Tibetan suicide-bombers?
A column in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle reveals the frustration of young Tibetans with the pacifist policy of the Dalai Lama.
Topden Tsering highlights a new movie that captures the ignored reality facing the Tibetan community around the world. "We're No Monks," a fictional account of the lives of four young men whose quest for freedom leads them to terrorism. The anger of actor Sonam Wangdue, however, is not fictional: "Whenever we talk about China spurning all efforts by the Dalai Lama toward achieving a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue, about the larger world's indifference to Tibet's ongoing tragedy, we can't help but find ourselves mulling over violence as a possible option."
The piece reminded me of an essay I'd written for one of these About.com wannabe sites back in May, 1998. My argument: terrorism is the logical outcome of a world that responds to arguments backed by force rather than morality. In other words, we're more likely to pay attention to the terrorists who kill 88 innocent civilians in Sharm al-Sheik than a single monk setting fire to himself in protest. You can read the edited version of the piece -- which seems both a little dated and oddly prescient in this post-9/11 era -- after the jump.
