Tibet's Bloodshed

The bloodshed in Lhasa, Tibet is a hot topic on the world news for these few days. The government in Beijing hoped to gain economical benefits after first rail way that links to Tibet starts to run. Indeed China gained economical profits because of people and trading, but this lead to another huge problem. The main reason that caused this protest is because the culture shift. After the rail way is opened, Lhasa become a popular tourist place. Many Han Chinese immigrated in to Tibet and occupied a huge part of Tibetans economy. Many Tibetans felt that those Han Chinese immigrants threatened their life style and their own cultural status.
For more detailed information please read the BBC Special report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/guides/456900/456954/html/nn0page1.stm
and more Tibet bloodshed related links:
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?scope=all&edition=i&q=Tibet&go.x=0&go.y=0&go=go

The main reason why I want to bring this issue up (at 12:30am) is because I saw an interesting news report just a few hours ago. (By the way, this is a very good TV program that discuss many current issues around the world. From world economy to local news..)

Give you a little more background of what happened before:
There was a huge bloodshed in the year 1988 because Tibetans wants to become independent from China. The leader of China was Deng Xiaoping at that time and he gave Jiang Zemin (China's leader from 1989-2002) a mission to calm the riot in Tibet. Jiang Zemin used China's People's Liberation Army and gun force to calm the riot down; the riot was appeased under military force. and Jiang Zemin was then appointed to succeed the position as the leader of China by Deng Xiaoping himself. The peace in Tibet lasted for 49 years until few days ago. Chinese government tried to calm Tibetans down by promising them better economy, which is the rail way linked to Tibet, hoping to improve the economy of Tibetans.

And now, the riot starts again.
This riot did not just demonstrate the angriness of Tibetans but also the power of China's communist government. The government seemed to blame the fault on the Dali Lama. The government calls the army to occupy Tibet and there are tanks on the streets... Isn't this replaying what happened in 1988?

The interesting and ironic point is: on the right hand side, Chinese government is trying to boom the economy up, doing everything try to help China to become world's best, and is doing everything they can to welcome the Olympic Games that is coming up in a months. On the other hand, China's Communist government is still using communist army forces to suppress Tibetans. Does this mean that the Chinese government still does not improve, and has not yet abandon their old fashioned way of governing?

I think it is hard for China to abandon these old ideas because they ARE a communist country. Honestly, I do not like communist government. We should be glad that we have a president election coming up... ;)

* The TV program is called "文茜世界週報", hosted by a very famous lady called 陳文茜. I strongly recommend people to watch it. All the information presented in the program are carefully picked and very well-reported!
* I tried to summarize what I heard on the news today and tried to translate everything into English. It took me a long time, sorry if you can't understand some of the things that I wrote.

Grizzley Man - Film Reflection

In the film, Timothy Treadwell displayed many side of himself. He sometimes praise himself as a warrior, a master and destined to save these bears. Indeed, he is a warrior because he has the courage to think that he can live with the bear. His faith was so strong that made him willing to sacrifice his live to the wild. He believed that it is his responsibility to educate others about these animals and he did went to many schools to teach the children. I respect him for that because I also want to do something like educating others and make a change, and I know it is not a easy job to educate others. Timothy is a very sentimental person, he even felt really sad when he saw a bee on the flower. If it was me, I would not even notice the bee on the flower and feel sad about how its death.

Timothy's belief is both radical but also non-radical. It is radical in a way that people might think he deserves the death; non-radical because that is what he believed in. To him, he rather die if that can evoke others to protect the bears and the nature. I also see the rule of fittest survive in this movie. When the bear attacked Timothy, it is destined that he will die. Nature is sometimes emotionless. Only the fittest can survive... something inside the bear clicked its mind, and decided "that's it! I'm going make him as my food". Again, this is another lesson of what the reality of nature looks like.

Can humans become a part of the wild? I questioned the possibility of whether human can live with the animals when I saw the scene of Timothy patting on the fox while talking to the camera. The fox seem to like Timothy because the fox showed no sign of resisting. This question also made me think of the movie "Instinct". In the Instinct, the old man lived with the chimpanzees in the wild for quite a while. Although this movie is fictional, but seems like there is a possibility that humans may become part of the wild community.

Arctic Tale Film Reflection

We watched the film Arctic Tale today. First I have to say that the film is AMAZING! Those people took fifteen years tracking the polar bears and walruses, they also need to endure such coldness to get the best shots. It is simply cool!
I never knew how a life of the polar bear or walruses would look like before I watch this film. The interactions between Mother Nature and the animals are incredible. I also realized how Global Warming is effecting animals survival. I read news about polar bears drowning while swimming across the sea, and the film helped me to visualize everything. I felt so guilty because the problems humans create are directly contributed to the death of those animals!

I was impressed by the team work of seals and the auntie taking care of other's child. It was quite amazing to see an animal has such family relationship with each other. Towards the end of the film, the auntie made a sacrifice to safe the young seal from the predator. I wonder if that is a sign of showing her emotion. Such brave action is the same as humans' behavior. It might be driven by the love towards the young seal because usually humans can make sacrifices for their loved ones.

When one of the young polar bear died, his families stayed beside him for a while. It made me think of what I wrote in the expedition 2 questions entry. The birds and the bear seem to have same kind of emotions when seeing their loved one died.

Another scene that made me wonder about whether animals have emotions is when the mother Polar bear was trying to drive her child away. The expression of her eyes is showing anger or at least expressing a "get away from me" message. Also, the narrator mentioned that the separation for the young polar bear was hard; I think it is because there is a certain degree of love between the mother and the child.

The arctic ice is melting faster than ever, this made me very worried about all the animals living in Arctics. I read news articles that write about environmental issues almost everyday, scientists said that Global Warming will continue to become worse. The early melting ice and weather changes made the animals expose to extreme risks. The polar bears and the walruses need to swim many miles before they find a new piece of ice; the wolfs cannot swim across the sea, so what should they do to survive? The animals are facing extinction because of human....

EMO

HAh! I was very emo today. Probably it was because I don't have any safe colleges/universities that I can consider to go to.
Well.... after chatting with Dennis just 1 hr ago, finally I found a school that I can probably get into! Haha! I also talked to my mom about it. I feel better after talking to her. At least I have a thread of hope for getting into college again.
It's very near my aunt's house. If I go there, I can visit my uncles, aunts, cousins often and I can have a part time job in my aunt's Dunkin Donut shop!!!! :D
But, you know, everything is uncertain.

Hi!

A new blog for GE class!!!
Hmm..... don't really now what to say.
I don't like the templates. There aren't many choices to choose.
Anyways, I'll be updating this blog constantly!