h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There are obviously many more Friends of Tibet than those I mentioned in this Entry. The vast majority of Friends are ordinary people who commit long hours and whatever resources they can afford to spend in trying to call your attention to the suffering in Tibet and to raise the profile of the Tibet issue in domestic politics and international diplomacy.

This is a tough job - a lot tougher than it ought to be. The simple question of right and wrong has been subverted for far too long by people who would prefer that we not know about things we would naturally consider an outrageous affront to basic human decency.

Please take a few minutes to explore some of these Tibet Links:

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JTG

Happy New Year to all Friends of Tibet. My name line includes a link to an immediate action you can take.

The sad truth of the matter is that the powers that be are very reluctant to rock the boat with China because the Chinese economy is seen as the salvation for the global free market.

Globalisation is a huge power to tackle, but at the bottom line ( where big business likes to lurk ) lies the power of the consumer, which is us. There is a considerable movement, mainly in America and India at present, to "Boycott Made in China." Virtually all the cheap goods we use are now made in China, as are things such as the keyboard you are typing on, the monitor you are gazing at as you read this, etc. Among China's exports, Christmas decorations, toys, artificial flowers, brushes, leather and cotton goods are actually produced in forced labour camps of China's notorious gulag, the "laogai," or "re-education through labour" camps.

According to Amnesty International's conservative statistics, internment in "laogai", the use of torture and the death sentence have increased under the new " WTO-market friendly," more "liberal" Chinese regime.

The simplistic belief, much touted by politicians, that the free market capitalist economy now prevailing in China will lead automatically to political liberation is just not true. The evidence is that China fears the instability caused by competitive markets, increased unemployment etc., and is becoming much tougher on any signs of dissent. This includes heavy internet censorship.

The regime's prime targets are belief systems, such as Tibetan Buddhism, and Falun Gong, which conflict with socialist-materialist-atheism, the core creed of the PRC.