Olympics 2008

So Beijing is hosting the 2008 summer Olympics. Unless you've been living in Rob Lowe's basement for the past month, you've heard about the protesters who've hounded Olympic torch bearers from Paris to San Francisco.

Apparently these people, who are strong proponents for a free Tibet, ie. a Tibet independent from China, believe that messing with random individuals holding the torch will help their cause.

I disagree, but it illustrates a larger point.

The Free Tibet people are dead on. As far as I understand it, China's relationship with Tibet is pretty similar to its relationship with Taiwan. Both T countries want to get out from under Chinese control, and China refuses to even acknowledge that fact.

Now, this isn't the same as Texans saying they'll secede from the Union. As far as I can tell, that threat is always made tongue-in-cheek. There's no real reason for Texas to create their own country.

But for Tibet, China's Communist government, complete with violent oppression and thought control, is something to be feared.

And here we have the conflict. China desperately wants the Olympics to be its venue to announce that China is now a world superpower.

What China does not understand is that democracy is kinda the way to go for world superpowers right now, and Communism isn't very well-accepted.

Plus, killing Tibetan monks doesn't help China's image.

So we'll see how things go this August. I don't see it ending well.