Boycott Carrefour?

The Chinese blogospehere is overflowing with calls to boycott Carrefour. The torch relay in Paris was a disgrace indeed. On the one hand, peaceful protests should be permitted, but on the other hand the torch relay should not be disrupted. I am not in favor of the torch relay, because it was invented by Hitler - so to speak - and has turned into a meaningless media circus. But both sides in the equation should be allowed to have their place under the sun. Paris leaned towards the protesters and thereby insulted the Chinese.

The Chinese people's anger has focused on Carrefour. A boycott of companies and institutions financing the Dalai Lama could, indeed, be a powerful weapon against what the Chinese government calls "Tibetan separatists". But proof of Carrefour's financing of the "Dalai clique" has not been substatiated. The biggest source of financing for the Dalai Lama remains the U.S. government and its assorted agencies such as the CIA. If venting some anger at Carrefour makes you feel better, very well then, go ahead. But perhaps it's not the most appropriate target.

Tibetans and Indians

“Are the Tibetans doomed to go the way of the Native Americans?” asks Ian Buruma in “Tibet's last stand” (The Guardian, April 14, 2008) The comparison is preposterous. The Native Americans or Indians have been ruthlessly murdered by the white American settlers, driven ever more westwards, having their lands confiscated, their women and children murdered. Nothing of the sort has or is happening in Tibet. China's central government has pumped billions of yuan in the development of Tibet. Yes, it's all hardware – buildings, roads, airports, a railroad, the restoration of temples. Usually you start with the hardware, the software will follow. But it's precisely in the “software” field that more needs to be done.

Some Han Chinese – the engineers and managers – have been sent to Tibet by the central government. Many others – the shopkeepers, gold diggers and prostitutes – just went searching for a place to earn a few bucks. They live alongside the Tibetans, but don't speak a word of Tibetan, forcing the Tibetans to communicate in Chinese. This creates friction and tensions. Free Tibetan language and culture classes could promote the integration of the two communities. The Chinese government should invest more in this field.

As even Ian Buruma has to admit, “capitalist development has been even more devastating to Tibetan tradition” than Chinese communism. Tibet is now a breading ground for small scale capitalism. An independent Tibet would no doubt invite the big international mining firms and millions of Western tourists. It would be even more devastating to Tibetan culture, which would be relegated to zoo-style performances for tourists.

On the other hand, modernization should be welcomed, not rejected to preserve a Medieval way of life. Monks are welcome to continue their study of Buddhism, but they shouldn't dominate society.

Leave Afghanistan NOW!

The Belgian government has decided to send four F16 fighter bombers and 100 support personnel to Kandahar in September for four months to beef up Belgium's contribution to the NATO aggression against Afghanistan. While Canada is considering pulling its troops out and Germany refuses to give in to pressure by the U.S. to increase its forces in the South of Afghanistan, the Belgian government and its so-called “Christian” minister of defense Pieter De Crem show their total moral depravity by jumping deeper in the Afghan quagmire.

As Matthew Parris convincingly argues in The Times (“Enough. Time to pack up and leave”), Britain should also withdraw its forces because they are not doing anything worthwhile in Afghanistan. Parris: “We British - never mind about America, or Italy, or Canada, Germany or France - are at the limit of what we can achieve by force. It is no good sending any more troops: we haven't any to spare, and the force we already send to Helmand province is overstretched.”

Foreign forces should finally withdraw from the country and let the Afghans sort out their problems. Today the country is no better off than under the Taliban. Sure, there are some pockets of progress, some girls can go back to school, but nobody is in control of the country, certainly not the puppet Kharzai clique, which is not worth to be called a government. Violence is rife, development is stunted and here comes De Crem throwing 30 million euro into the cesspool to finance Belgium's contribution to the mess.

While Belgian F16s have been stationed in the country before, they never dropped a bomb. This time, they will be assigned combat missions and start dropping bombs, killing tens, perhaps hundreds, of innocent Afghan civilians, while the pilots committing these war crimes remain safe up in the air, so De Crem can avoid the ordeal of seeing body bags arriving in Brussels. While murdering Afghan civilians, the Belgian airmen should not run any risks. Shouldn't we call this racism?

Blog break

The last post on this blog dates from September 15, 2007. For several reasons, I just couldn't keep up with the blog. But I still have been following the news. Every day, there is a story worth telling, a comment waiting to be launched in cyberspace. From now on I will not only resume posting comments every day, but will also try to add stories for each day since September 15, 2007. Of course this is going to take some time, probably several months, and it may be difficult to post something for each and every day since then, but I'll give it a try.

The blog break is over!