NYT op-ed: "Railroad to Perdition," by Richard Gere

[DeepModem Mom]

Op-Ed Contributor
Railroad to Perdition
By RICHARD GERE
Published: July 15, 2006


Josh Cochran

THE opening this month of the final segment of world’s highest railway, from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet, is a staggering engineering achievement and a testimony to the developing greatness of China. But it is also the most serious threat by the Chinese yet to the survival of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity. In the words of a well-known Tibetan religious teacher who died after many years in a Chinese prison, the railway heralds “a time of emergency and darkness” for Tibet.

This railway across the roof of the world will result in an expanded Chinese military presence in Tibet, accelerate the already devastating exploitation of its natural resources and increase the number of Chinese migrants, marginalizing the Tibetan people still further. In the capital, Lhasa, Tibetans are already a minority....

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Many Tibetans lost their land to make way for the railway, and Tibetan nomads are being forced to settle in cities. Without land and religion, cultures disappear. This is particularly true in Tibet, where the land itself is regarded as sacred.

And even as their culture is undermined by the railway, most Tibetans are unlikely to enjoy any economic benefits from it. With a price tag of more than $4 billion, the Tibet railway is the most ambitious and costly element of China’s current drive to develop its western regions, known as the Great Leap West. But its construction was based upon the Communist Party’s old strategic and political objectives, and its main beneficiaries will be the Chinese military units stationed there, Chinese companies and Chinese settlers. Most Tibetans don’t have access to education that would allow them to compete in the economic environment created by China’s policies, nor are they welcome to share the fruits of its success....

(Richard Gere, an actor, is the chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/15/opinion/15gere.html?hp

[applegrove]

1. When China invaded Tibet.. they first attacked the business class

of Tibetans and ruined their ability to function. Why would the chinese now hand back that economic power to a Tibetan business ... they were the first to be persecuted.

Very sad.