Free Tibet

whiteboytrash

Fat chance mate..... besides who gave a shit about Tibet until the Olympics ? No one..... a little like the East Timor..... no one gives a shit until an overacting American celebrity can jump on the back of a cause for their own personal publicity ....... what about free Iraq ? Does that mean I shouldn't buy Pepsi ? Dick breath.

jimmypop

The Beastie Boys gave a shit. You're just a shithead.

hawkeye87

God! Comments like this make my head spin. Good luck following that stance.

You won't be able to purchase much if you stick to that. Just about everything is made there.

Suddenly we're going to take a stand now? It's years too late as manufacturing is firmly embedded in China and other low-cost regions. White collar jobs are next to hit China and it represents something even cheaper than India, Malaysia, etc.

__________________

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -- Wayne Gretzsky

RdBiker

The problem with boycots like that is that they almost never work. Don't take this so that I would bash your comment but it would need millions of people, or even more to get something like this to even make a small difference.
You are right in that nowadays people can more and more affect things by their shopping choices but the thing has to be so near to so many's heart to succeed. I just don't see boycotting chinese products because of the recent actions in Tibet - for the unethical torturings and executions, maybe yes.

And by the way, the problem with not buying chinese products is to convince millions of western people to not buy tvs, computers, printers, mobile phones, etc. You get my point. And besides, the companies aren't the ones that are messing around in Tibet.

__________________
It never gets easier, you just go faster
Oton ATK Sandisk Mp3-soittimet ja Koss kuulokkeet

Bro Deal

I have played around with the thought that democracies should band together and have a uniform "dictator tariff." You would have to exclude raw commodities like oil, but the price of other goods from non-democratic countries should be jacked up by forty or fifty percent. There should be a real economic incentive for countries to change.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

RdBiker

Yes but democracy isn't the only type of government and in some ways not necessarily the best one. That is the most "popular" one in the world right now but in for example 500 years that could change. So that's why you shouldn't really force anyone to a certain government type since all of them have their pros and cons.
How would you like if your country would have to convert to communism because all your neighbouring countries refused to trade with you otherwise? I know I wouldn't like that even though communism as a concept is very equal (probably more equal than democracy), the problem is it has always been implemented in the wrong way or taken advantage of by some people.
BUT something should be done about China anyways.

__________________
It never gets easier, you just go faster
Oton ATK Sandisk Mp3-soittimet ja Koss kuulokkeet

TheDarkLord

Do you think the big corporations will allow anything like that? At least in the US, the government follows what the corporations wants it to do. So, this will never happen. Secondly, there is the grey area about democracy itself. There seems to be a tendency to promote democracy ONLY if it results in a government that is acceptable to the power-wielding nations. If not, then never mind that people have democratically voted for somebody - the results are conveniently ignored. Finally, most countries have some form of human rights abuse going on or other. Those are again conveniently ignored when countries like China are made a scape-goat. Talk of double standards!

Crankyfeet

Agreed. The Dalai Lama knows how to exploit the US/western media. How famous is the guy as a result of all this? Exactly what is it that Tibetans can't do now? It is about political power and control. Not human rights. If you really want to free oppressed indigent people... why not focus on Zimbabwe, Myanmar (Burma), or North Korea, where the real problems are?

Recipe

1 egotistical democracy advocate in non-democratic country/region
I lb US media looking for conflict to sell news
1-2 celebrities looking for publicity
8 oz US politicians looking for photo ops and a popular issue to banner wave on (hey Nancy Pelosi- could you even find former Tibet on a map before?)
14 buckets of US citizens/politicians who are afraid of China surpassing them in economy and world influence.
1 hypocritical human rights smokescreen.
I local world event (Olympics or G7 meeting are good)

Stir until aroma attracts sheep.

__________________
Originally posted by Frigo's Luggage...

"[Calling him] 'dickcheese' is the insult of a master. Some people work in oil, some people work in clay. He [thoughtforfood] works in profanity. Open your mind and enjoy its beauty."

tonyzackery

Couldn't have stated it anymore eloquently myself...thanks...

hawkeye87

+1.

Just like government setups, the problem with a tariff is how do you honestly apply it given human nature. Everything looks good, in theory, but breaks down when personalities get involved. They end up being a political tool and causing everything to be more expensive, causing the world economy to suffer as a result.

__________________

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -- Wayne Gretzsky

TheDarkLord

ROTFL!

Bro Deal

Of course, but I am just saying that if the U.S. acted smartly it would use its soft power to encourage positive change instead of relying on trade to encourage the people to rise up and topple their authoritarian governments.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Bro Deal

I bet that Dalai Lama has a secret garage in his monestary where he hides his Ferraris and his big ass RV. The diet is probably a sham too. In the back there is a Kentucky Fried Chicken joint.

There might be a few people in the world who think that human rights are not a way to scam your way to political power. They might actually believe in them.

__________________
"You are like the wind and I like the lion. You form the tempest. The sand stings my eyes and the ground is parched. I roar in defiance but you do not hear. But between us there is a difference. I, like the lion, must remain in my place. While you like the wind will never know yours." -- Mulay Hamid El Raisuli, Lord of the Riff, Sultan to the Berbers, Last of the Barbary Pirates

Crankyfeet

Human Rights are fine... unless they are politically inconvenient. Where were human rights considered when America almost wiped out the entire indigenous population upon settling their new country?

Where were the human rights when the US wiped out hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Why did they wait only three days before dropping the second one? It was a guinea pig test of two different bombs and showing the world that they have the shit... and spun afterward as having saved lives in the conflict. Japan was almost at surrender point before the first one.

Do Americans regard foreign human life the same as they regard US human life? 4,000 US dead in Iraq. It is a tragedy. Does anyone in America even know or care how many Iraqis have died?

Darfur - lets just turn our backs and hope it goes away. Nothing political to gain there. Though I would regard the right to live and not be murdered for my beliefs as being high on the list of inalienable human rights.

Zimbabwe - who gives a fuck?
North Korea - They got the bomb
Burma - old story, hard for CNN to sell.
Darfur - what's a few hundred thousand less Africans?

BTW - egotism doesn't equal materialism.

__________________
Originally posted by Frigo's Luggage...

"[Calling him] 'dickcheese' is the insult of a master. Some people work in oil, some people work in clay. He [thoughtforfood] works in profanity. Open your mind and enjoy its beauty."