Free Tibet

I've decided that I'm not watching the Olympics this year. While I support the athletes, I full-heartedly am against China. First off, the things they do to their own people are unthinkable. Still today, little girls are being murdered to produce a son, or they're being sold into prostitution and slavery rings as babies. If that wasn't reason enough, China's treatment of Tibet is.

Being a religion major, I've explored several different religions and been able to identify which ones I personally like and don't agree with at all. Buddhism strikes a chord with me. I've been meditating and doing yoga since I was about twelve, and have always liked and agreed with the idea of karma. That's a big part of why I can't, as a conscious and compassionate person, watch the Olympics. Mao not only lied to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans, but he and his successors have basically exterminated Buddhism in the region, despite them saying several times that people have the freedom between five major religions - Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam. The part they don't talk about is that religious practices can only occur at certain times in certain places; only X number of books can be published and possessed; different dress isn't allowed; and probably the most disturbing thing is that they've killed, tortured, and systematically destroyed most monks and nuns, even going so far as to destroy the Universities because they were also Buddhist worship sites.

China today told the protesters to "shut up." Here's the Dalai Lama's response. Basically, His Holiness talks about the fact that protesters have the right to speak out, especially in America, and that he calls for nonviolence. This man is amazing and so genuine. Think about it, despite his people being murdered and oppressed, he calls for nonviolence, because violence is just going to make it worse... it always does.

And how do we as a country respond? We support China through buying everything exported from the country, despite the millions of Americans hurt and disfigured for life because of faulty and harmful products. There have been so many people who have gotten terrible chemical burns from Chinese made flip flops sold at Wal-Mart, even after they had been recalled.These clearly are burns and not allergic reactions, you can even look up the difference online.

By continuing to shop at Wal-Mart, where every single thing in the store is from China (with the exception of some Japanese electronics), we support the genocide being carried out in Tibet, the oppression of millions of people who don't even have the freedom to read this post, and the systematic female infanticide that's been going on for hundreds of years. Yes, many other stores carry Chinese products, but there is a better variety. For example, at Kmart we carry things from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Japan, India, and all over the place - I should know, I unpack a great deal of these things to put them up on the floor.

Although this is just a personal choice, I urge all of you to think about the impact that it could have if people abstained from watching the Olympics. Yes, it's nonviolent and won't work very well unless many people do it, but it's something.

Free Tibet!