LoudSpeakers

I’m gravely concerned with the recent uprising and resulting squashing of the Tibetans in Lhasa by the Chinese. The Chinese govt is simply inching their way up the punishment ladder to determine what the West can stomach.

The Chinese would like us to believe that “Tibetan culture is repugnant, full of superstition, cruelty, and that it’s an inalienable part of China.” Apparent double-think, but enough for them to wage cultural genocide on the Tibetan people unscathed.

If we let them get away with killing Buddhist monks who protest inhumane treatment, there will be no end in sight to their rampage. There are already plans in place to censor activities in Tiananmen Square from the Chinese TV watching audience. There are bound to be protests (rightfully so) and demonstrators pointing out the laundry list of human rights abuses in China.

I’m saddened that we even have China as a trading partner given their support for other dastardly regimes such as in Sudan. The Chinese (and Indians for that matter) are largely interested in African energy resources — everything else is secondary including human life.

I’m generally disinterested in Olympic sports because the West tends to dominate in most every category — so is it really a competition at all? Those with better resources are better trained and probably fed better to boot. Within a margin of error, we likely already know who will win given past performance data. But the Chinese Games should be protested on more moral grounds: dictatorial and repressive regimes should not be rewarded for their valor in killing innocent people. Or else we can’t fight the next battles as effectively. Boycott China and the Beijing Games.

One could opine and muse all day long about the problems in India, particularly when it comes to infrastructure.  Let’s face it — India’s infrastructure is a mess.  One cannot even classify it as being in disrepair —– because that implies that it worked properly once upon a time.  But the problems are and will get better over time.  But still, each time I visit India, it’s apparent how chaotic things are here because of it.

“Load shedding” happens frequently.  It’s a way of forcing people off the electrical grid when it needs to, well, shed some load.  A very small, lightweight storm came through Pune a few days ago.  We lost power at the house for a brief period.  I lost Blackberry data service for the rest of the evening.  It was the sort of storm that would be a blip on the radar in the States in terms of fear of power loss.  But small storms can amount to large disruptions here because of the infrastructure.

But, just before the storm was starting to set in, I was wandering around on foot (getting a break from my startup) and realized that democracies are chaotic by definition.  Competing interests, capital markets, free flow of information and ideas all have a mysterious way of being chaotic yet somehow manage to work out in seemingly the most challenging situations. 

As people continue to describe India as the “counter-weight” to China, I am reminded that infrastructure in Shanghai is brilliant, but at the cost of slave labor, censorship and basic freedoms.  Give me poor, ailing infrastructure any day along with the ability to speak my mind, read from the free press, and travel freely —– compared to living under a merciless regime with well paved roads. 

Good read on some of the differences.

Link: India vs. China: Who Has The Edge?