China Tightens Grip on Tibetan Protests, Block YouTube, Sends in More Troops

As unrest spreads to other provinces, communist authorities begin a major crackdown to prevent it from marring the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Since Monday of last week the world has heard and watched as the Tibetan people have marched in protest of what his Holiness the Dalai Lama himself has termed "cultural genocide."

Now in the interest of full disclosure I must admit that I myself am a longstanding practitioner of Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition. Nonetheless, I think the fact that China seems to get a free pass on human rights simply because it cranks out the worlds consumer goods on a mass scale at bargain basement records is a true tragedy and speaks of the occasional shortcomings of capitalism.

More importantly, it speaks volumes about the hypocrisy of the Olympics itself with its intent to showcase a false air of global unity and peace complete with pageantry and orchestrated fanfare while millions in that country and around the world suffer in quiet desperation.

Many are sadly unaware that since the earliest days of Mao Zedong it has laid claim to the country of Tibet, in part thanks to British imperialism which previously oddly claimed the area in 1904 with the help of its elite force of Ghurkas. It was in response to this "invasion" in its sphere of influence that it first laid claim to Tibet, and which would later lead lead to Mao's armed physical takeover in 1950.

Soon thereafter our own C.I.A. would train a group of Tibetan rebels in Colorado who then returned to lead a failed uprising against Chinese authorities to try and drive them out. After initial successes it was finally defeated in 1959 after the firm occupation of the Lhasa capital by Chinese authorities drove them to flee into neighboring Nepal.

It was at this time that his holiness the Dalai Lama fled into exile into the north Indian hill town of Dharmasala where he still resides to this day.

It was to mark the anniversary of the takeover of Tibet in 1959 by the Communist Chinese that protesters there took to the streets to voice their discontent.

It comes at an embarrassing time for Chinese authorities who are trying to dress up the country for the upcoming Summer Olympics.

To make matters more difficult, even as it appears to have subdues protests in Lhasa, the ancient capital of Tibet, protests have spread to other ethnic Tibetan areas in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Gansu on Sunday, reducing the chances of an early end to the instability that is a major challenge to China's leaders just months before it hosts the Olympic Games.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, speaking in Dharmsala where Tibet's government-in-exile is based, said "Some respected international organization can find out what the situation is in Tibet and what is the cause."

"Whether the (Chinese) government there admits or not, there is a problem. There is an ancient cultural heritage that is facing serious danger," the Dalai Lama said. "Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on China "to exercise restraint in dealing with these protests." Her statement also called for China to release monks and others jailed for protesting.

To be succinct, the US is satisfied with the status quo.

Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, then became blocked yesterday after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos, and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad.

In short, many complain that the US too often plays the world's policeman, that it persistently sticks its nose in the affairs of other, myself included. But, doesn't it beg the question "If not we then who?" Surely the invasion of Iraq, one of the lone secular states in the Middle-East was a poorly thought out idea, but that had more to do with oil I'm convinced which should never justify the loss of life and property.

The UN is nothing more than distributor of rice and meds, a gallery of blue beret-wearing do-nothings that sat back and watched hundreds of thousands burn and hack one another with machetes in Rwanda in the late 1990's. The same with the disintegration of Yugoslavia a few years earlier as ethnic cleansing and slaughter occurred right before their very noses.

For its part, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Saturday he opposed an Olympic boycott over Tibet. "We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."

Penalizes athletes? What about people who haven't the freedom to worship and assemble as they please? Is the 12M breastroke really that much more important?

I'm not sure what the answer is with Tibet, but I do know it doesn't include watching and supporting the Olympic Games in a country that so freely subdues a people that want not claims to oil, natural resources, or other economic gain, but merely the chance to be free, to be human. They want to do as our very own forefathers of this country did and have the freedom to practice their religion without the meddling of a FOREIGN, corrupt government.