The video that China doesn't want the world to see
This footage of the rioting in Tibet is raw and harrowing. It's also, for the most part, not being seen in China where authorities have blocked access to YouTube.com, which has many videos on Tibet.
This footage of the rioting in Tibet is raw and harrowing. It's also, for the most part, not being seen in China where authorities have blocked access to YouTube.com, which has many videos on Tibet.
The Internet as a liberating force? Not always.
The whole thing is a bloody mess as the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing draws near. I think a vast majority of people have no stomach for another boycott -- most Americans would rather defeat evil on the athletic field, as Jesse Owens did in Berlin in 1936, than take our ball and go home, as Jimmy Carter did in 1980. That said, I'd like to see freedom-loving people, from the U.S. and elsewhere, figure out how to make some kind of statement this August.
The problem is that a more effective protest would be one mounted by athletes -- but that's banned under the Olympic charter (anyone remember this?). I think the VIPs should attend the ceremony -- and at the right moment all hold up signs in Mandarin calling for free speech and a free Tibet.
I'm sure we could convince Dick Cheney to do that.