Letters to the Editor
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I went to the Moscow Olympics 1980
I found most of the authorities reasonably non confrontational and people were generally curious about the world outside the 3CP. The US boycotted that event in protest of the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. They tried to put a polish on it but it was clear that the whole workers paradise thing was bullshit and it was going to fall apart. A lot rattier than it is now. But generally the sense of it was, no one cared about the boycott. In fact w/o the US the other countries did well in the games and they simply used it to propaganda effect.
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It is all about Western hypocrisy when it comes to dictatorships
As long as the democratic West maintains open policial and economic relations with the brutal dictatorships of the world and allows them to vent surplus (i.e. possibly revolutionary) populations through immigration, no change will be forth coming.
There is effectively nothing the US or EU do to foster human rights or political freedom in Saudi Arabia, China, Egypt, Noth Korea, etc. This disgusting Realpolitik approach stretches back to early Cold War (e.g. Portugal, Argentina, Indonesia, Pakistan) and is the most disturbing vestige of that conflict.
And neither Clinton nor Obama are going to do anything different.
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Theocracy
Mr. Dali Lama is a kind man, seemingly a gentle man, when he
is not pressing the flesh in Hollywood, or uttering cryptic and
charming things, or running a 'government in exile.'
Why, though, do you want a government lead by a priest of sorts? He has not been elected, he is only head of a church.
Like the pope, or any church leader.
Why do Richard Gere and other liberals go gaga over a theocrat? Really, folks, are you democrats or do you want a religious government? Without solving this issue correctly, Tibet cannot get out of the grasp of China.
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A martyr or a leader?
The reality of the situation is that the Dalai Lama would've died decades ago if he hadn't continued to preach nonviolence (which I do believe he sincerely believes in). To suggest that he would've had the same spiritual and political influence if he'd been shot in the head by an assassin in the nineteen-forties or fifties is absurd.
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Budhism/Shintoism and kamikaze. Islam and 9-11
sundari said:
---start of quote----
As to the commenter who said:
And for all the talk in these comments about Mr. Bayard just not "getting" Buddhism, I wonder how many of you Buddhists, pseudo- and otherwise, realize that while Buddhism has given us the Dalai Lama, it also gave us the kamikaze and Japanese Zen-Fascism.
I'd like to get a few things straight.
First of all, Buddhism is at its heart a nonviolent religion. Blaming Buddhism for kamikaze pilots and "Japanese Zen-Fascism" is like blaming Islam for 9-11. It's ridiculous.
---end of quote----
Yeah, I follow you. It's ridiculous to blame any ideology for the actions of the most fervent followers of that ideology.
---sarcasm on---
As ridiculous as blaming Chinese Communist Nationalism for the actions of Chinese police in Tibet.
As ridiculous as blaming Nazism for the actions of German followers during the Holocaust.
---sarcasm off---
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Responsible journalism
Wondering where you got the statistic of supposed atrocities, "1 million Tibetans who were directly or indirectly killed by invading Chinese...". Tibet's population was barely over a million when it became the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in the 50s. Since then, Tibet's population has increase rapidly to reach 2.62 million within the TAR and 5.0 million over all (2000 population census). Recent surveys indicate that the population growth rate for ethnic minorities in China (55 including Tibetans) is about 7 times greater than that for the Han population.
When do you suppose the "1 million Tibetans" were killed? How could that have been statistically possible. Please research carefully before stacking claims in your article and back up those statements with facts; you are after all writing for a popular online publication.
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Let's give Dalai the nobel medical prize
Of course, Dalai is used to be considered as "God" in Tibet. Actually not only as God, but also as a highly skilled doctor, who could heal any kind of disease with his shit. If you go to the Potala palace in tibet, you should visit Dalai's washing room, and there you will find a hole through which he deliver his crap to tibetan as a omnipotent medication. But I guess you should have already known that as a big fan of Dalai, and you may already try this to heal your cold. It is amazing, isn't it?
Tibetan flighted for these crap for thousands years, because 95% tibetan were slaves, 98% tibetan were uneducated until 50 years ago, and they were simply believed what Lamas told. Of course, Dalai contributed a lot until he ran away from tibet. So we should thank a lot to Dalai, in addition to Nobel peace prize, he should also get the Nobel Medical prize.
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Looking Above
Based on the posting above, and the poster's other contributions, I think China may have assigned Salon may have it's very own "propagandist."
Nothing but Shiny Happy People Holding Hands in China.
Either that or someone has a wicked sense of humor.
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edit
sorry, should read . . .
I think China may have assigned Salon it's very own "propagandist."
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THERE IS METHOD IN HIS SEEMING MADNESS....
The Dalai Lama, one of the FEW World Religious Leaders whom I both respect and venerate, is in an unenviable position indeed, caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, I'll let you readers out there decide who is what, china and the rest of the world. His seeming inaction and not taking a firm stand against the DESPOTIC TYRANNY of communist china may be seen as MADDENING INACTION and the HEIGHT OF USELESSNESS to those anti-china radicals who want to free Tibet from china's yoke. Perhaps these radicals and Louis Bayard should take a lesson in psychology from the parable of the icy blowing wind trying to make a man remove his heavy coat by blowing unceasing powerful gusts of icy wind, which made the man hunker down and wrap his coat around himself even tighter. The sun, seeing this, told the icy wind to cease and let him have a try. Warm sunshine enfolded the man, who being plesantly warm, removed his coat in a few moments. The moral of the story is the harder you try by force to achieve your goal, like the radicals blowing icy wind gusts, the more stubborn the man will wrap his coat around himself, like china hunkering down against Tibetan resistance. The Dalai Lama, whose brilliance and goodness are like sunshine, will surely prevail in the end to rid Tibet of china's DESPOTIC HEGEMONY!!!!!