Less selfish issues

FREE TIBET

I've been following the story about the Olympic torch, and the massive protests that have met its global progress. I'm waiting to see what happens in California today.

I read the history of the country and was horrified to read of the brutal invasion by the Chinese in 1950-51. At that point they forced Tibet to sign the "17 point agreement", violating their prior treaty of the Simla Convention of 1914, and reducing Tibet to the status of a Chinese province. In the process, they killed about 400,000 people. In 1953, the Chinese census reported 2.8 million poeple. By 1964, the popluation was only 2.5 million. There had been so many deaths, the government was forced to acknowledge 300,000 people as "missing". 10% are presumed to have fled. The rest are presumed to have been interned. Few survive being interned. China stripped the native monasteries and "aristocrats" of the land they owned, and "re-distributed" the land. Anyone else hear the similarities to Apartheid here?

For China to fault the Tibetan system as being draconian and unfair is ironic to say the least. They defend their actions as trying to "modernize" Tibet. The bottom line for me is this: for any government to treat citizens in it's charge with the brutality the Chinese government has treated Tibetans removes any fealty those citizens may have ever owed that governmnent.

The suppression of free speech becomes harder in our modern world. Media is too pervasive. There are too many Tibetan ex-patriots who may speak freely about the conditions their countrymen are forced to endure.

It makes me FIERCELY proud to live in a country where people continue to care about the plight of the downtrodden - even in the midst of an unpopular war to which so many have given their lives. It makes me just as proud to see people take to the streets and be able to express that care, that opinion, that knowledge freely and openly. This is what democracy is supposed to be all about. God bless everyone on the streets of San Francisco today. May your cries for justice be heard by the world. God bless the Tibetans. May He bring you relief and an end to your suffering, and consolation for the loved ones you have lost. And, as hackenyed as it sounds, and as much as I hate the way jingoistic bigots have conscripted this phrase: God Bless the United States of America.