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

Hmm...

The railroad build should be contracted to Bechtel or Harliburton.
No complain no more.

"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.