What happened in Lhasa was unfortunate. Another stupid incident where the ones died without a name. Briefly three points I want to make about Lhasa 314, given my personal experience in the United States:

1)

Western media has been an ass for the most of the time. I trusted them at first because I doubted Chinese media will unveil the truth with completeness and reliability (which was true though). Then I had to tell myself I was an idiot dismissing a partially blind source for a completely blind source -- on this particular issue.

They are so fucking biased. It is almost like, due to the Chinese government's news policy, they could not obtain first-hand information on March the 14th so they decided to issue false information with a powerful passion for making assumptions.

The news turned out to be quite creative, imaginative, passionate, and thousands of miles away from the truth.

Currently almost everything they wrote on Tibet was based on interviews with the refugees in India or Nepal, and the assumption they made was those refugees represented the majority of Tibetans living in Chinese Tibet. Do the reasoning yourself. Then you will not be surprised to see how western reporters described Tibetans’ miserable lives under the ruling of Han Chinese and how their religion and culture was crumpled with the brutal invasion of the Han and their highly discriminative policies.

Even the articles on the New York Times didn't make the least sense. I don’t even want to talk about CNN because everybody knows they don't even send reporters up to the front lines and they just sit on their fat ass commenting on news that they purchased from elsewhere.

       They put up misleading pictures, illustrating how the government sent a van to imprison peaceful protestors, while every Chinese reader can tell from their picture that was totally not a police car, instead, the big fat Chinese characters on the van indicates "ambulance". They persuaded ordinary people living in the west to believe innocent monks going on peaceful demonstrations got imprisoned or killed, when they intentionally ignore evidences such as videos in which the monks, with knives or stones in their hands, were vehemently attacking the police, among many other people who happened to be at the place. They promoted the idea of boycotting BJ Olympics to support the independence of Tibet, when the Tibetan "free fighters" attacked the diasabled athlete, who also happened to be a young girl carrying out the Olympic torch passing task in her wheelchair. It's ironic how they crazily cheer for an anti-humanitarian cause under the name of defending human rights.

I am disappointed because this whole thing once again verified that this is indeed a world where media can buy your soul. People believe in what they don't know--with a passion.

2)

The Chinese government should fire its advisory group of Tibetan affairs. There was completely a strategic failure.

First of all they were targeting on a wrong person, which basically set all of us against the rest of the world. While the decency and the spirituality of Dalai Lama himself remained questionable -- well at least I personally cannot see much integrity in this person -- it is almost an undeniable fact that he is identified by the rest of the world as a highly spiritual person and a religious leader.

Believe it or not, Chinese government VS Dalai Lama, from the perspective of the rest of the world, the picture now looks exactly like an atheist dictating government VS the freedom of religion. However, Chinese people know the Chinese government is not really as evil as what it appears to be on this very issue. Religion was not even among one of the worst violations of human rights in China. But now the government is setting us against religion, which makes us look bad because the freedom of religion is not arguable.

While Dalai Lama is not, "terrorism" is always a smarter target. Independence of Tibet? We are not letting it happen. Period. However, we still need a better-justified cause to make some people shut up. Other than that, three other fouls made by the government: First, it is stupid for the government to interfere with the Tibetan religious affair, because religion is not something a government can argue with its people. Second, it is clumsy to try to regulate the academia on the study of Tibetan history and religion; it will be very hard to convince the west we are not a human rights disaster and we are “almost” a free country when our academia or intellectual circle is not free. Lastly, it is even more stupid to cut off the first-hand source of Lhasa 314 from the western media (and the whole escort reporting idea is unwise too), because now you know, we let them in, they report bullshit; we don't let them in, they report worse bullshit. They will be bitching at us anyway, so why not having the gesture of "free press, free speech".

3)

The whole "freedom" thing is not a matter of fact but a matter of argument. The fight will never end because we (we and the West) are totally arguing from different dimensions. For example, we hold on to "freedom froms" while the west is just obssesed with "freedom ares". As a matter of fact, our lines of argument will never intersect. Our government will never be able to convince the west we are free people enjoying some level of democracy. And never expect any empathy from the west, simply because we are just living on different dimensions with different ideologies. Hence the ever-lasting quarrel over human rights between US and China. Apparently we also have different ideologies for what is for "the best interest of people". Sometimes if you look at the debate, it simply looks like both sides are yelling at each other in vain. Old habits die hard, ideological root dies harder.

While I was listening to my friends’ opinions on this Tibet issue, I have always been trying to be impartial and pleasant. I agree with some of their points, but my friends, whatever you say wouldn't justify the killing and any form of support of this futile violence.

Whatever mistakes our government has made in the past, it does not make the killers and mobs the justice side. Despite of what kind of government we have, it is almost an animal instinct for us people to protect our territory. Sovereignty is what makes us a country at the first place. Supporting the motherland and making sure she’s safe and healthy is a noble cause to preserve our own dignity as a proud human being as well as a humble attempt to secure our continued existence on this planet.

I could not do much-- I did not have time for organizing a demonstration or presentation at Bucknell, but at least I convinced some intelligent individuals at lunch table, starting with my own friends. Most importantly, I will never stop thinking and caring. With regard to Dalai Lama, I cannot argue much with my friends. I told them what I saw from China and what I heard about him from the west makes him two very different individuals. I haven’t made up my mind yet because I have no confidence in believing either side without doing some research on my own. I will tell you, however, by the end of the summer break, whether he is really a respectable spiritual leader or just a clumsy hypocritical politician, or both.

Despite of all the misconceptions and miscommunications and all the noises they have made, innocent people died. They deserve some peace in the heaven.