Unknown Error creating file '/afs/hcoop.net/user/z/za/za/zacha/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ttftitles/cache/20b2971b1aeaa483f50cf753da6ceaa6.png'.This is why I’m hostelling

(I.e., because it’s fly.)

So I’m in Chicago for two days (a half day left), en route to New Mexico, staying in the downtown hostel. One of my roommates is Chinese, a poli sci student, and last night I asked him about Tibet.

He sighs, and says it’s hard to know what to think. The Communist Party tells the Chinese that the Dalai Lama is a “conspirator,” but Western media outlets say there is a big crackdown by China. The important thing is for everyone to live in peace. Both parties need to understand each other’s intentions better, and perhaps the atheistic Community Party should learn that religion is important for most people in the world.

He mentioned a YouTube video (perhaps this one) that claims Tibet was, is, and will always be a part of China. He and his friends find it funny, because the video lacks evidence. We are civilized people, he said, and when we say things there should be some evidence for them — otherwise it’s just propaganda.

Another person asked him why he’s come here to study politics. He said he feels the biggest challenge in China is political reform, and that the Chinese need to know more about other systems of government, e.g. democratic ones, so that they can, perhaps, join the free world sometime — which he said with a smile.