Copied from my last post:

"...

There are about a handful of posters left on this forum: Chris, Tenzin, Khechok, Kyt, Chendu and Wuming. Although our views can be extreme, each of us is nevertheless serious. We have not earned each others respect yet, we should at least view each other as serious.

I am struck by the parallel between Tenzin and Khechok on one side and rest of us on the other. Each is defending a regime which had some very nasty stuff in its recent past. China had the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen, and Tibetans had the outdated practice of Lamaism and slavery. The fact that neither the real Chinese communism nor Tibetan theocratic serfdom had survived 20th century was not accidental. They were both un-sustainable dead-end systems.

The parallel extend further to the core of each argument: Tibetans on one side insists that HHDL and the Tibetan government in Exile have no intension of bringing either the theocracy or the fundamentalist doctrines of Lamaism back to Tibet. While the rest of us argued that the current regime in China resembles the communists in Mao’s era in name only.

Now I call on each of us to take one more step into the shoes of the other side. If you think, like I do, that the current Chinese communist government have evolved from a fanatical quasi-religious dictatorship which destroyed several generations of Chinese, to a fairly benign authoritarian regime that have acted for the most part responsibly according to the wills of the its people. Then why can’t you accept that HHDL and TGIE no longer want to restore theocracy, instead only desire Tibet’s political independence or autonomy? At the same time, Tenzin and Khechok, do you really think the current Chinese government set out to destroy Tibetan culture and people?

I am not trying to get everyone to sing Kumbaya here. I believe that gap between the two sides is wide and deep, the ethnic hatred genuine. I only want to strip away as many fake issues as possible to get at the real ones. I have argued that the Tibet problem, as it currently stands, is neither cultural nor religious. It is a political and ethnic dispute. To solve the political dispute requires wisdom and realism; to solve the ethnic dispute requires time and tolerance.
"

Continuing Nick Kristof's Forum on Tibet and China

I posted as "wuming" in the Your Comments on Tibet, Part Two thread in Nick Kristof "On the Ground" blog of the New York Times. Through this blog I wish to provide all posters there an opportunity to continue the discussion. I have not determined whether to moderate this blog or not. Your suggestions and posts are very much welcomed.