Riot in Tibet: True face of western media

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSQnK5FcKas

DialecticBlue,

If Chinese leaders lack the the moral fibre or conviction in their professed Leninist ideology, to call such a referendum then that says a great deal about their system of government and the indivdiuals in control. Perhaps it would be nice if the "western press" was able to "open their minds" a little, but unfortunately none are allowed in Tibet at the moment. It would be nice if the Chinese government would, for example, open the archives so we can officially count the estimated 170,000 Tibetans who died in forced labor camps from 1951 to 1976. I guess that would be "political suicide" as well. But then again, I prefer a politician to suffer such "suicide" if that is the means for the people to actually have the power to determine their own lives.

Centra,

Nice video clip. I approve thoroughly of any analysis which shows how media, whether privately owned or state-owned, engaged in falsehoods. I am not so sure however that the official media of the PRC has never doctored photos, texts of movies either. Just as well there is a free press like YouTube that allows such distortions to be captured, eh? It'd be great if independent journalists were actually allowed in Tibet to report on what is really going on, wouldn't it?

I have an interesting story for you.

Once I went into a second-hand bookshop near Southbank, Brisbane. In one of the aisles, there happened to be piles upon piles of books stacked up on the floor about Australian indigenous culture - history, bush tucker, mythology, politics, and so on.

I asked the person in charge of the shop about them, as it seemed a little bit unusual.

'Oh,' he said, 'a prominent Aboriginal leader and academic just got rid of his entire collection of books on Australian Aboriginal culture'.

'Why?' I asked.

'He went and became a Tibetan Buddhist'.

Some important background...

>>China, through its eyes, did not invade, it liberated an oppressed people. Indeed, the average Tibetan welcomed the Red Army at first. <<from Graeme Mills "China, Tibet and the real-politick"

It is! Initially, DaLai LaMa also accepted a position in the communist central government in 1950-51. Tibetan uprising and DaLai LaMa exile was 9 years later.

China did make a serious mistake in internal affair during late 1950s. But there was another important factor.

That is Korean War. US and China had a direct FIERCE combat. ANYTHING moving in Chinese force controlled area became the target of US fighter-bomber, no matter it was military or civil. Some 90% Chinese truck drivers were killed by bomb. Think about this, CIA could do a great job when US force was helping Iraqis Democracies. What could prevent CIA from doing a dirty job on Tibet issue when nuclear bombing China was considering.

Another episode:
China didn't play a tough ball with current DaLai LaMa himself. When uprising fight broke out, Chinese army didn't harm him when DaLai LaMa within gunshot, also didn't chase him when he fled.

Tibet is just another hot area of global powers struggle, and Tibetans are not beneficiary of the struggle..