The Realist Idealist

The more you dig into the actions of the Chinese against Tibet, the more cold and systematic their cultural genocide begins to appear.  Indeed “cold and systematic” is exactly what genocide is in the first place.  (Just ask the Rwandans whose recognized genocide took place in 1994, but which had indicators and events happening as early as the late 80’s)

In Tibet’s case, what’s particularly interesting is just how censored they are, as well as how much censorship there is of their Chinese neighbors.  YouTube for instance has been blocked, unblocked and now blocked again.  What’s left is a Chinese blogosphere that is ardently nationalistic and anti-Tibetan (because everything that isn’t written along these lines isn’t doesn’t make it live).  One quote that really stood out to me from this Washington Post roundup of Chinese blogs was:

“”I think that the Chinese government has to cut this cancer out. We can start with the Dalai Lama…”

I’m reading today that BBS and SMS channels are also reported to be blocked or censored.  So with much of the information people have about Tibet right now coming out through SMS, and with the knowledge that most of that content is being filtered or blocked altogether, what do we do now?

I think this blog from Dave at Tenement Palm has a great perspective, and if you care about Tibet and believe in the internet as a tool for unfettered global communication, I highly recommend reading Dave’s challenge to us:

Engaging Chinese Netizens