We'll ignore the non-starter about boycotting the Beijing Olympics. The idea of the United States boycotting China for its Tibetan atrocities while conducting its own brutal occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan would be a towering hypocrisy, and China is too powerful for the US to expect it to let that one slide.
I just wonder about the parallels between China's occupation of Tibet, and its manipulation and outright suppression of Tibetan culture, and Canada's treatment of the First Nations. Both colonizers say that they are bringing the gift of civilization to a backward people. Both colonizers say the colonized culture is better off in their embrace.
I wonder too, about those who would call for the OPP or the Canadian Armed Forces to simply "clear the Indians out" of whatever land occupation they're conducting (even though the last time that was tried, an innocent man was killed), whether or not they're appalled by China's ruthless disregard for human rights.
I wonder who else can see these parallels. For those who can't, or who deny these parallels, I wonder if they realize what it is about the nature of Canadian democracy that makes us less obviously murderous and brutal. It certainly isn't callous, racist brutes screaming for ruthless police action against people demanding their rights after having been exploited and then ignored for so long.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
About boycotting the Olympic Games, i’m not sure it will do any good…On the contrary it will upset the Chinese People who will only understand what the Party will tell to understand…
We’d better go as the OG are a great means to directly communicate with the Chinese People without the communist filter.
My own experience with one Chinese graduate student was that he "hate[d] the Dalai Lama."
Considered him a fraud and a danger to the country (China).
I imagine many other Chinese see things the same way.
Just as many Canadians see First Nations protestors as "terrorists."
Post a Comment