"progress" brought by a totalitarian regime like China or the Nazis?" You
have no idea the level of poverty these people lived under before. Much
of their meager resources like Yak butter went to the local monastery.
The first born son went to the local monastery by law. They had to give
so much barley and yak meat to the monastery. I have traveled to and
through over 50 countries and never have I seen this kind of poverty. You
speak of internet service and freedom. They don't know of or care for the
internet in Tibet and politics is a luxury after the basic need like food,
clothing, shelter, and security are met. The Chinese brought health care,
schools, electricity, public housing, none of which these people had
before. If freedom means being allowed to starve, freeze, and toiling for
the monks hell yes I would give it up. I firmly believe communism is good
when the people are so poor and the wealth is held by a few. When
education and private enterprise get a hold and the people can think and
grow on their own then communism will vanish. A Chinese friend told me
when in China that China now is like a big boat where the people are
steering it and making business and the government officials are in little
boats behind trying to keep up while waving flags and making noise. In
other words China is becoming capitalist and is communist in name only to
much degree.

Khubla wrote:

His Holiness is a man of science and reason. Unfortunally the 14 Dalai
Lama
will most certainly be the last and he had stated to me that his hopes
was
to raise the Tibetan people to both economic and spiritual independence.
He
has done a good job at the various refugee centers in India and I must
admit
from personal observation during my one trip to Lhasa, Tibet in 1998 that
the Chinese are doing many good things there with schools, medical
clinics
and hospitals, electric for the 1st time and jobs. I'm not saying
everything the Chinese has done has been good but the extreme poverty and
serfdom the peasants lived under from the ruling clergy for centuries was
really, really oppressive. Anyone contemplating a trip to India should
visit Nepal and Tibet. I would be glad to answer any questions as I'm an
"old India hand" to use an old British Raj term.

Were the Tibet people given any choice in the matter?
Do the Tibetan people have the basic freedoms now? The Chinese are
still blocking all internet sites they disapprove of even from their own
people. They only allowed Google in if it deleted them from any
searches. Would you exchange your basic freedoms for the sort of
"progress" brought by a totalitarian regime like China or the Nazis?