How bad is the Tibet situation?
By Pitstop
@pitstop (14186)
Australia
April 17, 2008 1:10pm CST
I realised how bad its supposed to be in Tibet only after the Olympic Torch incidents. What exactly is the situation there? What is happening? Are people really being tortured there for no reason. I hope I can find balanced answers to this issue here at MyLot!
1 response
@Alle91 (188)
• Australia
18 Apr 08
Well I don't know how balanced I can be, but my understanding of the situation is, that it's not as bad as everyone thinks it is.
Firstly, the west likes to talk about cultural genocide and stuff like that, but they don't seem to realise that ethnic minorities such as Tibetans are have special privileges not available to the Han Chinese majority. A) the rest of China has a one child restriction, this doesn't apply to Tibetans and they can have as many children as they like. B) Tibetans can get into colleges and universities with half the score of han chinese. They also don't have to pay fees, like everyone else does. C) They don't need to pay taxes, like the rest of the country. D) The buddhist monks can practice their religion without having to work to live, because Chinese taxpayers pay for the food that is transported to them free of cost. E) Monks are allowed to practice their religion freely.
Secondly, the situation right now is a whole lot better than 50 years ago before the Chinese Government intervened in Tibet (some guys call this the 'invasion'). Before 1951, there was a extremo serfdom system where monastries owned serfs, and the serfs had pretty no rights or possesions. Punishment forms included chopping off limbs, hands, feet, tongues, gouging out eyes. It was also ok to make religious human sacrifices. Now its illegal to do all those things. Back before 1951, there were also no schools, hospitals, electricity or even roads, and today they exist.
Thirdly, obviously it's not up to scratch compared to the west, but i think it's unfair to compare Tibet and the west anyway. Fifty years ago Tibet was pretty much still trapped back in time and still existing like an ancient primitive civilisation, the west took hundreds of years to get from a similar situation to develop the society we now enjoy, and for Tibet to get to where it is now in just fifty years is already a massive step.
I don't know if people are being tortured, torture is wrong but I'm definately skeptical about 'for no reason'. Where did you get this idea from? I want to check it out...anyway, cheers
1 person likes this
@dangtrinh0612 (31)
• Vietnam
26 Dec 09
I don't agree with your viewpoint, that "It's not bad at all in Tibet".
The reason why Tibet has no child restriction is that it's on the mountain and there's still many places to live, but it's really hard to live there! And yes they can go to college with half the score, but when they go to work, it doesn't matter. The Chinese people earn more. And so on...
I have read some book written by the Dalai Dama, and Tibet is still longing for liberty, as he says.