Exiles' hopes for a free Tibet dimming

By GAVIN RABINOWITZ, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 15, 12:57 PM ET

DHARAMSALA, India - Time, Tibetan exiles fear, is running out.

As the Dalai Lama ages, their dreams of returning to a free Tibet are slowly being crushed by a realization that they face a long bleak period without an international icon to plead their case before the world and keep them united.

Since fleeing into exile in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, the Tibetan spiritual leader has personified his Himalayan nation's struggle for self-determination.

He turned 71 on July 6, and while generally considered to be in good health, the globe-trotting holy man was grounded by his doctors a day before his birthday because of exhaustion and canceled all his engagements for a month.

A second fear also haunts the exiles. If they do achieve their goal, will the Tibet they knew still be there for them to return to?

This month, China realized its decades-old ambition of linking Tibet to Beijing by train, heightening Tibetan concerns that Beijing is trying to crush Tibetan culture by swamping it with Han, the majority Chinese ethnic group.

more:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060715/ap_on_re_as/tibet_s_last_chance

Redstone

...

bill clinton, who in 1992, ran on the promise to 'stop coddling the chines dictators'

unfortunately, once in office, bill not only conituned most-favored nation, despite the brutal occupation-he decided to delink human rights from the renewal of mfn. then, he decided to make it permannent-and pushed to get china into the wto.

if bill had made a break from the policies of reagan/bush, china would have had to come to the table on human right. but instead, he decided to listen to corporate interests of those who wanted to make money off chinese prison labor.

i'll never forget after watching 'a documentary on tibet, turning the channel and seeing madeline albright on cnn dancing the macarena as the permanent mfn vote for china was announced.

instead of pushing to free the people of tibet, clinton continued with GOP policies of enriching the dictators if they play ball with u.s. corporations.

now with another pure evil s.o.b. in the white house, there isn't a chance of a break from policy.

clinton did no worse than reagan and the bushes, but his actions hurt more, as he knew better, went back on his word, and could have been a real agent of change for the chinese and tibetan people

did adam yauch give up when bush took office?

from China.

It was striking that even those who had suffered as intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution were adamant that Tibet was and had always been a part of China.

The Chinese government is definitely trying to swamp Tibet with Han immigrants, just as the Soviet Union tried to swamp its non-Slavic "republics" with ethnic Russians, with the result that some of these former components of the Soviet Union (Kazakhstan, Latvia) are majority Russian or nearly so.

Wow. :wow: I don't think the people of Tibet see it that way at all. Amazing.

Unlike the Palestinians, there were only the Tibetans on their side. And unlike the Israelis, the Chinese are plentiful, and aren't subject to Western mores. They're cultural supremacists on their territory, and like Islamists who say that Palestine has, since many thousands of years BC, been entirely Arab, the official Chinese catechism contains a fundamental of belief something akin to "once Chinese, always Chinese--and happily so for the subjugated".

Chinese settlements, spread of Chinese language, marginalization and putting the Tibetan culture in a museum for "preservation"--but only as long as it's a little token of culture, in the sense of some food, some dance, maybe using the language in culture-based clubs like an Italian-American Culture Society or whatever they were called.

With easier access to Tibet's resources, more Chinese will simply pour into the area. What's left of the local culture will be made Han.

Tibet will be preserved for tourists, much like the roadside stands selling Navajo trinkets preserves Navajo culture for tourists.