I have been sitting on this article for a while in part because I was busy with other things and I also wanted to make sure that the photo that I am about to publish on this blog is as legitimate as I can determine. If you are reading this second line, I would like to warn you that the picture below is not for the faint of heart but I merely illustrates the contradictory nature of the Chinese presence in Tibet. President Hu recently stated this past weekend:
Our Conflict with the Dalai clique is not an ethnic problem, not a religious problem, nor a human rights problem.
I think everyone would agree with me when I state that this is a human rights problem because the picture at the end of this post is of a young man who is just 2 years older than me and is now dead. His death was not due to natural causes because if you look closely at the photo, you can see a single bullet wound close to the sternum which is there to protect the heart. We can assume the bullet pierced his heart so hopefully his death was quick and painless. This photo was obtained from wikileaks.org where they also host other photos and videos. I chose this photo from a lot of 120 because it was the only photo that has the relevant information attached to the jpeg.
Not many people aware but most photo’s taken with digital camera’s include some extra bits of data like the time the photo was taken, the kind of camera, exposure etc… The date attached to this photo is stated as March 15th which if we look back at the news archives was when the Tibetan government in exile reported that 30 people died during unrest in Lhasa (AFP). Thus we can assume that this young man was one of the 30 people that died that day. According “extra information” attached to the file, the photo was taken at 623pm on March 15th with a Canon Digital Ixus 800 IS. I have never heard of this camera before but having looked at some detailed specifications, I can surmise that it was the easiest as well as the cheapest camera to buy in Tibet or smuggle into the country to take these photos.
I would like to apologize to anyone who is offended by this photo and also to the parents of this young man. I do not mean to offend but merely provide a face to the people who do not believe as well as those who do, to illustrate that this is a real crisis and not something manufactured by the Western media as many people might believe.
I hope through writing this blog entry that people will take this human rights crisis more seriously and send a message to the Chinese government that treating people this way will not be tolerated. Furthermore I hope President Bush will not attend the Olympics like he has stated he will do and follow the lead of Nancy Pelosi and denounce the Chinese government and its policies more fervently than he has already done so.
Lastly I would like to apologize to many of my Chinese friends who might think that I am attacking them or their culture. This is so far from the truth because I admire Chinese culture but I do not like and will never support the Chinese government. I hope one day that people in China will be able to make their own choices and have free access to information without falling prey to the CCP’s theology.
