I'm just gonna say it

[LegalSmash]

Tibet's not free. Its never going to be free. It's like butt-sex with alyssa milano and natalie portman, if china owned alyssa milano and natalie portman. Not very free.

[Zodiac]

Did you just see this off digg? :thumbup::tongue_smilie:

[broncoty]

Tibet's not free. Its never going to be free. It's like butt-sex with alyssa milano and natalie portman, if china owned alyssa milano and natalie portman. Not very free.

yea thats why i get pissed at people sometimes, if there not willing to grab a rifle and fight for their cause (not encouraging war or w/e its a mindset/wake up call here) then they have no reason to be protesting it.

[Italian Jew]

Yeah, Ghandi should have grabbed a rifle and went on a rampage... : /

and that is my cue to include a clip from UHF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpNB2SoNfyg
However, they really would not be protesting all over the world too much if the olympics were not in China. There would be nothing to protest short of chinese food, and nobody can say no to chinese food.

[Slavic]

The Olympics are supposed to transcend international bickering for the glory of international physical competition. That is what it was supposed to be, not something to turn into a political agenda.

[Misanthrope]

Tibet was under a harsh dictatorship before hand, so I don't see the issue.

[LegalSmash]

The issue is leftist college crowd, the entire bay area, france, and the rest of the world that wants to up to 'shit' in socialism arent going to have much more bush to complain about in 2008, the election this year looks like "hootie" from hootie and the blowfish, the dude from Magnum PI, and a PTSD tiger cage dweller. They have a dem controlled congress and the Iraq war is getting to "old news" section of the newspaper. The economy has allegedly fallen on its face, and they are tired of mumbling "i told you so". Michael moore is not yet putting out his new movie, and there hasnt been any new laws to make them cry.

Tibet allows them to protest yet another winless situation, that is not going to change, by wearing stupid hats, toting signs, and watching hollywood stars make snide statements about how tibet needs to be free while they go to a really expensive chinese restaurant.

Its just something to keep them busy

[Havok]

Lmao. I really do agree. Tibet has been under Chinese rule for just over 50 years, there's no chance a few bored college students with Molotov cocktails will get it back.

[PotshotPolka]

Thats kinda funny that the Europeans are doing that... They still have shit to answer for i.e. Mercantilism in colonies and massacring the people of the regions they held. (Spanish: Genocide of Cubans and Filipinos)
(French Indochina: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)

(Dutch: Congo diamond work camps.)

British: ....Didn't they do something or other in the Western Hemisphere?

America: Made the entire Carribean into it's bitch under Theodore Roosevelt, ousted the Spanish from Philippines, and then fought an insurgent war with them for several years, with overall dead 250K+.

I got an entire book of these, China can be oppressive but how else should you deal with (Starving, gas shortages, Intellectuals undermining socialist ideology etc,) without going liberal?

[LegalSmash]

^? The socialism itself is leftist. Many of these euro-protesters of Beijing 2008 represent countries that have moved from classically liberal, free republics to "near socialist, but not just yet" "utopias" who's social world is being held hostage by the muslims (DONT PUBLISH THAT!!!)

It annoys me when people say how evil colonialism was/is, without concern for what it ultimately did to the world.. modernize the otherwise unreachable areas. Vietnam, The western hemisphere, africa, etc. Rennaisance and discovery era Western Euro culture was the Apex predator of a very otherwise primitive world.

Colonialism was not all that bad. Currently, most of these "countries" that were "freed" from colonialism cant stand on their two feet in the modern world.

They went from bushwhacking, spearchucking, bone through the nose savages to wearing pants... the problem is, the indigenous population generally doesnt understand much more than "blankets", force, religion conversion, or both.

At least under the "conquerors" they didnt have to deal with doing things like actually figuring out how to feed their people, make money, etc.

In some cases the diamonds, rubies, women, etc. are a decent tradeoff for more or less reliable support (this excludes most of france's colonies, which many were epic fails)


Esp. Puerto Rico, Africa, and many other Caribbean areas.

Puerto rico, without US aid, subsidies, and a lack of taxation by the US on the "commonwealth" (read: welfare state) would cannibalize itself in short order. It is far more difficult to run a proper country than professors, movie actors, and placard carrying dingbats may like to admit. In PRs case, I firmly believe that barring its choice to take "commonwealth status" rather than maintain sovereignty, like Cuba did, prevented it from ending up in the "socialist paradise" state that has plagued Cuba since 1959.

Tourism is generally a creature of investment from outside the area. Cuba, in its free days was invested in vastly, and in conjunction with its small exporting businesses, was able to do somewhat well. tourism, however is a creature of colonialism in itself, usually the money having, civilized part of the world's people that want to go see "exotic" locations, or businessmen that want 11 year old thai boys.

The protesters dont complain about Cuba though, because Fidel represents "zee littel guise" and cant possibly starve, kill, imprison, etc bc hes a loving socialist.

I think that if China opened Tibet to people spending money there, it would basically become "singapore in the hills" and the rest of the world would STFU, because the area would be "free" by their very dim understanding of the term.

Protesting people People are mad bc china has come to the conclusion that open borders and money dont make nearly as much as wallmart's entire production line and industry. China is able to pump money into its areas, without the intrusion of tourists and meddling backpacking uppity white round eyes coming over and telling their chinese and "property of china tibetans" about the joys of welfare, unions, workers breaks, individual ownership, and france's three hour a day lunch break.

Its important to realize that this country bans critical viewpoints of itself in the media it allows sold within its borders.

Also, much like our treatment of puerto rico... China DOES pump a great degree of $ into the Tibetan area, but the protesters like to ignore that fact, because... it does not go well with their "china=evil" hypothesis of the month (remember prior to this, China was the "Socialist paradise, where the theory works!!!one!111"

I dont think China is doing anything wrong by enforcing the existence of its landholdings that it achieved through perfectly legal means (with a gun, conquest). The tibetans, like the Palestinians are essentially cattle on the land or tenants in flats and not outright "owners" of anything.

See some other thread where I break this down, its a similar idea.