The numbers of deleted videos and suspended accounts is impressive. However, youtube administrators pay practically no attention on the comments and letters that are sent in their portal. You can report about someone using hate speech- and you can be 90% sure they ignore you. You can easily find videos worshiping Hitler and the holocaust. Yes, porn, shocking videos and racist videos are not “welcomed”- but, e.g,  “lesbian porn” video results 1 – 20 of about 31,500. I would say the work of YT admins is not effective.

I allow comments only after I approve them- so that following comment has never appeared in youtube. Still one Russian guy found this video so offensive, that he reported: “I hope China will kill every separatist monk in Tibet, we should have done the same with Estonians”

Another comment I have saved in my computer, was the one of the comments on SovietStalingirl88′s channel (her account is suspended now): (About Estonia) “We didn’t liberate you, we defeted you cus you’re nazis. Estonians are born cowards and liars, I’m happy my grandfather slaughtered yours, I just regret he didn’t finish his job”

Yes, these people are depressed psychos… but there are too many similar comments in youtube:

“Estonians should be killed 100%”

“Estonia is a country of whores, prostituting itself to one Empire to the next.”

“You Estonians are idiotic disgraces & cowards, enjoy your poor worthless western satellite state”

To say nothing about deeply paranoid channels and usernames like “Estoniasucksrussiandick” and “fuckestonia” . I just feel sorry for them.

What they don’t know, that these comments are serious racist crimes and they can get punished for them in real life. For example, last year a racist Latvian Russian (Russian living in Latvia) got punished for her comment in Latvian DELFI, where she said that she regrets the entire Latvian nation wasn’t deported during Soviet occupation. She was threatened with jail, but as she apologized (yes, internet-commentators are cowards in real life) she had to pay penalty.

For those Russians, who aren’t such racist bastards, can learn about Estonian history here.

The Tibetan community in neighbouring India where many Tibetans are settled organise protests yearly on 10th March against the Chinese particularly in the town of Dharamsala – the fact that China is hosting the Olympics also featured prominently in the protests.

There were protests along the route taken by the Olympic torch, in France the route had to be cut short due to the protests while in London attempt were made to snatch the torch and extinguish the flame. In San Franciso the authorities changed the route to avoid protesters and US presidential hopeful Barack Obama asked for the games to be boycotted in China if it does not take steps to improve its human rights record.

CBC news on protest against China’s Olympic in Paris France

Protester getting close to Olympic Torch in Paris Relay

Greece insulting its own Olympic Flame for Tibet

Peaceful protest for Free Tibet in Canada

Beijing Olympic torch protest – London

Olympic Torch Protest in Buenos Aires

Olympic Torch relay run protest in San Francisco

Why should anyone, especially you, care about Tibet?

Until 1949, Tibet was an independent Buddhist nation in the Himalayas which had little contact with the rest of the world. It existed as a rich cultural storehouse of the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings of Buddhism. Religion was a unifying theme among the Tibetans — as was their own language, literature, art, and world view developed by living at high altitudes, under harsh conditions, in a balance with their environment.

The Dalai Lama, an individual said to be an incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, had been both the political and spiritual leader of the country. The current Dalai Lama (the 14th) was only 24 years old when this all came to an end in 1959. The Communist Chinese invasion in 1950 led to years of turmoil, that culminated in the complete overthrow of the Tibetan Government and the self-imposed exile of the Dalai Lama and 100,000 Tibetans in 1959.

Since that time over a million Tibetans have been killed. With the Chinese policy of resettlement of Chinese to Tibet, Tibetans have become a minority in their own country. Chinese is the official language. Compared to pre-1959 levels, only 1/20 monks are still allowed to practice, under the government’s watch. Up to 6,000 monasteries and shrines have been destroyed. Famines have appeared for the first time in recorded history, natural resources are devastated, and wildlife depleted to extinction. Tibetan culture comes close to being eradicated there.

Peaceful demonstrations/protests/speech/writings by nuns, monks, and Tibetan laypeople have resulted in deaths and thousands of arrests. These political prisoners are tortured and held in sub-standard conditions, with little hope of justice. Unless we can all take part and recognize Tibet’s loss as our own, the future looks grim.

Some Startling Facts

1. The peaceful buddhist country of Tibet was invaded by Communists China in 1949. Since that time, over 1.2 million out of 6 Tibetans have been killed, over 6000 monastaries have been destroyed, and thousands of TIbetans have been imprisoned.

2. In Tibet today, there is no freedom of speech, religion, or press and arbitrary dissidents continue.

3. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s political and spiritual leader, fled to India in 1959. He now lives among over 100,000 other Tibetan refugees and their government in exile.

4. Forced abortion, sterilization of Tibetan women and the transfer of low income Chinese citizens threaten the survival of Tibet’s unique culture. In some Tibetan provinces, Chinese settlers outnumber Tibetans 7 to 1.

5. Within China itself, massive human rights abuses continue. It is estimated that there up to twenty million Chinese citizens working in prison camps.

6. Most of the Tibetan plataeu lies above 14,000 feet. Tibet is the source of five of Asia’s greatest rivers, which over 2 billion people depend upon. Since 1959, the Chinese government estimates that they have removed over $54 billion worth of timber. Over 80% of their forests have been destroyed, and large amoutns nuclear and toxic waste have been disposed of in Tibet.

7. Despite these facts and figures, the US government and US corporations continue to support China economically. This shows their blatant lack of respect for these critical issues of political and religious freedom and human rights.

Yes, things are bad, but you may still ask, why Tibet? There are hundreds of other countries in which equal or worse environmental and human rights devistation has occured. Why Tibet? Tibet can be used as the catalyst for change in human rights, womens rights, political, religious and cultural freedom across the globe. Through a concerted effort, the citizens of Earth can stand up and say “NO!” to the corporations and governments that continue to abuse it’s people and misuse it’s resources. The struggles in Tibet are symbolic for every human rights struggle. Please, get involved. There is only a limited time left until there will longer be a Tibet to save.