Tibet Crisis=Not Caring

Today an International Day of Action has been declared calling for human rights in Tibet. Last week, more than 1 million people around the world signed a petition organized by Avaaz.org following a press release from the Dalai Lama requesting "dialogue" about the cultural genocide taking place there. The crisis was mentioned by youngasista in a Sassistas!^TM comment last week, and we asked her for the following first-hand report. Thank you youngasista for sharing with us (including the photos in this post) and for your observation: "Historically, there is no one better or more ruthless at suppressing dissent than the Chinese Government."

In July 2005, I traveled with a family group to western Tibet on a trek to circumambulate Mt. Kailas.  We drove and camped across the Tibetan plateau to reach our remote destination.  With our Chinese Tibetan guide as an interpreter, we talked with many Tibetans.  Tibetan Buddhists told us that their dream was to save enough money to get out of Tibet.  They said they are forbidden (with threat of serious penalty) to display pictures of the Dalai Lama, their spiritual leader, on their home altars.  We learned their children are sent to Chinese government schools, where they are taught to speak Chinese, but not allowed to speak Tibetan.  We met a lot of children.  They are curious, friendly and have beautiful smiles.

En route, we passed numerous Chinese military check-points.  Tibetans do not have freedom to travel from one region to another without a permit.  Many Tibetans cannot afford them.  Even with a permit, a monetary bribe may be extracted, as it was from our Chinese driver.

In Kathmandu, Nepal, we visited a Tibetan refugee center.  The center processes 2,000 refugees a year, mostly children, and is supported in part by the American Himalayan Foundation.  Refugees are transferred to Dharamsala, India, to live and be educated in the community established by the Dalai Lama for Tibetans living in exile.

Tibetans shared their stories with me, because they hoped that I would be a messenger.  They believe if more people know what is happening to them, it will lead to beneficial change.  You can help by caring.  Learn more about the Tibetans and the Chinese.  Visit their country, if you can.  They desperately need more messengers.

Comments

[Flannista]

youngasista, these images are beautiful, Tibet is indeed a beautiful country filled with beautiful children. Thank you for visiting that country and sharing your first-hand account with the sistas. For me, eyewitness accounts have at least 100 times the power of second- or third-hand accounts and the Sassistas! feel fortunate to have your account on our pages.

I remember you telling me last summer that you were so disgusted by China's oppression of human rights you went through your house and began to throw out everything made in China! And how shocked you were by how much stuff you owned that was made there, i.e. you only had one pair of shoes left or something stunning like that!

You have been a powerful messenger for me as I seldom paid much attention to the Tibet crisis until you brought it to my attention and then showed me all of your photos of that beautiful country and its beautiful people. So now I always make a point to read articles in the newspapers and/or online about Tibet -- and other forms of human rights oppression all over the world. [Speaking of which, yesterday, Dith Pran died. He was the journalist who became the public face of the horrors in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and whose life was portrayed in the movie, "The Killing Fields."]

I am fortunate to also know a couple, who, once their children had all left home, quit their jobs, sold their comfortable home to become Christian missionaries in China. Last year, their Beijing apartment was invaded during a Bible study and they were put under house arrest. Now they are forbidden to go back into China. It's frightening how much and how quickly the Chinese government suppresses religious freedom of any kind. What is more startling, is how much of the population has come to support this "nationalism," particularly in light of the Olympic Games. Most Chinese, influenced by the government, are interpreting the Tibetan crisis as an attempt to split China.

Today in the New York Times, I read the following:

“If Bush meets the Dalai Lama right now, or if the Congress does anything, the Chinese people might do something,” said Tong Zeng, who is not active on the Tibet issue but who helped organize anti-Japanese protests in the last major nationalism campaign in 2005. Mr. Tong said the Internet was filled with angry comments about the recent meeting between the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and the Dalai Lama.

“My thinking is that if there is anything passed in the House, the Chinese people will take to the streets,” Mr. Tong predicted.

Is this true, youngasista? On a related issue, isn't the United States govenment borrowing billions of dollars from China? Take in this quote from a U.S. businessman: "When you get your tax rebate, remember where it is coming from. Not the U.S. government, but a loan from 1.3 million hard-working Chinese people making the products you will be buying with the rebate money. They will expect to be repaid. Until we change that equation we will have very little wiggle room in a global economy."

WHEW! This takes the Sassistas! out of our comfort zone. We'd rather enjoy our cheap Made-in-China products and forget about this. But we can't. The face of oppression is now on the face of our pages and each of the sistas and mista sistas needs to do the one small thing that we can to lift that oppression.

Thanks again, youngasista, for the links we can visit today to begin to learn and do more.

[Matissta]

Yes, IMHO, I don't believe the US government will take a stand exactly for the reason Flannista mentions; the borrowing of billions from China.

This post does make me want to visit the country. In the past I've followed the oppression and turmoil from a far, but over the past month I've paid closer attention. Not only because the protests have become more violent and it's getting more coverage in the press, but because of youngasista. She has made me more aware. Thank you.

[youngasista]

Oh, dear Flannista, you raise so many wonderful issues and questions. I will try to address them, but may take them one at a time throughout the day. I'm glad that you remember my desire to reduce my consumption of Chinese goods. When I'd witnessed first-hand the egregious Chinese human rights violations, I knew that my consumption patterns were, directly or indirectly, contributing to that behavior. It is my personal protest. You over-stated it just a tad...because, if I had cleared out everything made in China, I would be living in a yak hair tent like the Tibetan nomads! When I remodeled my bathroom, I thought I picked a shower fixture from a Scandinavian counrty. When the box arrived, I learned that it, too, was made in China. To the best of my ability and especially with more expensive purchases (which includes shoes) I try to avoid the "Made in China" brand.

It is important to remember that the rural Chinese live a very different life than those in urban areas. My friends who have visited Chinese cities tell me they are beautiful and very modern. Other friends have told me that rural Chinese peoplpe in other parts of China, live in the same conditions as rural Tibetans, a very primitive lifestyle with no sanitation facilities (garbage or sewer.) Urban and rural life are worlds apart...almost as in centuries, not like this country where the infrastructure for roads, communications and sanitation is developed from coast-to-coast.

I'm glad that you mentioned shoes. It is very hard to find shoes not made in China. Crocs, a Boulder, CO company, manufactures their rubber shoes in China. Most other shoe companies do, too, especially the big brand names. Many of the rural Chinese wore bright colored rubber shoes in the summer, when I was there, or simple canvas sneakers like many of us wore in the 1950's and 60's. In the country that manufactures most ALL of the high-tech athletic shoes for the rest of the world, the people who live in the rural areas wear very simple shoes, even for completing the difficult rocky trek around Mt. Kailas.

I hope that others will begin to take a look at what they buy and what they already own and begin to realize our nation's role in fueling the Chinese economy. The Chinese military has expanded exponentially with the growth of their economy. It is not safe to assume that our dollars are just going for more jobs and better wages. That may be true, but many of them are also going for more military expansion and arms manufacturing.

[youngasista]

“'My thinking is that if there is anything passed in the House, the Chinese people will take to the streets,' Mr. Tong predicted."

The thought of the Chinese people taking to the streets makes me very scared for them. Their government has a long and brutal history of suppressing dissent, as you've cited above. I remember the large demontration in 1989 by students and other citizens in Beijing's Tiananman Square. The World Book Encyclopedia offers this information on the incident:

"The protesters called for more democracy in China and an end to corruption in government. The military crushed the demonstrations and killed hundreds of protesters. After the demonstrations, the government arrested large numbers of people who were suspected of being involved in the pro-democracy movement. The government executed a number of those arrested."

I do not have any reason to believe that the government will respond to dissent in any other way but this. I believe that dissenters in China are likely to disappear every day and we will never know about it. They are very, very brave if they take to the streets.

[Flannista]

Remember that young man who faced down that tank in Tiananman Square? I remember him because he faced down those tanks on my birthday, June 5. His whereabouts now remain a mystery and the Chinese government has managed to erase that image from everything. How is that possible? A reporter for PBS's "Frontline," showed that image to students at Beijing University and none of them recognized it. NONE OF THEM. The Chinese government is also filtering the internet and that's why there's such a big stink about Western companies like Google over there.

I remember how frightened by Chinese missionary friends were. They managed to eventually get out of China, but they don't really know what happened to the Chinese Christians who were part of that Bible study. A Bible study! House arrest for a Bible study!

[half-a-sista]

The Dalai Lama has never advocated violence against the Chinese people in Tibet. He has always championed dialogue among the people. The people who undertook the latest rebellion knew that the Chinese would crush them. Perhaps they thought their efforts would result in world opinion forcing the Chinese into talks. I don't know why they did it, but it didn't work.

The world is too involved with the Chinese government and the Chinese consumers to offend them. Capitalists everywhere want the business and the money. At the insistence of the Chinese government, Google censored Chinese search engines to limit the freedom of Chinese internet users. Google wanted the business of the largest population on the face of the earth. Should we stop using Google as our search engine? Is that even possible? We could probably list a whole bunch of American corporations who make human rights concessions to the Chinese government in return for economic gain.

If we did what youngasista did (an action I admire greatly), how many of us would be sitting in empty or nearly empty residences? How many toys would our children have? What would our pets eat? The up side is that we wouldn't ingest quite as much lead. For one day, look at everything you come across and see where it was made. Then realize that "Made in America" does not necessarily mean that the parts were manufactured here or that the product was assembled here. Most likely it was done in a cheaper labor market.

About religious freedom in China...the Chinese people have been abused by Westerners for centuries and missionaries have sometimes acted in ways contrary to their stated religious beliefs. The latest group of "undercover" missionaries who go to China as teachers of English as a second language joins their predecessors who put their religious beliefs above the laws of the country. A relative of mine is one of them. In order to get to China to proselytize the heathen Chinese, these people and the organizations who sponsor them misstate their primary goal. Little wonder that the Chinese government doesn't appreciate the deception and kicks them out of the country. They are lucky not to be shot.

Stephen and Kari Townsend were two such "teachers" who were deported for their religious activities, which they continued even after the Chinese government officials (police) had asked them to stop. Because the salvation of the Chinese people is more important to these "teachers" than obeying the laws of a "heathen, Godless nation", the Townsends persisted in the violation of Chinese law. They were lucky to get out of China. In the past they would have been tossed into prison. Maybe the Chinese are making progress (miniscule though it may be) in the area of human rights.

NOTE: These "teachers" are also deployed to former republics of the former Soviet Union with large Islamic populations to proselytize. Like Mighty Mouse, they're everywhere. They're everywhere.

[youngasista]

My father was born in 1921 in Quingdao, China. My grandparents were Christian missionaries there. His older brother and younger sister were born there,also. All of his black and white baby pictures were taken in China. He remembered having a very sweet and loving Chinese nanny. He also remembered their family having to flee China, when the Communists took over. They were not just breaking-up Bible Studies, they were killing missionaries. My dad and his family were hidden and smuggled out on a boat.

My dad always had a big heart for China. He sponsored two Chinese students to come to college in the United States. They were supposed to return to China afterward. Neither of them did. They spent holidays with our family. Lilly is a musician in California and Tony owned a restaurant in Seattle. They married Chinese-Americans. Both have families of their own. Both of them were always much better at remembering my parent's birthdays by sending cards than their own children were. They have always been very, very grateful.

Later in adult life, Lilly became a Christian. She told me that she always admired my father for the way he lived his life. She said that once she became a Christian, she better understood my father.

[Flannista]

The Sassistas! missed ya sass, half-a-sista. Thanks for offering your perspective.

I almost didn't mention my friends who were thrown out of China because I know that many Christians have given Christianity a bad rep. Turn to any inspirational TV station and be inundated with appeal after appeal for "love gifts" to convert heathens all over the globe to Jesus. I'm reminded of a line in Woody Allen's, "Hannah and Her Sisters." Rather than attend a party, one of the characters stays home and ends up watching religious television. At the end of the evening, he says something like this to his lover: "If Jesus ever watched this crap, he wouldn't be able to stop vomiting." When Jesus returns, he won't be on TV or the cover of Time or the New York Times because he'll be in the ghetto, or in Tibet, or in Beijing or Darfur or next to someone dying from AIDS or MS complications. No headlines because the images just won't be sexy enough.

Christians can be the worst vehicles for God's love, can't they? Just a cursory reading of the Bible reveals what conniving, pathetic, money- grubbing, power-hungry, judgmental folks we can be. Forgive us, half-a-sista, for centuries of crusade-like oppression and lies and greed in order to spread what many of us believe is the only Truth and what not enough of us believe is a Love worthy of laying down one's life.

My Christian friends are now living out of a basement apartment here in the DC area, so their home can be a place where Chinese folks visiting the US can stay in comfort and peace. I can't speak for the Townsends, but I can speak for my friends. They do not consider themselves to be mighty, like Mighty Mouse. They are where they believe the need for comfort and compassion is great. And in today's world, isn't that everywhere?

[youngasista]

half-a-sista, thank you for your comments. My reply about my missionary grandparents was written as you were commenting. I had not read yours yet, which is quite coincidental.

My 1989 World Book indicates that at that time about one percent of the Chinese population was Christian. There may be a role for Missionaries to support that population, but I do agree with you that there is much about religious proselytizing that is anything but holy.

[Flannista]

Actually, youngasista, that percentage is much higher now with estimates of up to 31.4 percent of the population. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, believes that China "will soon become home to the largest Christian population on the globe."

[youngasista]

It is not my intent to demonize the Chinese people in any way. I fell in love with the Tibetan people, who are, and consider themselves to be, Chinese. But, like the Native Americans in this country, they are trying to maintain their cultural heritage against almost insurmountable odds.

However, I am at odds with the ways of the Chinese government and the military. I witnessed first-hand their oppressive rule.

When the Dalai Lama left Tibet he set a karmic wheel spinning, where many Tibetan Buddhists choose to escape from Tibet in order to be near him in India. That is the negative aspect. To the positive, because he left, there are now Tibetan Buddhists across the globe, likely many more than remain in Tibet.

[youngasista]

Regarding this statement:
"It's frightening how much and how quickly the Chinese government suppresses religious freedom of any kind."

It is much more about suppressing FREEDOM of any kind than about religion at all. For Communism to survive, it seems to necessitate this tough approach. To the Communists credit, they are damn good at eliminating both freedom and the people who advocate it.