Woeser: Railway “a road of no return”
Famed Tibetan blogger and dissident Woeser has an article in the Nepali publication Himal Southasia this month. She discusses the lack of economic benefits the railway is showing for Tibetans inside of Tibet and reveals how the railway is only serving the interests of those who control it – the Chinese government and Chinese settlers. Woeser understands through her first-hand experience that Tibet is an occupied land and Tibetans, as indigenous people, lack the power to control the decisions that shape their lives and their country.
If Tibet’s genuine autonomy were put into practice, the idea of having railroads connecting villages could be internally debated. But when Tibetans lack autonomy, their fate is decided by others. They can only watch as their rights are taken away, and they are further marginalised in their own land. Rather than the indigenous Tibetans, it is the flocks of ‘gold-miners’ who are the real beneficiaries of such ‘development’ projects.
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Since Tibetans do not have the right of autonomy, the Qinghai-Tibet railway cannot be, as the Chinese state claims, the “Road of Fortune?. Instead, it is a road of no return – of the sacrifice of the land once known as Tibet.
Woeser also rebuts the notion peddled by China that modernizing Tibet is an unshakable good undertaken out of the goodness of the Han peoples’ heart, a position shamefully close to the White Man’s Burden that similarly drove 19th and 20th century Western colonial imperialism.
Instead, [Chinese officials and state-controlled scholars] consider themselves messiahs and spokespersons for the Tibetans: “We want Tibetans to also have the right to enjoy modernisation,? goes the official line. “Neither tradition nor modernisation should be missing.? While such sentiments might at first sound logical, what is important for Tibetans is not necessarily the issue of modernisation, but genuine autonomy. When there is no power, where can one find rights? And what can one do with tradition? Furthermore, what actually constitutes modernisation? The current reality of Tibet already attests to the falsity of the kind of modernisation that has come to the plateau. Ultimately, it is just another form of invasion – sugar-coated and equivalent to colourfully beautified violence. For Tibetans, who are deprived of autonomous rights, it is absolutely necessary to learn to recognise different types of invasion.
Modernization is a form of invasion when undertaken without the consent of the indigenous people. The China-Tibet railway is an invasion of Tibet, just as the scores of Chinese mines along the railway route are an invasion of Tibet. Woeser reminds us, Tibetans and supporters, how to identify the destruction masquerading as modernization in Tibet. As she recognizes the invasion of Tibet, so too does she reject it.
Woeser’s article is a powerful reminder that Tibet is and continues to be an invaded nation. Read her whole piece and share it widely.
Technorati Tags: China-Tibet railway, Woeser, Tibet
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[...] Cross posted at Tibet Will Be Free. [...]
[...] Stan Schroeder wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptFamed Tibetan blogger and dissident Woeser has an article in the Nepali publication Himal Southasia this month. She discusses the lack of economic benefits the railway is showing for Tibetans inside of Tibet and reveals how the railway … [...]