How to Fight Wrongs

Yesterday a colleague of whom I am quite fond asked me "How better to fight wrong than by getting multiple perspectives and primary sources?"*

Getting information and multiple perspectives is just the first step in righting wrong. The Chinese government has made it clear that they believe Tibet to be their possession and the Dalai Lama to be nothing more than a political instigator. Is this also the opinion of China's people? We will never know because free speech is not, shall we say, encouraged in China. This is the country that, as alluded to yesterday, has put their citizens under a news blackout. A friend of a friend, traveling in China and Hong Kong for the past two weeks, has said that there was absolutely no mention of Tibet in any of the mainland news sources. She was only aware of what was happening from the Hong Kong news reports. Now YouTube has been banned, and those pesky Hong Kong reporters have been tossed out.

The Tibetans believe, since they had their own government structure until 1950 when the Chinese took over by force, that they were an independent entity. Tibet was asked to join the UN when it was formed, but the predecessor of the current Dalai Lama didn't foresee the need. This is why the UN didn't come to the Tibetan's aid in 1950. China invaded and the current Dalai Lama was forced to flee for his life in the middle of the night. Monks who remained loyal to him were imprisoned and tortured. The Panchen Lama, the heir apparent, was arrested at the age of 6. No one has heard from or seen him since.

These are the multiple perspectives. Knowing them solves nothing. Knowing does not undo the killings and violence of the past week. Knowing does not improve the life of the Tibetans remaining in their country as they are forced into a second rate citizenry as the Chinese move the ethnic Han into Tibet. Knowing doesn't comfort the Tibetan diaspora in their adopted homelands.

What I propose is doing something. Something nonviolent, surely, as I am a Buddhist. I propose that those of us who object to the systematic violation of human rights, those of us that object to religious persecution, those of us who object to China's political hold over our government...that we patiently work to disentangle our economy from China's to whatever degree we can.

The Olympics are a good place to start, as they are close at hand. For those of you who cry that "The Olympics are above politics!", I would urge you to look to the boycott of 1980, when the US boycotted the Olympics to protest Russia's invasion of Afghanistan. Or the Olympics of 1952 when China themselves boycotted the games because the International Olympic Committee recognized Taiwan.

China's economic gains due to the Olympics are beyond my ability to calculate. Let's start there. A nice, nonviolent polite refusal to fund the Chinese government. Then we'll start looking at the import/export situation. I'm tired of funding China's military. Aren't you?

*This is yesterday's Huffington Post. Read that and tell me you need more primary sources, my friend.

ABC: On Tibet Frontlines, Protesters 'Shot Like Dogs'
- Huffington Post
Yesterday -The Chinese military is shooting Tibetan demonstrators "like dogs," a Tibetan exile group said Monday, firing "indiscriminately" intro groups of people protesting Chinese rule.
The accusation was leveled by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a group run by exiled Tibetans in Dharamsala, India, home to the Dalai Lama. Exile groups in India receive some of the few reports from inside Tibet and have provided some of the only reporting from there since last Monday, when the most significant Tibetan protests in 20 years began.
» Full Story on Huffington Post