When I was a kid in India, one of the fondest memories I have is of a family vacation in the foothills of the Himalayas – eating at a tiny Tibetan roadside dhaba, being fed tons of cho-cho-momo and heaping piles of noodles. The food was great, but what struck me was the poor Indian peasant family sitting across from me eating their fill as well. Why? because the food was so cheap and so good that everyone could afford to eat well. I’ve never forgotten that day.
The family that ran the dhaba were refugees from Tibet, and I was fascinated by the store, the food, and the way they used an abacus to add up the transactions as they happened. That day I became a believer in a free Tibet.
I wrote earlier about China’s country branding issues and the upcoming Olympics.
I’ve also written about how to measure democracy with the “Journalists-in-Jail Index.”
And now we have pictures of the Chinese government beating up on Tibetans splashed across the pages of every major newspaper and magazine.
And don’t forget YouTube:
Here we go again.
This time Chinese officials are blaming the Dalai Lama for the violence. Give me a break. They’ve even got an army of bloggers and hackers working the media sites posting “pro-chinese” accounts all over the place.
Bush, of course, is silent. He knows that China’s in Tibet for the uranium.
I get a feeling the sponsors of the Olympics are in for a rough ride. Here are the brands which stand to get a black eye:
Coca-Cola
McDonalds
General Electric
Visa
Johnson and Johnson
Kodak
Samsung
Panasonic
Atos Origin
Lenovo
ManuLife
Omega
And let’s not forget the Olympic brand itself. This could do it in completely!
Stay tuned and sign a petition>>
UPDATE: More video >>
Wow. Didn’t know about the uranium. Now it all makes sense.
Thanks.
I’m curious to know which pictures of “the Chinese government beating up on Tibetans” you are referring to. I haven’t seen any. Can you link to some examples please. I’ve seen plenty of pictures of Nepali security forces beating Tibetans during the recent protests, and other pictures of Indian police doing the same. Are you referring to these? I’m not saying Tibetans don’t get beaten in China, but I suspect you have misunderterstood the pictures you have seen. I could be persuaded otherwise if you were more clear about which photographs you meant.
I think the video speaks for itself. Chinese police beating up Tibetans is hardly a surprise to me. The Chinese Communist Party, (CCP) has killed more people in the last 50 some years, (80 million.)That is more than all the wars combined, and most of the killing was done on it’s own people.
Forced abortion, Organ harvesting for profit, kicking people off their own land to make way for the Olympics is just for starters. Selling Chinese weapons to Iran and Darfur to help bolster genocide and suppression, as well as Anti-American forms of government is also on the list. The CCP is not a friend to anyone, not even it’s own people if they get in their way. Governments and people around the world need to wake up and see it for what it is. Stop letting China buy American bonds it threatens to dump every time it does not get it’s way, and get that Chinese spy agency, also known as The Confuscius Institute,, AKA (Hanban) out of our public schools and universities. American people do not understand the brainwashing of the Chinese people since the time they are born. Once a Chinese always a Chinese. There is an old Communist saying, (“Wherever Chinese people are, China is also”) That means wherever Chinese people are The CCP is also!
Support Democracy in China. There are Chinese people trying to get out from underneath Chinese suppression. These people need our support. Please support the Human Rights Torch Relay that is coming to a city near you. The freedoms you help to preserve may someday be your own. Freedom must be preserved. It is much easier to preserve freedom than to fight for it, just ask a Tibetan, Uigher, Buddist, Falun Gong, Darfur citizen,Roman Catholic,
Christian, or Chinese democracy activist for details.