More History on Tibet

Chesterfield Spud posted this link on her blog, that is much more comprehensive than the stuff I was able to dig up in the last posts.

I fully agree with the author — it would be silly to say Tibet was perfect/wonderful before China invaded. The problem really is, are they better off?

Personally, I feel that intellectual restrictions and emotional stresses are far worse than physical imprisonment, especially because it’s not readily obvious.

Just because you can’t see the gun pointed at the back of a hostage doesn’t mean it’s not there, or that the hostage is going willingly.

Take someone in prison but allowed to say what he wants, read what he wants, and write to anyone he wants without censure.

Is he really less free than someone who is allowed to wander the streets but watched constantly and is in constant fear of being dragged to jail/torture on some small charge?

Free Half-Day Tour in Taipei

I was looking up some tourism stuff and found this page. Unfortunately, I can’t take advantage of it because it’s for transit or transfer passengers (at Taoyuan Airport) only.

Anyway, thought I’d put it up in case anyone has some time to spare between flights and want a free half day tour through parts of Taipei.

Looks like a pretty good deal, although the morning tour seems to go to less places. I assume it’s because the temples and pottery center are further/more spread out, while the other tour is focused on spots inside the city (which you could probably get to with MRT).