Sam PF's Journal - Meanwhile in Tibet
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01:30 am
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Meanwhile in Tibet
I often feel I don't post enough about things like Tibet and Darfur, where it's not "Us" in the West that are so much the bad guys. (OK, I could have finished that sentence after the seventh word). The left gets accused of this quite a lot. Partly I think it's entirely proper that one focuses on the wrongs one is most able to affect via the governments one elects. (Though living in neutral Sweden, I am still a voter in warlike Britain.) Plus there's the whole "take the beam out of your own eye" thing. But still.
So anyway, here is an internet petition on Tibet from Avaaz, who seem to do a fair amount of good stuff. (I note with mild amusement that UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband lists them as one of his favourite organisations on his blog.) Petitions are fairly lame, internet petitions doubly so, especially when the target is a government that doesn't have to worry about votes. But hey, they've got over 1 million signatures, which is rather impressive, and the Chinese really do want to have a happy Olympics, so maybe it can do some good.
Then again it is worth bothering Western governments about such situations, even though it's China that has more direct influence. Bush and Brown etc. say that Darfur is a terrible thing, and that China really ought to put more pressure on their allies in Khartoum; but when it comes to the whole range of issues on the agenda between, say the US or the EU and China, such as trade, terrorism, what to do about Iran, etc. - which will be things where each side will have things they want of the other, matters of quid pro quo rather than one side telling the other what to do - just how high up the list of priorities do you reckon human rights in Darfur and Tibet come? Answers on a postcard. So if public pressure in the West can push such things higher up the agenda, that is all to the good.
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