Submitting to the Chinese dollars

[mahnmut]

This comes as a nice example to the previous post. Did you hear what the explanation of the SA guvmint was for snubbing the Dalai Lama's visit? They "did not want to distract the attention from the preparations to the World Cup in 2010". WTF!? How stupid is that? Stupid beyond reason. They must think people are idiots with attention deficit, and they cannot handle more than one event per year?

What, is the Dalai Lama some kind of saboteur of major sporting events around the world?

However this could have a serious backlash because some voices are already considering to start advocating a boycott of the World Cup.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/dalai-lama-south-africa-world-cup-ban

Selling their souls to the Chinese financial cronyism may become even a bigger reason for boycott than the rampant crime across SA, which has been stated by many as reason No.1 to not attend the World Cup. With their own stones on their heads. It's a pity we'll all have to suffer from this.

Comments

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Please explain.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Sure, the rule of the Lamas was a brutal medieval despotism....but did placing Tibet under Mao Zedong as opposed to Tenyin Gyatso change anything for Tibetans or did it rob them of the culture that might have otherwise sustained them?

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

The question is not in the past, no matter how much you'd like to refer to it, being a "History Major", etc. We live in the present. And the present offer some inconvenient truths, like for example:

- The Dalai Lama has turned into the West's propaganda puppet.
- China will do whatever they please, regardless of what the West thinks.
- Directly linked to my previous post, the West is in crisis, while China is trying to fill the vacuum.
- Africa is part of this game, and China would be stupid if they didn't seize the opportunity to fill the vacuum.
- The SA guvmint is receiving tempting offers from China, which it cannot refuse, especially at times of global crisis. They're choosing to play with the strong of the day.
- My rant is more about the idiotic form in which all politicians are trying to explain their acts. It would've been so much simpler if they had used a little more sincerity, just for a change.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Sincerity? In politicians? That's like expecting water to be dry!

All of what you say is true and I have no disagreement with it on that basis.

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

You haven't heard of 'dry water' then. Physics is not your own waters, is it :-P

And don't always agree with me, it wouldn't be interesting!

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Eh....the Dalai Lama would have been one more in a long series of brutal aristocrats if he had been able to rule Tibet instead of losing it, but something like this is clearly a sop to an even bigger despotism.

In this case I side with those who say the Dalai Lama should be let in. The People's Republic isn't a good regime for its people, and should be called on such.