Re: Tibetans fear $3.2 billion railroad is being built at their expense

Now, I know those mad china-haters want. Scrap the railroad to link tibet,
modern medicine, bring the life expectancy down to 45 years, let  the Tibet
be the serfs  to Dalai Lama. An illiterate, ignorant, anachronistic and
impoverished Tibet would be ideal training ground for them to practise
"human rights", "freedom" and "compassion"

"Thomas J Wheat" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Tibetans fear $3.2 billion railroad is being built at their expense
> Los Angeles Times
> http://www.charleston.net/stories/110703/wor_07tibet.shtml
> LHASA, TIBET--Beijing's plan to pacify this restive Himalayan province
> involves a $3.2 billion railroad that will connect the rest of China
> to the frozen Tibetan plateau known as the roof of the world.
>
> The railroad, billed as the world's highest and due to be completed in
> 2007, represents the linchpin of China's ambitious "Go West" campaign
> to develop and repopulate its impoverished hinterland.
>
> But Tibetans opposed to Chinese control say the railroad's
> construction, which began last year, has so far confirmed their worst
> fears: that the train, although it may usher in rapid progress, will
> transform Tibet's desolate nomadic culture into a land of
> inequalities.
>
> "We went to inquire about railroad jobs but they said it's all been
> taken," said Tenzin, a 22-year-old Tibetan farmer from Gansu, formerly
> part of Tibet, but now a Chinese province. "We've been here four
> months and we can't find anything. We're willing to be waiters,
> security guards, tour guides, anything. But no one wants us."
>
> The Chinese seem to have an extra edge. That's because education and
> the ability to speak Mandarin Chinese are the basic criteria for most
> jobs.
>
> Tibetans have fought for preservation of their culture since China
> annexed their homeland in 1951. International attention has been drawn
> to their independence movement by the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual
> leader driven from here in 1959 when the Chinese crushed a failed
> uprising.
>
> The Dalai Lama has repeatedly spoken out against what he calls a
> cultural genocide by Chinese occupiers in Tibet. Beijing considers the
> Nobel laureate a separatist bent on breaking up the nation. Chinese
> authorities have banned his portrait here.
>
> But many Tibetans secretly display his image in their homes and pray
> to him.
>
> Beijing has tried to squelch the independence movement by pumping in
> cash. It poured as much as $1.6 billion into the Tibetan economy last
> year alone, which officials say represented the largest investment in
> any province.
>
> "Tibet's stability is China's stability. Tibet's development is
> China's development," said Xiangba Pingcuo, Tibet's governor.
>
> Beijing says the railroad is the economic salvation Tibet needs.
>
> "Tibet is the only province without a rail link. The people of Tibet
> want development. The railroad is the hope of everybody here," said
> Tajie, the deputy mayor of Lhasa.
>
> The Chinese who live here feel they would be the main beneficiaries.
>
> "They're probably building the railroad for us," said Chen Yajun, 32,
> a taxi driver from central China's Sichuan province. "It'll be easier
> and cheaper to go home."
>
> Some of the train's first passengers will probably be its Chinese
> construction workers. Of the 38,000 hired for the job, only 6,000 are
> Tibetans. The rest were trucked in from inland provinces. Semi-skilled
> employees make as much as 11 times more money than manual laborers.
>
> None of the 2,700 workers who operate heavy equipment or hold
> supervisory jobs is Tibetan, according to Huang Difu, an official in
> charge of the project.
>
> Among the biggest losers of this lopsided gold rush are Tibetans
> hoping for a share of the riches transforming their city.
>
> "I feel sad for Tibet," said Jonu, a 19-year-old Tibetan who came to
> pray at the Johkang temple. "So many Chinese are coming."
>
> Lhasa already has the look and feel of a Chinese city, with
> Chinese-style buildings and Chinese billboards proliferating across
> town. More than half the 200,000 residents here are believed to be
> Chinese. Even the main boulevard in front of the Dalai Lama's holy
> Potala Palace is named Beijing Road.
>
> Even Chinese tourists, who come here expecting to see exotic Tibetan
> faces and snowcapped mountains, shake their heads in disbelief when
> they see the new Lhasa.
>
> "The tour guide told us about 80 percent of the people living here now
> are Chinese and most of them are from Sichuan," said Liu Fuyou, 50, a
> tourist from the coastal city of Tianjin wearing a straw cowboy hat.
> "This is no longer Lhasa city, Tibet province. This is Lhasa city,
> Sichuan province!"
>
> As the Chinese thrive, raking in cash, the Tibetans seem to flounder.
> At the Lhasa night market, all but one of the vendors are Chinese.
>
> "Four years ago about 30 percent of us were Tibetan. Now we are the
> only one left," said Ciren Zhuoma, 37, sitting in front of her small
> shop selling Pepsi T-shirts and Budweiser baseball caps. Her voice is
> barely audible above the piercing sound of live Chinese opera nearby.