Oh! I see... you're agreeing with me that jumping on people in the street and taking something from them (or attempting to) is thuggish behaviour then ?
Do you think they've lost their individuality in the last 50+ years ? So why do you think they will in the future ? Their independence cannot just be gained... for them to get it lots of things have to happen inside of China, and those changes can only happen once the Chinese political system reaches critical mass, they have to become dependent on trade, they have to have gained a sense of international security from threats, they have to have improved the lives of the people to the extent that the people come to expect certain things from the state and become agitators and descentors when a threat exists to that.
It will if Tibet gained it's independence and turned into a poor country with no prospects... people will return if they think there is something to return too... if all their return would bring is poverty they'll stay where they are.
Ah! Learning is it... why didn't you say... I could have helped you there...yes i agree, all scuffles between police and protesters are due to "thugs" manicgeek? :slap:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7332942.stm
go and watch the news please you might learn something.
They know how to make a public nuisance of themselves in France don't they?
ORTurning this towards a more positive frame, what are the alternatives. Boycott of all Chinese products? Boycott of all UK companies who buy Chinese products? Boycott of the Olympics?
i cant argue with that, or that.
:glag:I'm starting to think you were watching Ghandi or something, not the news.
I'm sure the nutters in our society will take great heart from your willingness to dismiss a man assaulting a woman on the streets of Britain, and may all women feel safe in the knowledge that when someone assaults them and takes or attempts to take something from them they can always say well some woman was attacked in a worse way than me, so it's alright for me to be attacked like this can't they ?![]()
How could you think such a thing of me Les :shifty:Are you on a wind up or something? :shifty:
Stalin virtually eradicated the Georgians, and they and their culture were repressed for more than 70 years... they're still Georgian today... in fact it would seem that no repressive regime has ever been able to completely wipe out a culture, even some of the Mayan culture survives to this day... and Cortez really did for them.In the last 50 years there have still been a generation that remember what it's like to be Tibetan. All it takes is for a couple of generations to be opressed to start the process of wiping out an identity.
I think you have to accept that wealth is a comparative thing, whilst people are becoming wealthy political change is forced as a direct consequence of that wealth generation and distribution. This holds true for all societies so far, that's how we have ended up with unions and workers rights... a path China has still to walk, and one that will become harder to resist for the regime as the expectations of the people are raised in line with their living conditions and relative personal wealth... by trading with them we cause that personal wealth to increase for the population, thereby increasing the distribution of that wealth and causing the expectations of the population to rise. Yeah that takes a long time... but this is the Chinese we are talking about and they like long games.Like I said, they already are dependent on trade. The problem is, the rest of the world is dependent on trade with them too......at least the governments are. There are already agitators and dissenters, but they're being crushed. They already expect more but it makes no difference. You've seen what happened in Britain, the more comfortable people get the less they care about politics because there's less to gain from it. The more comfortable China gets financially the less likely it is to change.
It's not going to gain its independence by us trading with China. It can either be poorer and freer or richer and more opressed as far as I can see of the situation.
Some of the people who spoke at that rally...people who had never even been on Tibetan soil but called themselves Tibetan, would go back tomorrow and rebuild the country if they could, poverty or not.
You're being unfair now, squeamous. I just watched it, and he nearly touched her, you know.
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