Yeah, 3rd post tonight, but can’t resist sharing another one from the letters page in the SCMP.

A Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee New Jersey Mr. James Tam from Mid Levels writes:


One simple fact has been overlooked, there are still debates and organised unrest in Tibet because of the relative success in preserving the Tibetan identity.

Exsqueeze me?

Oh, it gets better.


Had a solution – similar to that applied to native Americans in the US – been applied to Tibet whenever the Mongols or Han Chinese were in a position to do so, Tibetan unrest would now be no more exciting than a drunken commotion on a native American reservation.

Yeah, I know, at least he didn’t call them “Injuns.” Thank Buddha for small miracles. And thank China for not killing all of the Tibetans so that they can stage protests so the Chinese can kill them?

Actually, when you think about it, what China is doing there is pretty much exactly what the U.S. did in the 19th Century …. shipping in non-Tibetans by the bus and train load, giving them the best land, giving them the best jobs, not allowing the people who live there to have any say in how they’re governed. Bury my heart at Lhasa?

Or is the Chinese government going to allow native Tibetans to open casinos?


Indian unemployment rates of 30 percent and more are dropping to almost nothing with the emergence of Indian casinos.

Since the enactment of the IGRA, revenues from Indian gaming operations have grown exponentially. Nationwide, total revenues from Indian gaming are projected to top the $6 billion mark, with total profits exceeding $1 billion, in 1995

To continue with positive aspects, tribes use their profits for the betterment of the reservation and its people. They are building schools/colleges (there are currently 26 tribal colleges nationwide) and community centers, setting up education trust funds/scholarships, investing in alcohol and drug treatment programs, financing new business enterprises (entrepreneurships), and putting in water and sewer systems on the reservations.

Not saying that allowing Native Americans to operate casinos in the past 20 years absolves the U.S. from centuries of wrong doing but still, “drunken commotion on a native American reservation” my ass.

Hongkie Town
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