Free China!

Here we go again with China. I don't know how they do it. Between Taiwan, Tibet, the lack of human rights, copyrights, the proliferation of censorship and environmental devastation, it's amazing how much they're getting away with. We seem to be shamed into quietude, somehow because my own country so imperfect. I agree, but that's really besides the point. Nancy Pelosi said it best when she said: "(I)f freedom loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, we have lost our moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world." That's it: If our lives are worth a damn we ought to try to help these people. The monks are so brave, and the Chinese government is made up of such cowards, that the USA should help protect the monks, and stop the Chinese from taking over the world. So I asked my camaraderie of symbolic figureheads what they thought, and here's what they said:

Paul Bunyan noted the Chinese government's explanation of the protests: "Some ignorant monks led by a small handful of people did some illegal things that can challenge social stability."

That's a perfect and compact expression of the whole commie-chinese thing.

Tibet is over. The have been absorbed like Rome absorbed Sicily. The only difference between now and then is the world has developed a sense of shame about conquest for some reason, and so there are certain pretenses maintained (mainly, 1., that china didn't take tibet, they just "always" owned it, and 2., they are doing this all for the "greater good" of tibetans, who were being oppressed by a theocracy.). Power has spoken, as far as the tibetan geography is concerned.

But there is something to do, which is to help the monks in exile. Cause they are in exile forever, like the Jews. There are a lot of them in No. Cal I think. There are also a lot of them in the twin cities for some reason.

Paul's Brother added:

Helping them in exile. It is being done to some degree. I think money to SaveTibet helps preserve the culture too.

The biggest thing that I see being done, and that I support -- and the most helpful no matter what happens to Tibet -- is the strong effort being made to preserve the Tibetan heritage in exile. In particular, the core of the Tibetan Buddhist teachings is being kept alive. The Buddhists are good at seeing what is really happening and they have put a lot of energy into this, realizing that this is more important than the country in crucial ways.

The Chinese are simply exterminating the culture. Lots of intermarriage is helping to make the death a soft death. The Chinese are absolute masters at this shit. And they don't give a shit about world opinion. Even less than we do.

My friends, who don't agree with what the Chinese are doing, are nevertheless taking the famous new Chinese railway up into Tibet (Lhasa eventually?) and seeing Tibet. Partly, they say, to see it before it is utterly destroyed. :-(

But this is just talk. Good question. What can be done besides just donating money. That's all I do at this point.

And I heard from Sacagawea too:

A Tibetan teacher said to me that the virtue of the Chinese invasion is that the Tibetan Buddhist teachings were spread all over the world.

And the thing is, there are lots of monks -- and nuns too! -- who need support, because their traditional culture that supported them is broken. I send funds every year to a nunnery in Dharamsala that also educates the nuns far beyond what they used to before the invasion.

And we have the incredible example of HH the Dalai Lama, who does not harbor hatred toward the Chinese. It is his practice.