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soundtest · #1

...goes full steam ahead! Thank you Bombardier.

http://english.people.com.cn/200510/...16_214595.html

China has completed construction of a massive railway (the world's highest) connecting central China to Tibet. Although the (Chinese) article above boasts about economic prosperity for the 'backwards' Tibetan region and the boom to the locals, the result this railway will accomplish hardly has the Tibetan natives in mind.

Through population transfer, an influx of Chinese native migrants (assisted by Government incentives) have been diluting the Tibetan population for years - this railway will speed up that process significantly. Genocide under the guise of boosting the region's economy. My friend is travelling in Lhasa right now and according to the locals, there are 3 Chinese migrants living in Tibet for every one native Tibetan.

My question: where are the Beastie Boys and all of those "Free Tibet" music-for-a-cause-whores now?

soundtest · #2

*ENSLAVE TIBET STICKER*

Ok, that's out of the way.

davinxtk · #3

Are they killing people and burning their homes to accomidate this railroad, or did you just throw the word genocide in there for fun?

Sethomas · #4

Well, genocide by definition could be cultural assimilation, which is precisely what's happening. I admit it's rarely used as such, but hell.

davinxtk · #5

look, just because someone moves into the next bungalow with a cable modem and some gap khakis doesn't mean they're comitting genocide.
cultural assimilation would be an issue if people with guns showed up and told the natives to wear hawaiian shirts and listen to jimmy buffet, but that's not what's going on. i wouldn't even hazard a comparison between America's move west and China's move into Tibet anymore. the real damage was done when they took Tibet in the first place, a fucking railroad isn't genocide.

and they call me a drama whore.

Sethomas · #6

Well, the argument goes that you could get rid of a culture by moving them from reservation to reservation, or you could overpopulate them out of cultural autonomy. I agree with you that the term denotes being a drama whore, but that's what's happening.

soundtest · #7

davinxtk fuck right off with your nitpicking and answer the goddamn question: WHERE ARE THE BEASTIE BOYS WHEN TIBET NEEDS THEM MOST?

ziggytrix · #8

"Got people screamin' free Mumia Jamal
But two out of three of ya'll will probably be at the mall
I'm heated wit ya'll, the defeated will fall
Uncomplete an unsolved when the word freedom's involved"