most of us, yours truly included, live in countries where freedom, including freedom of religion and freedom of speech are a everyday commodity. we enjoy it without thinking and honestly couldn’t even imagine that it could be different.
my friendship with colleagues in sri lanka has opened my eyes in this context: it is not commonplace that you can speak freely, and not everywhere physical integrity is warranted by constitution and state. instead speaking openly can make vanish you in a white van (that’s the common mechanism in sri lanka), and not so many of those victims of abductions are found even as corpses.
tibet yesterday celebrated the sad 50th anniversary of its uprising against the chinese invaders and the following suppression. we all should at least take notice of this (reading the dalai lama’s statement here gives some background information) and maybe take even small action against injustice and suppression, not only in tibet. injustice, illegal actions by the state unfortunately happen all over the world. but if everyone of us remembers, if we do act, that will accumulate and help change the world. i am convinced of this.
Agreed. And we shouldn’t forget, it’s not “only” Tibet. There’s still – shall we say it politely – a lot of room for improvement all over China.