On March 4th outside the Guildhall in Northampton, we'll be meeting with sympathetic people to remind the world, peacefully, of the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the human rights abuses the Tibetan people continue to suffer at the hands of their occupiers. We'll be raising the Tibetan flag and--according to one conversation I've had--two Tibetan Buddhist nuns will be in attendance. A timely event with Gordon Brown dragging Richard Branson to Beijing to take tea with the Chinese premier, not to mention the Olympics China is hosting later this year.
Business is good. We all want to see our nation prosper. But should it prosper materially at the cost of its morality? The Labour Government made all the right noises when the awkward subject of human rights was raised on Brown's Chinese tour. But I wonder if they mentioned the torture and murder of Tibetan citizens being carried out as a matter of provable fact by the Chinese occupiers? I wonder if they mentioned 11-year-old Karma (aptly named) shot at by Chinese border guards last October while escaping over the mountains to India. Brown may have Chinese names at the bottom of fat new business contracts, but Karma goes to sleep every night not knowing whether his family, whom he lost in the perilous crossing under Chinese gunfire, are alive or dead.
The days of Labour's "ethical foreign policy" seem a very, very long way off. Not that the Conservatives will be any better.
2 comments:
Glad to see you brought up what has been going on in Tibet Bruce. Hopefully the Olympics being held in China this year will focus more attention on Tibet. Here is a link to a very good organization, Students for a Free Tibet, where people can go for information and find out what can be done to help.
Thanks Leo. That's really helpful.
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