Blog Colors

For those who’ve visited this blog several times and noticed different colors each time:

I alternate the colors because I couldn’t quite decide on one.  So each color will be up for one or two days (or whenever I get around to it).  At this point, I’m simply going down the list, but in the future I may change the colors depending on my mood.

So you never know, what you get each time will be a surprise!

More on Tibet’s history

Just found this article from the NY Times. My previous entry was based on an article during the cold war, after Mao invaded and took control of Tibet. This article goes back further to investigate the claims on both sides.

It’s an interesting analysis but for those who don’t feel like reading, here’s the author’s conclusion:

There is something less to the arguments of both sides, but the argument on the Chinese side is weaker. Tibet was not “Chinese” until Mao Zedong’s armies marched in and made it so.

I’ll try to give a quick summary here:

Mr. Hu on Tibet

Hu Jintao (China’s president) has finally made a public comment about Tibet.

“Our conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem,” Mr Hu was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. “It is a problem either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland,”

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he does not wish for a boycott of the Olympics, and that he is not seeking separation.

I for one, believe him.

Not saying that I don’t think he’d like to separate at some point, but at this point it is more a question of being able to return and rule. I’m sure he’s not kidding himself even on that respect, which is why he asks only for human rights and freedom.

So is it really a question of unity? I think first we need to know what happened to make the protests turn violent.