Free Aung San Suu Kyi

To all my friends who wish to see a free Tibet: spend a little of that energy for a free Burma.

Tibet is a complicated story, and the cynic within me recognizes that it is very likely that China will always maintain some degree of control over it. Often Tibet is seen in the West as some sort of land of innocence, a Shangri-La ruined by the meanies in the PRC. The folks running the PRC (somebody named Hu Jin Tao is one of my Facebook friends, but I don't think it's the one in charge of China; after all, Jesus is also one of my Facebook friends) may well be meanies, but it might help were we to get a better picture of what conditions for most Tibetans were before 1959. This isn't a simple story of all good vs. all evil; it should at least be noted that a "Free Tibet" isn't necessarily "Tibet Like it was Before 1959."

On the other hand, China could put an enormous amount of pressure on the Burmese junta, if only in terms of economics. The PRC likes to say such issues are "internal affairs," so we can't say anything about their own "internal affairs." But Burma's is a brutal dictatorship, violating the most basic human rights, overturning elections, jailing political prisoners, and, as we've seen in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis, not giving much of a damn about its own citizens.

I think we should be hearing more about Burma, and everytime you hear someone complain about Tibet, add a complaint about Burma. If you want to put your energy into a good political cause, and one that might actually effect some change, Burma may be a better bet than Tibet.




For those interested, you can find pretty easily the PRC's view, as well as the view of the "Tibet Government in Exile," associated with the Dalai Lama. I think it useful to see both sides (and to see just how ancient the ties are between the Tibetans and the Han Chinese).

For a (lefty) view on some of this, critical of some of the views popularly put forth about the history of Tibet, you could go here:

Parenti on Tibet's Feudal Past