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Tibet: Monks Need Stuff, Too
By Paul Midler | March 21, 2008
Tibet is falling apart because some are poor, suggests Abraham Lustgarten in a Washington Post article.
“Tibetan culture is so deeply rooted here,” the owner told me. “I don’t think it will be diluted — it’s important for business.” Yet looking around, I saw no Tibetan employees, and Tibetans represented only a smattering of customers. The bar served mostly Chinese businessmen and army officers, whose tabs could run as high as $2,000, several times the per capita income in Tibet.
Topics: China |
March 21st, 2008 at 11:02 pm
The Globalisation made all the Culture in China and around the world similar, not the Party in China. Do you know the thoughts of People living in Tiebt? Children and young people now can go out Tibet, entering University, working. The railway give them more advantage not disadvantage. You can live in developed countries and enjoy your life. In Tibet, if a child want to go to University, he should pay a week or more time on the road and pay a lot of money. I know lots of children who were in other provinces in China to receive education didn’t go home to see their family for 4 years or more time. The railway had helped them. you can’t deny it.
I am Chinese and in the Party. Everyone need justice even the Party. If you argue you are right, you can go to Tibet to give them an interview, but don’t say someone’s point represent most.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Chengfangping,
If I understand your argument correctly, you are saying that an improved quality of life in Tibet offsets any lacking autonomy desired by Tibetans. Two issues:
(1) Your point contradicts the article here, which says that Tibetans are lashing out because their quality of life sucks. If their lives have been improved so much, why not just sit back and enjoy the ride?
(2) I have a problem with the notion that paternalism justifies the subjugation of any people. The same arguments kept African-Americans enslaved for generations. It was said that slaves were better off with someone to take care of them.
March 22nd, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Interestingly, if what Mr. Lustgarten is proposing is the reason for the recent unrest, as opposed to religious freedom, this starts to parallel one of the reasons for the U.S. Civil war, minus the slavery issue. Economic and cultural control of an area by outsiders for the economic gain of those outsiders.
I’ve seen this in Guangdong also, small villages taken over by factory complexes, farmland replaced by now empty factory space what with the changes in labor law, that may or may not be filled as production moves inland or to Viet Nam.
Gonna be interesting!