"Might may not be right...but it makes the wheels turn"

The only thing minorities can generally do, is try to give 'might' a flat tire or 2.

Unless of course, they are in a democracy and happen to be in a critical swinging electorate :) then..they can make all kinds of deals....like:

1/ Open up our immigration policy so more of 'us' can come in.
2/ Make laws which prevent people criticizing our 'us'ification of the country.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,23269447-2702,00.html?from=public_rss

3/ Seek to change our foreign policy such that 'our' mob is no longer the 'terrorist' but instead becomes the 'downtrodden freedom fighter'

As Bob Collins once said on national radio "Politics is not about being fair, its about power"

"I am the bread of life, any man who comes to me will never hunger, he who believes in me will never thirst" Jesus.

Rights, realities, wrongs: and Tibet, like realities, is squeezed in between.
People can argue all day, every day, into every tomorrow about the first two, for no conclusion.
Reality is sobering, huge and overshadowing, over the wish-lists embedded in rights and wrongs. On its own, it could occupy all of the time-into-tommorrow which is being devoted to the others.
About a billion people live on either side, all living beyond the means of their environments to sustain them; nervously eyeing-off each other’s fiendish rates of growth.
Tibet is a desiccated landscape scorched by high-altitude ultra-violet sunshine; with a population still embedded in centuries-old social facilities; its natural water reservoirs of ice dwindling towards annual short feast/long famine in water availability.
Whether they like it or not, Tibetans live in interesting times as the Chinese say, and the act ofbalancing their rights and wrongs on the fulcrum of reality will become increasingly uncomfortable into the un-forseeable future</TD< tr

Had might been right, Hitler would still be ruling Europe. China is a fascist totalitarian state, and that is something not deserving of tolerance let alone allowing them to underpay and exploit their workers so that they can flood the world with cheap, shoddy goods and damage other economies thereby, whilst polluting our atmosphere beyond sanity. All that Tibetans ask for is autonomy and respect within the Han Chinese Empire.

So boycott the Olympics if they are held in Beijing. The Chinese government needs to be told that their behaviour is unacceptable. Our government needs to be told that their conciliatory-we-do-not-dare-upset-China approach has to stop.
Yes China is big. Yes it is economically powerful - sort of. (It is actually in one heck of an economic mess and would collapse were it not for the fact that they are being propped up by the likes of us.
We have to stop being afraid of China and let them know they cannot commit cultural genocide, religious persecution or any other form of human rights abuse and be rewarded for it with a major international event.

Henry VIII, loved your post – Workers of the world unite! Or, should that be ‘Up the workers!’

The question I would like to submit first is, ‘Just what do you want China to do?’

a. Leave Tibet completely and recognise it as a sovereign nation.
b. Stay, but allow the Dalai Lama to return. If so, on what basis?
c. Stay, keep the Dalai Lama out, but stop beating up dissidents.

It boils down to either leaving or staying, it would appear. Any other ideas?

That brings me back to my cental thesis. The powerful make the rules. Real Politick.

China’s staying and most of the world will watch the Olympics on Sky TV.

China does have a historical claim over Tibet that, arguably, started in the 8th Century. Before that, Tibet as a nation did not exist.

Britain had absolutely no historical claim over Australia. Indeed, the indigenous Australians had a 50,000 year claim on the joint.

Therefore, Mao marched in with, arguably, an historical claim, Britain sailed in with absolutely no claim.

Now, wombats, who seem to want China to do something. What?

If you want the Chinese to leave Tibet then, if you have any intellectual integrity, you will give all your property to an aboriginal community and bugger off to where you or your ancestors originally came. ‘Cause you have absolutely no claim to be here on those terms.

If you just want the Chinese Government to be ‘nice’, then I think you should study the history and politics a bit more carefully, rather than trumpet the party line for Rupert & Co.

My wife submitted a reply to the other, excellent, article on Tibet that was posted today

HenryVIII
What current happening in Tibet is not a peaceful protesting. The mobs are killing innocent people. They are burning people in live. Based on this situation, I totally agree our government's decision. The mobs have to be stopped immediately. Unfortunately killing is one of the most simple and efficient way to do it. The government should not risk other people's lives in order to get good reputation.

No one likes to work underpay and be exploited. As a Chinese, I do not like to. But sometime you do not any other choice. Most of western companies are playing this dirty role in China. Our government has tried to do something like issuing new policy and labour law to change this kind of situation. The consequence is many owners of western companies choosing to run away quietly, leaving unpaid workers in a empty factory. 90% of them are Korean companies. So please........don't just blame Chinese government. they did great job in last 20 years.