Both Tibet and the Dalai Lama have established some sort of image of peace in the West. Through their suppression by the Chinese years ago and the movie "Seven Years in Tibet", the Western world has created a fixed image of both the region and its spiritual leader. The truth is though, that this image is both flawed and outdated. But it is hard to eradicate, as it is more widespread than real knowledge about the area. One can compare it to the fact that most Westerners think that sushi is raw fish. Sushi is actually the rice with vinegar. It would be like people thinking that pasta is the sauce of spaghetti. But the image persists.

I do not say that in the past there were no times where China made mistakes and Tibet was treated wrong. But this conflict can now only be solved through political dialogue. It is way past the time where there is one party that is in total right and multiple things have happened. You can't pick a side unbiased and the tangled situation should be dissected, rather than tumbled over to one side.

The Tibetan "Freedom" movement gets supported, but is that really what this movement is all about? I'll tell you why I sincerely doubt that giving them what they want, will solve problems rather than create them.

Firstly; they used violence to attack the Olympic games. The Olympic games are a series of peaceful events, who have absolutely nothing to do with the question. On the contrary, the spirit of the Olympic games is to put aside your differences and compete in sports even though you may be at war politically. This means that these Tibetans harm innocents just for their cause. I frown upon this, as I don't trust people to establish a free environment, when they will harm people's freedom just to grasp power. Secondly; the riots had no clear cause. This means that only the liberation of Kosovo and the leap for independence by Taiwan (which failed of course) incited a feeling that now was the right time to grab power. After all we are talking about a highly hierarchic society. The Chinese will also never fall for the Dalai Lama's cry for independence, because the Buddhists are spread all the way to inner Mongolia. Giving the Tibetan Buddhists freedom would mean that the others deserve it too and China would lose a third of its territory. The last point I will make is the strongest. China is a non-religious state. I mean that there is no state religion and every Foreign influence by a religious leader or influence from a worldly leader in Chinese religion is considered illegal. It is either the first or second paragraph of the Chinese constitution. This is a good thing. But instead the West will "free" Tibet and place it under the rule of fundamentalist Buddhists who will make Buddhism the state religion. What will happen to the non-Buddhist Han Chinese and the Muslims in that part of the country? They will be suppressed both politically and religiously. It's like China has a hammer and hits Tibet. Then it is quiet for a while then Tibet starts to whine. Then the West would come and give the hammer to Tibet so they can hit China. How stupid is that. The right way to handle is to try to take the hammer away from China and let them apologize and shake hands.

I rest my case, do as you like, but if you don't want a war between fundamentalist Muslims and a fundamentalist Buddhist state, you should think twice before you shout "Free Tibet".

1. Tibet has been part of China's territory since the 1200's A.D. (Yuan Dynasty)

   Many people believe that China stole Tibet's independence 50 years ago; however, the truth is, since the 13th century, Tibet has mostly been a protectorate of the Chinese Empire; only during the turmoil at the end of the Qing Dynasty (around 1900) did the Tibetans gain a brief independence. (NPR.org).
   
   
   

2. Tibet cannot possibly prosper as an independent nation.

   Tibet is a landlocked mountainous nation that lacks natural resources. Most of the resources used there are brought over from eastern China.



3. Contrary to beliefs, the Dalai Lama wants only a greater degree of autonomy for Tibet, not independence.

   Please refer to the website of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet.
   

4. Contrary to beliefs, Tibetans do have the freedom to worship their religion.

5. Contrary to beliefs, the Chinese government is actually trying to preserve Tibetan culture and landmarks because they attract tourism.
   
   

6. Tibetan wages are the 2nd highest of all provinces in China.

   Please refer to the website of the BBC.
   

7. Tibetans do not have to obey the 1-child policy.

8. Tibetans have gained much higher living standards.

   After China regained Tibet in the 1950s, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure were built. Life expectancy for Tibetans has increased from 35.5 in 1950 to 67 in 2000. (BBC News).
   

9. Old Tibet's Feudal Theocracy

   Before the 1950s, Tibet was a theocratic despotism ruled by aristocratic monks who lived like kings. Not only did the peasants (the majority of the population) of Tibet not have any rights, they were extorted by the monks as serfs and forced to pay extremely high taxes. Since most of them could not pay off their taxes in their lifetime, the taxes passed down to their children and entire generations had to work as slaves. (Parenti, Michael. Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth).
   

10. Old Tibet's Evil Society

    The religious teachings of old Tibet emphasized that the poor and suffering are that way because of their wicked ways of previous lives. This is why the Tibetan serfs never revolted against society. In feudal Tibet, because it was against Buddhist teachings to take someone's life, torture and mutilation - including eye gouging, the pulling out of tongues, hamstringing, and amputation - were favored punishments inflicted upon thieves, and runaway or resistant serfs. In 1951, China came in and immediately put an end to these practices; the Tibetan people at that time actually welcomed the Chinese soldiers as liberators. (Parenti, Michael. Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth).

On March 14, 2008, Tibetans started a large scale riot in Lhasa, attacking and murdering people of Chinese ethnicity on the streets, and burning and looting shops and buildings belonging to people of Chinese ethnicity. In light of these actions, two rhetorical questions present themselves: What difference is there between the actions of these people and that of terrorists? And, how is a group of terrorists worthy of such pity from the international community?

Please do not blindly advocate an idea or movement just because so many other people are doing it. One should always take the time to first research both sides of the idea or movement and decide for oneself which side is more logical.

Implications/Analysis

Tibetan monks running rampant can't be condoned, but China's excessive use of force in cracking down on dissenters has made matters far worse. It's like pouring oil onto hot kerosene.

According to a statement released by the state-run Xinhua news agency, the Dalai Lama must stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting & inciting violence and stop disrupting & sabotaging the Beijing Olympics in order to “create conditions for the next round of contact and consultations”.

Implications/Analysis

It seems like China is calling all the shots here.

The Xinhua statement repeatedly blamed the Dalai “side” for causing the Tibetan crisis in March and “causing great public indignation and strong condemnation by people from various walks of life”.

Implications/Analysis

In this statement, Xinhua has obviously ignored (or chosen to ignore) the fact that many people sympathize with Tibet as well, the most notable of whom was Christine Chan, a philosophy student from the University of Hong Kong.

Dalai spokesman Tenzin Takhla would only reveal that talks between Beijing & the Dalai Lama were going on without giving any details.

Implications/Analysis

Whether talks between China & the Dalai Lama's support group do anything to resolve this crisis remains to be seen, but so far, it looks like all talk and no actions from both sides

World

According to Warren Buffet, the world's richest man, the pain on Wall Street appears to be over, but problems will continue for ordinary people: “The crisis on Wall Street is over. In terms of people with individual mortgages, there's a lot of pain left to come”.

Implications/Analysis

The crisis may be coming to an end for rich Wall Street bankers, but the problem is that most people live on main street and for people with adjustable rate mortgages, combined with skyrocketing inflation and high food prices, the situation will get worse before improving.

Indeed, when the Olympics started in Ancient Greece, athletes - all young men - usually competed in the nude. After all, the festival was all about celebrating human achievement. Winners were presented with a crown of olive leaves, which represented hope and peace. Never mind the anatomical distractions, I guess.

Hmm, just imagine how stratospheric TV ratings would go if athletes at the Beijing games turned the sportsfest into a skinfest as well. Not to mention the mob trying to get into the stadium to see the - what else? - spectacle. Even the FHM, Maxim, Penthouse, Playboy and Playgirl photographers would be there.

So, if the Olympics is all about who's the fastest and the strongest, then why all the uproar over China's stranglehold on Tibet? You'd think that the security blanket thrown around the Olympic torch parade by governments from Paris to Seoul were guarding visiting heads of state from possible terrorist attacks.

For one, historically, Olympic games held in repressive regimes often got the cold shoulder from the international community.

In 1980, the United States led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics in protest of the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Never mind the Soviet troop atrocities on Afghan villagers. Thanks to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, we are now reeling from the shockwaves of that war.

Then there's the 1936 games in Berlin. France and Britain - both of which had fresh memories of World War I - were getting nervous of Hitler's goose-stepping troops and were seething over the Nazis' treatment of Jews. A possibility of a boycott loomed.

Hitler allowed token Jews to compete for Germany to defuse the situation - and the games went on. Never mind its anti-Jewish policies. Never mind Germany's growing military might.

Finally, the charade ended on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and began the nightmare of World War II. So much for the Olympic spirit.

There was already concern among human rights activists that Beijing might win the bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics mainly because of China's poor human rights record and, of course, its occupation of Tibet.

Apparently, what governments do to their own people or to others isn't part of the International Olympic Committee criteria of selecting Olympic host cities. So what if the Chinese are shipping AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades and mortars to Darfur, right?

In fairness, the International Olympic Committee is a sports governing body, not a political institution. Of importance to them are the following: the size of your stadiums, the efficiency of your transportation system, the reliability of your security forces, the sufficiency of your hotels, et cetera. They don't ask how many tanks you have, how many political detainees are locked up, how many police officers are listening in on your conversation.

While the Olympics may be about international community camaraderie, however, the very idea behind the sports extravaganza may explain why pro-Tibet protesters want to play firefighter and throw water on the Olympic torch.

Take the 1936 Berlin Olympics for example. The hosting of games was awarded to Germany in 1931, two years before Hitler took over the reigns of power. For the Nazis, the Olympics was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate their ideology of Aryan racial supremacy and for the Third Reich to show its best face to the world. In other words, to project an image of respectability.

Anti-Semitic posters that were plastered all over Germany disappeared and “Jews not welcome here” signs at businesses were out of sight during the games to ensure that the games went smoothly and nothing upset foreign visitors.

Obviously, international community spirit and “love thy neighbor” don't mean sending tanks across the border.

What if history had been different? What if the hosting of the 1936 games had gone to Tokyo instead? What would the international community have said? Never mind the Japanese invasion of Manchuria?

Our basic human nature is perhaps the best explanation for the indignation against the Beijing Olympics. It tells us to rush in to the aid of others when needed. It's just the right thing to do.

That's why people just jump in to rescue drowning swimmers. That's why we call the police when we discover over possessive fathers next door locking up their children in cellars. That's why we send emergency rescuers when disasters befall peoples half-way around the world. That's why the despair in Darfur matters to us.

If we should be kind to animals, shouldn't we care more about people?

While I'd like to buy Beijing's assertion that Tibet historically belongs to China, I can't forget the time when a group of Chinese journalists dropped by our Manila newspaper office one morning for a look-see. Of course, our most lovable Chinese-Filipino Sunday magazine editor played goodwill ambassador.

“They kept asking, does the president of the company review the news stories? Does the government review them?” our exasperated goodwill ambassador later related to me. “I explained and explained but they just couldn't grasp the concept of editorial independence.”

Never mind the absence of freedom of choice, right? Just enjoy the games.

Implications/Analysis:

These people are all pro-Beijing people. No democrats were considered

Four more pro-Tibet activists, Zhang Yu, general secretary of the writers' group Independent Chinese Pen Centre, Students for Free Tibet activists Tsering Lama & Kate Woznow and Free Tibet Campaign's Matt Whitticase were detained and questioned after arriving from Sweden at 1600, questioned upon arrival and put on return flights to Sweden as well as flights to the US and Britain, according to Hong Kong Journalists' Association official Mak Yin-ting.

According to Woznow, immigration officials gave no reason as to why they were being turned away adding that “The Hong Kong government is being pressured by the Chinese government”.

According to Whitticase, denying them entry into Hong Kong was “a slap in the face for “one country, two systems”.

According to Mak, Zhang was allowed into Hong Kong in February, 2007 when he arrived from Beijing, but was barred from entering mainland China for “violating national security”. Zhang visited Hong Kong earlier this year.

Implications/Analysis:

 The Hong Kong government has always been controlled by the Chinese government and Hong Kong is really just like China except for the fact that here in Hong Kong, people sit on the right side of the vehicle and drive on the left side of the road while it's the other way round in China. The only similarity between China and the US is that both countries drive on the right side of the road. Politically, the two countries could not be more different

Mainland Train Crash

According to Geng Zhixiu, deputy engineer-in-chief of the Ministry of Railways, at 402, the Bureau dispatcher issued an order to limit the speed of the train to 80 kilometers/hour on the Wangtun section of the line in Zibo. Somehow, that order wasn't issued to train TI95 en route from Beijing to Qingdao. According to Geng, “The Jinan Bureau's management of documents and orders was a mess. In this lay the seeds for the accident”.

Conclusion: Human error was the cause of the mainland's worst rail disaster since 1997

This is the precise reason why New Delhi has given asylum to Dalai Lama and allowed him to carry on his administrative and governing works from Dharamshala.But it has also been seen that in these years of long history India has particularly avoided in going in to a direct confrontation with China and has always tiptoed its line on the issue of Tibet.

However, as is evident, India has historically ensured that it avoids really irking the Chinese on the issue of Tibet.

Moreover, with the changing times, there has also been a change in the tough stance of Dalai Lama. For example, the spiritual leader has reframed his position on Tibet - from claims for independence to concerns about economic welfare.

Hence, it makes little strategic sense for the Indian government to take such a drastic step of censuring him.

Many have attributed this step as a "grand bargain' to win China's support for the nuclear deal and underlined New Delhi's desire not to risk its growing ties with Beijing.

But India has to be concerned over the economic and political stability of her northern Himalayan border region, where China's track record has been far from clean.

India must reinforce her inner buffers like Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim to check any unfavorable step from China.

Deng Xiaoping had said: "If China and India are developed, we can say that we have made our contributions to mankind."

And perhaps Manmohan Singh has taken Xiaoping too seriously; it seems that he has ventured out to serve mankind even though it is at the cost of the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet.

According to the Dalai Lama's spokesman, Tenzin Takhla: “Only face-to-face meetings can lead to a resolution of the Tibetan issue. His holiness, since March 10, when the (pro-Tibet) protests had been making all efforts to China and the Chinese government and he hopes that the Tibetan issue can be resolved only through dialogue”.

Xinhua's quote of an anonymous government official: “The central government's towards the Dalai (Lama) has always been consistent and the door of dialogue has always remained open. It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks”.

According to Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama's representative, “We have been told verbally, through private channels, that a meeting has been proposed. We know neither the date, the location, nor the topics that must be addressed at the meeting.

EU Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso: “I'm extremely happy that this decision was taken during this visit to Beijing. I believe that this also can create a better understanding between China and Europe”.

According to Beijing, about 20 people have died in the riots while Tibet says that the toll is higher.

Implications:

Talks have been proposed, but whether China will act on the promises made at these talks, whether China & Europe will become closer and whether these talks will happen at all still remains to be seen.

The European Chamber of Commerce has complained about visa complications, including the suspension of express visa services and the refusal of multiple-entry visas.

According to EU Chamber of Commerce Joerg Wuttke: “These new practices make the possibility of traveling to China for business uncertain and increase travel costs”.

An article about the legal basis of Tibetan self-determination has been refused publication.

Implications:

China's media is still heavily censored.

I have never seen so much emphasis revolving on a flame, this year it appears that the country about to host the games cannot reverse the resentment growing over the lack of its support for human rights. I hate to mention the country's politicians do not even make any public statement regarding the discontent of minorities in western provinces that would like to see more freedom of expression. And this is where the country is going to be doomed to failure because the age-old method of using physical force to maintain an apparent decorum among the entire population, only gives minority populations reason to pursue their road to spiritual autonomy for example. Spirituality is a big deal among the local people who do not wear government uniforms or ride jeeps in fatigues. I am referring to thousands of Tibetan temples that have been destroyed in recent years and the periodic slamming down on dissent among Tibetans voicing their differences in and outside the once independent region. Tibet was run over by the Chinese expanding westward almost 60 years ago. The country's people have since then been displaced to other Chinese provinces in an effort to wipe out any resurgence of a national identity. Other ethnic groups have been allowed to settle in the region known as the "rooftop of the world".

The country decided to portray a disabled Chinese woman as a heroine for protecting the torch on her own but I think that this is a poor substitute for years of forceful central control over the outlying region in question where restraint should be applied. Instead the government tries to excuse itself with half cooked reasons that recent deaths of dissenters were caused out of self-defense.

An anonymously quoted official said yesterday “While we have our reservations about China's recent human rights record, five hundred pandas in shopping carts is too much to resist. The beating and killing of rioters is one thing, but the cuteness factor here just totally overrules that.” Experts have agreed saying, “History has shown us that Americans favor animal cuteness above all other concerns.”

They cite the recent viral video of a puppy being thrown off a cliff by an American soldier. “While this is obviously an atrocious act, if it is indeed a real video, the numerous accidental deaths of Iraqi children and civilians can never hope to gain this kind of public attention.” Harvard sociologist Mark Buchard had the final word: “A nameless Tibetan is one thing, a panda in a shopping cart is quite another.” It looks like China has decisively insured that the 2008 Olympics will be a resounding international success.

It's been said that Tibetans used violence against Chinese government. I don't know how much truth is their. But, one thing is sure that China is a heartless country as their response to the Tibetans outrage is very bad. They have shown that they only believe in torturing people.

In this respect I would like to suggest Tibetans that violence will never help them to win over them. Since, violence is the sign of cowardice and a coward can never win. A coward might win for short period of time but not lifelong.

There are several examples in history which has shown that non-violence can win any fight. But, then non-violence will be of help only if your fight is just. Now, if the fight if Tibetans is just then they will win in the end no matter what ever hurdle come in their path. But, there is a saying:

No Pains, No Gains

So, Tibetans have to face a lot of challenges. Their path would be full of thorns and not roses.

For example:

It took Mahatma Gandhi 42 years to free India. Then, also it was possible because he kept his nerves cool for all these years. If he had lost his nerves then he would have never been successful. Even, if he had been successful, success won't have lasted long.

So, Tibetans must understand that if they want to have freedom then they would have fight for freedom for the minimum of 50-60 years through non-violence. The independence obtained would be life long and not ephemeral.

The time for struggle I have kept very large because bad people are becoming more tolerant to such tactics. But, such people will never become 100% tolerant to such tactics. So, this tactic will always work.