Reality Check
August 10, 2008 by Fran · 2 Comments
While all the focus on the Olympics emerges in Beijing China, I thought I’d take a glance at current happenings in Tibet.
New report reveals intensified crackdown in Tibet as Olympics opens
International Campaign for Tibet
August 5th, 2008
“Despite its promotion of a ‘peaceful Olympics’, China has intensified its crackdown on Tibet this week following the most significant uprising in nearly 50 years. The wave of mainly peaceful protests against the Chinese government that has swept across Tibet since March 10 is a result of more than half a century of Communist Party misrule, revealing the breakdown of Beijing’s Tibet policy at a time when China seeks to convey an image of pre-Olympics harmony.
In order to hide its repression in Tibet, China has virtually sealed off the entire plateau - despite promising increasing openness in the buildup to the Olympics - and imposed a news blackout. A new report published by the International Campaign for Tibet, ‘Tibet at a Turning Point: the Spring Uprising and China’s New Crackdown’ (http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1344) provides evidence gathered at great risk of:
The ‘disappearance’ and detention of hundreds of Tibetans, including monks, nuns and schoolchildren, who are treated with extreme brutality in custody
Unarmed peaceful protestors who have been shot dead, and names of those who have died following torture in prison or as a result of suicide due to despair over the crackdown or being made to denounce the Dalai Lama
More than 125 protests across the Tibetan plateau - the overwhelming majority non-violent. Tibetans have risked their lives to demonstrate that the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, represents Tibetan interests, and not the Chinese state
Sweeping new measures to purge monasteries of monks and ban worship in the wake of the protests, revealing a systematic new attack on Tibetan Buddhism led by Chinese leader Hu Jintao that is reminiscent of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution
Mary Beth Markey, Vice President for Advocacy for the International Campaign for Tibet, says: “Hu Jintao’s leadership appears to have chosen no other means than force and intimidation to restore control in Tibet, and has imposed a brutal crackdown that owes more to the political extremism and paranoia of the Maoist era than to a 21st century would-be superpower. As a matter of urgency, world leaders attending the Olympics must publicly express concern in Beijing about the crackdown in Tibet and the hardline policies that led to the spring uprising.”
The International Campaign for Tibet is also pressing leaders to seek from Beijing a full accounting of the more than one thousand Tibetans whose status following the spring demonstrations in Tibet is unknown.”
So if things seem strangely calm in China, regarding Tibet, it is oppression & iron fist rule that are making it so.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In other news Prezzzident Bush gave the Chinese a verbal whupping about human rights violations & pollution.
Please? They must have thought they were being Punk’d.
I noticed they gave Bush a crappy seat up in the bleachers, or “nosebleed” section, he does not appear to be in the cushy VIP seating area. Bush was having to use binoculars to see the opening ceremony! Is this the Chinese way of saying “take your opinions & criticism & shove it”?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kudos to the creative concepts of the opening ceremonies….
It was beautiful & dreamlike with cultural ties, and innovative ideas.
I watch the Olympics with the spirit of the international unity at the heart of the gathering.
The idea that China is hosting the Olympics is questionable as the list of negatives is long- human rights, even air quality issues. I am choosing to cut through all the negative elements, and tune in to the original intent.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has died.
August 3, 2008 by Dusty · Leave a Comment
A man that spoke truth to power has left this plane…From the NYT website:
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose stubborn, lonely and combative literary struggles gained the force of prophecy as he revealed the heavy afflictions of Soviet Communism in some of the most powerful works of fiction and history written in the 20th century, died late Sunday in Russia, his son Yermolai said early Monday in Moscow. He said the cause was a heart condition. He was 89.
He outlived by nearly 17 years the state and system he had battled through years of imprisonment, ostracism and exile. (emphasis mine)
His monumental book The Gulag Archipelago, exposed the heinous and horrifying prison system to which millions of Russians were sent to and ultimately died within their walls. Rest in peace sweet man.
Sphere: Related Content
