The Olympic torch has to be guarded by a special Chinese torch force, against the masses of western protestors. From London to San Fran, the torch has been seen as a symbol of human rights abuse by the Chinese, especially in light of their recent crackdown in Tibet. Many Americans, especially leeeborals, are expressing outrage, and calling for a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing.
Never mind the absurdity of Americans, who elected Bush and Cheney TWICE, having the gall to protest human rights abuses by any government but their own. Never mind our shared responsibility for renditions, torture, and war on a country for its oil. We also pay no attention to history, neither Chinese nor our own, when we express outrage over the Chinese in Tibet – a history much longer, and arguably less bloody and heinous than our own.
Tibet has been, to various degrees, under Chinese rule since about 1200 CE. This is almost 300 years longer than the beginning of the conquest of the Americas by Europeans, and 400 years longer than the planting of the English colonies that became the United States. Have we ever paid attention to any protests about the rights of indigenous people in this country? Some historians consider what happened to Native Americans at the hands of Europeans to be genocide. Even after the establishment of democracy under our constitution, the majority of federal money was spent fighting and killing Indians during the Washington Administration.
And as for our European colonized neighbors, we have been at least as Chinese as the Chinese have been to Tibet. We went to war with Britain in 1812 in large part to snatch big chunks of Canada. And it has only been about 150 years since we took the entire Southwest from Mexico, by means of an unjust war of conquest that we started. What if the world demanded that we give back California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Nevada? Would we agree, or send our own special torch force when we next get an Olympics? I think we know the answer.
The Dalai Lama is getting a hero’s welcome in Seattle this week. The papers are calling him “his Holiness.” (Is the pope pissed, I wonder?) He is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. But again the historical context is missing. The Dalai Lama is fundamentally a Chinese spiritual leader – or at least a Mongol spiritual leader.
The first Dalai Lamas were installed and supported by the Mongolian rulers of China. In and around the year 1400, the preferred Chinese version of Buddhism was installed in Tibet to push out the Indian version (and India’s political and economic influence) that had been there for hundreds of years, and to continue to suppress the original Bon religion. China and Tibet have a shared religious history in the Dalai Lama that goes back for 600 years. In short, the Dalai Lama is a Chinese invention! This context is missing in all the news coverage.
We European-descended Americans have all but wiped out native religion and culture on this continent. There were various treaties and deals, but most were broken. Likewise, there have been various treaties and deals between China and Tibet. Today in our country, the native people experience the deepest poverty, and the shortest life expectancy of any in this richest of nations. And, we still honor the man who doomed the Cherokee to the Trail of Tears on our twenty-dollar bill.
Was this treatment of Native Americans, and Mexico, horrible, ruthless, and even genocidal? Maybe. And have I, as a white, euro-descended dude benefited from the removal of native people? Fuck yes! Realizing this, am a going to give my house back to the descendants of the people the land was taken from?
Fuck no!
And the Chinese aren’t either. And they wonder what the hell our problem is. To them, Tibet is an upstart province that has been part of China for close to a thousand years. Up until the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese had given the Tibetan people much more cultural and religious autonomy than we ever gave the indigenous people of America. The Chinese see us as hypocrites, and they are right.
It is okay to criticize in America. We can criticize the Chinese, who have acted badly in Tibet recently, and at times throughout history – a longer history than we have had in America. But with our recent history, we are really throwing stones in a glass house. NO AMERICAN should utter the phrase “human rights” without the words “we have violated” in front of them. And none of our leaders should say anything about it unless they are on the record as fighting the Bush Administration to preserve human rights here first.
Unlike the Chinese people, we HAVE a democracy, and have had for over 200 years. While freely electing our leaders, we have said okay to native genocide, slavery, segregation, wars of conquest, and now torture. We let, and have let, our leaders do this because we keep electing and REELECTING leaders who do this. We as a people bear a great deal of the responsibility for America’s misdeeds, and generally don’t do shit about it. So maybe we should shut the fuck up about China until we: A. understand the whole story, and B. clean up our own “glass” house.
Then maybe our protest will be taken seriously. Then maybe we will have the moral foundation to stand on as we try to extinguish the Olympic torches.
