Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Uighur Protests in and Around Urumqi, China

Here and here.

Why doesn't this happen in the U.S.? Why are there no Navajo insurrections or Aleutian revolts? Is it because we ruthlessly crush them? Or is it because the U.S. continues to improve and expand its freedoms based on the consent of the governed, freedom of speech, property ownership and transparency? As an added ironic observation, why is it that central authoritarian states, even when they're originally predicated on a supposedly universalist social theory like communism, inevitably degenerate to nationalism - where one group is more equal than the others (Uighurs and Tibetans especially)?

China has awakened as a great power, and ultimately it's up to all the people of China - including the Han - to demand the basic freedoms that the successful governments of the world deliver. A peaceful and prosperous twenty-first century depends on it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Because 90% of the Navajo people were killed by our ancesters, who are so smart that leaves no such kind of problems for us.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Tom Paine: I Hope you will be courageous enough to approve my comment and post it here like you claim you are....

Why doesn't this happen in the U.S.? Why are there no Navajo insurrections or Aleutian revolts?

This is because that our ancesters put a nice thought for us and killed 90% of the Navajo tribes and Aleutians, and just pushed the 10% leftover of them in the secluded remote Indian Reserves.

If the Chinese were smart enough to do that 300 years ago when they occupied Uyighur lands and Tibet, they would not need to endure our finger pointing.

Unknown said...

Why doesn't this happen in the U.S.?

Los Angeles riots of 1992 .

Racial voilence has nothing to do with democracy, free press or human right.

It happened to Paris, to Russia, to everyone, except Japan.

Anonymous said...

Chinese leave people alone and nobody gets hurt. The Tibetans, the Uighurs,....and many more don't want the Han Chinese. The Han evil trick is to sneak in people land when they smell goodies such as oil. They move in, outcry, outnumber people and try to change people culture/language/livestyle for their own good. They take then turn around and spit on people. They rob yet feel untitled to rob and superior to the other ethnic people.

Thomas Paine Jr. said...

Mr. Anonymous: I am (part) Native American, and what's more, my ancestors did not take part in any such massacres.

Try this. Go to the Four Corners area of Arizona and New Mexico, where literally hundreds of thousands of people speak Dineh (Navajo) as their first language, and who are productive and well-integrated with the economy. Go to Gallup and listen to people ordering lunch in Dineh and their white servers understanding them. Tell me whether these Americans are really as marginalized as the Uighurs in China.