because I am convinced (so are everyone else) that Tibet deserves to be an independent country, because it was an independent nation before, despite the fact that China claims otherwise. And the real enemy is the CCP, and not the Chinese. The Chinese are caught-up in the Olympic moment, and any critique of China is viewed by them as a critique of the Chinese civilization, and the 1.3 billion Chinese people.
I hope that you are all able to see that the spectacle of the Olympics, and of the modern China came as a shock to Americans. Americans are so convinced of their superiority among all the nations and peoples in the world that they never bothered to look at China closely. Americans really think that China is one giant sweatshop churning-out cheap goods for American consumption. And all of a sudden the spectacle of modern China was like opening the floodgates, and the effect was one that of disbelief for Americans, and of the sudden notion that American superiority is under attack was palpable. Right now, with the American economy is in a great mess, Americans are learning to think of the world in a new way, and that is obvious from what you see in television interviews of people in the know, and way they are acting in the media. American companies are being gobbled-up by foreign nations, and sovereign wealth-funds (rich oil-rich Arab nations). And companies are collapsing such as Bear Sterns, and others need the care of the federal government. And worst of all, the housing crisis is not yet over. And who is responsible for all this mess?
This could have easily happened anywhere in the world, but it really came down to greed and ignorance. Greed on the part of home-investors (people who invested in multiple homes to make a quick profit), and ignorance of these same people who thought that real estate values were going to keep on climbing. But this is America today, and Americans don’t like what America has become. Someone on TV said that America has become from a nation that manufactures and exports into a nation that consumes and import. In other words, there is a trade deficit, and I think it is like a Billion dollars a day or something. So the times right now are super-interesting, and we have to wait and see what will happen to America, China, and the rest of the World. What we need to know is that America is pissed at the way things are going, and it will try to change things drastically and dramatically. The coming years will be spectacular to watch.
Tenzin, as an American I agree with lots of your views about America, but I think it’s a mistake to think that China has significantly advanced as a modern nation. Sure that’s the image they want to show the world, but the reality is much different. China is not one giant sweatshop, but it IS a huge empire of impoverished towns and countryside, encompassing around a billion people, churning out labor, food, metal, coal, and so on for the sake of supporting a handful of “modern” cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
When I visited Tibet last summer, I spent a small amount of time in China too, and the poverty and communist backwardness really struck me. For a quick example of the latter: at one hotel I stayed at in Chengdu, after registering at one desk in the lobby, I was sent across the lobby to another desk to have a second worker watch me sign a piece of paper. Just watch. They didn’t even take it but instead directed me to take it to another worker on the floor my room would be on. This person then opened the door to my room for me, but did not give me a key; instead I would have to ask to have the door opened for me each time I went in and out. Each floor had such a person (supposedly) working, and surely enough, they were never around to be found when I needed to get in. This ridiculous level of inefficiency and inconvenience is not the sign of a modern country.
Overall, my impression of China was that, aside from the major cities they like to showcase, it’s much more poor and destitute than Tibet. To me this seems a major source of Chinese misunderstanding of Tibetans’ grievances. Being a culture that’s obsessed with money and material wealth, Chinese look at how much “better off” many Tibetans are than extremely-rural Chinese, in a purely economic sense, and totally fail to grasp the concept that, regardless of economic status, nobody wants to be subjugated to another people.
In some cases the view that Tibetans are better off economically is a fallacy based on the government money poured into Tibet, which of course mostly goes back into the hands of Chinese companies. But in many cases, it’s the result either of the hard work of Tibetans, both inside and outside Tibet, the empower themselves in the face of colonization and marginalization, or of “natural resouces” like yartsa and pimo, off of which Tibetans fortunate enough to live in the right areas can make more money than my American salary.
When I hear people say Tibetans need to wait for China to open up and democratize, and that then they will have the freedoms they desire, it makes me really angry. The truth of the matter is that China was and is an extremely backwards country with all sorts of corruption and administrative problems, which lead to periods of massive poverty and famine. Tibet was doing quite well overall prior to the occupation, and could be doing quite well today if not for the Chinese. China’s backwardsness is China’s problem to deal with; no one has the right to say that Tibetans must suffer through China’s “growing pains” until China works out its own problems. And honestly, I think having to face up to the fact that they lost their empire and their control over Tibet because of their own greed, backwardness, and corruption would be a great wake-up call to China and would lead to the sorts of reforms that would really help the people of China.
Someone who’s guilty of horrible crimes does not become a good person by hiding those crimes forever and maintaining one’s position in society. One must first stop committing the crime, admit to the crime, accept the consequences, and then finally have a chance at being accepted again. And likewise with nations.
Thank you Rich for that comment. The fate of Tibet is linked to the fates of China, America, and other developed economies such as Europe. By the way, I don’t profess to be any special knowledge of things; these are just opinions of someone who watches the evening news and reads the paper from time to time. But that is not to say that I am not capable to see how things are shaping up for Tibet. For example, I can tell you that not many significant changes are going to come to Tibet, and I say that because China is going to be on the path of modernizing itself and developing its economy just like it has been it has been doing for the last few decades. The Chinese people are well aware of the status of China, that is, being a major competitor to America and its status as the world leader in all spheres of things. With that awareness among the Chinese that China has to compete in the world, and that it needs the support of its people, I don’t think the Chinese people are going to question the status of the CCP.
By the way, China is not a backward country as you like to picture it. You cannot compare a country that has 1.3 Billion people to a country that has 300 Million. It is just a surprising feat that China is able to carry on day to day given the number of people there are there in China. China is making a lot of improvements in its health care, and the environment, etc. It will not be able to make these changes in a day, but it will take many many more decades to bring about the changes that it wants for its people. What is most impressive of all is that the Chinese are one capable people. I was surprised at the way they were able to perform during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. The way all those thousands of performers were able to synchronize their performance and create a spectacle that was breathtaking was an example of the capability of the Chinese people. The way millions of ordinary Chinese are capable of producing all those goods for the West and the whole world is a feat in itself, I think. India has over a billion people, but it is not India but China that is making news.
The examples that you gave about your stay in Chengdu are, I am sure, common ones that Westerners experience. You really cannot compare America to China, not at least right now. If you take a look 30 or 40 or more years from now, things might change. The same can be said of America 100 or more years ago. American lifestyle and living standards are probably the highest in the world, but that is not to say that America has been like this forever. America too went through it growing-pains in the past, just like China is going through right now. But the fact that China is not as good as America right now is not important. There is no doubt that China is a threat of American supremacy in the future, and that knowledge in openly acknowledged by politicians and scholars in America. During the Democratic Party and Republican Party Conventions, both parties acknowledged the threat of China and other countries like India, Brazil, etc. But I am more interested in what all this means to the fate of Tibet than how things are going to turn out for America or China. There is a reason that many news anchors on TV and radio say that this presidential election is a turning point in the history of America. The new American President will have to face not just the bungled Iraq War but a whole set of problems from the economy that is in the dumps, to Global Warming, and threats to the national security of America that comes from the rise of China, India, Brazil, and now a problematic Russia. Also, the anti-American sentiment in Europe and around the world will have to be dealt with.
I think that the Tibet problem is going to stay for sometime, and it will not be over in most of our lifetimes. If situations change within Tibet then it could be a different matter but trying to bring about change in Tibet from the outside is quite something different, if not unheard of. I really don’t know what are the sentiments of Tibetans inside Tibet but if they don’t care then we don’t have a revolution.
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