Mere condemnation isn’t enough: there has to exist the possibility of tangible consequences, or else there’s no real reason for them to comply with your demands.
During South Africa’s war on apartheid, IIRC, many foreign businesses pulled out of South Africa in protest. To the businesses, the South African market was expendable. To South Africa, their presence was very valuable. I’m sure this helped a great deal in getting the South African government to see the error of its ways.
However, China is a great deal bigger than S. Africa, and therefore companies who were to boycott it have much more to lose. As we all know, many manufacturers have the lion’s share of their operations in China. For them, the costs involved with pulling out would be astronomical.
I’m jet lagging from a 13 hour flight back from the US, drinking a beer, waiting for the melatonin to kick in while the bambina and love muffin are asleep in the other room.
While I pretty much agree with the premise, people in the US know a lot more about Tibet now than they did 16 years ago when I first visited Kham or western Tibet. I think that is a good thing. I think the bumber stickers might have even helped.
Free Tibet. WTF??? And then some enquiring minds want to know.
Tibet had lots of problems before the Chinese invaded in 1950, but this thread seems to paint it as either a paradise or brutal theocracy, when the truth is probably somewhere in between.
I guess I have no point other than this could be a real Great Debate to clear up some of the misconceptions.
My other point is that my 10 trips to Tibet were simply amazingly great.
“I guess I have no point other than this could be a real Great Debate to clear up some of the misconceptions.”
???
Yeah, I suppose it could have been, if I had wanted to debate Chinese military policy. I didn’t. I wanted to bitch about a bumper sticker that I find particularly annoying. If you want to start a GD, there’s nothing stoping you from starting your own thread. I’ll help you out: Yes, US awareness of the situation in Tibet has increased dramatically in the last sixteen years. So what? Can anyone show that US indignation is making life any easier for Tibetans? Or is it (as I suspect) all just a massive circle jerk?