Comments on: Balancing China and the Dalai Lama

By: Lyndall Beddy

Lyndall Beddy — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:00:46 +0000

Jampa

South Africans have not given up – our corrupt government has.

We will be demonstrating for you during 2010!

By: jampa

jampa — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:50:53 +0000

I am a Tibetan.since kindergarden our teacher used to make example leader like Nelson Mandela,Gandhi and Dr.Martin vision and their stuggle of human right and path to non violence.it been 50 years our stuggle under china regime.we still never give up for freedom stuggle and non violence path.today i felt sad that SA have forgotten too early thier stuggle from oppression.anyway i never give up my own path.my love and compassion to all.FREE TIBET.

By: Jerry

Jerry — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:34:31 +0000

Traps
Thank you. We cannot ignore our reality in pursuit of the holy grail, which is peace on earth and the rest of it. John Lennon had a song ‘Imagine’. We are still doing that.THIS IS REAL LIFE.

By: Paulo M

Paulo M — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:19:34 +0000

Dear Mark,
F-16′s: The airframes may be of an earlier design period but the aerodynamics of the US fighter are sufficiently advanced to give it an advantage over any European plane in the same class. In any case, the avionics are upgraded constantly to keep with the times. The real rivals to the Lockheed and Boeing stuff go by Sukhoi, and are made in Russia. But, they don’t have flashy cockpits, and where the lights work, they indicate engine failure.

The other planes – or specifically ‘plane’ – I was referring to is the Airbus A340-600 that South African Airways purchased in a massive fleet change. As it’s track record showed, the quad-jet A340 consistantly lost every battle against Boeing’s 777 twin – where it matters – which reads operating economics. Now that there are new aviation rules that allow virtually unristricted flights to just about anywhere for twin jets – largely based on the success of twin-engine jets like the 777 – does our (South African) contract to build gearboxes for Rolls-Royce Trent engines that power slow-selling A340′s and A380′s beat the over 20% fuel economy advantage the 777-300ER has over the A340-600 – besides greater loads it carries? I suppose my point is as government department with the assurance of tax payers, SAA failed to make a deal that was truly in tax payers interests – and the specific deal is yet another sign of this country selling out to the highest bidder.

By: Mark Robertson

Mark Robertson — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:28:39 +0000

Dear Paolo,
You make a very interesting point, which nobody has yet made on the arms deal – “we bought inferior planes from the EU because the EU was a larger trading partner”. This is absolutely true – our $60m SAAB Gripens are notably inferior to the US made F-16′s in every respect, and should for F-16′s for some unlikely reason turn up in the region SA would have lost strategic advantage (even for providing cover for peacekeeping missions for instance). It’s a really odd decision – if SA truly were guided by Realpolitik, we would have bought US equipment regardless of our trading partners, as this would have been in our own best interests. The other amusement is our Gripen ‘toy fighters’ have 50% US content so should we have a fallout with the US, they could simply ground them by not providing spares (this would apply to 3rd party nations also). Kind of makes you wonder that we are guided by principle to our own detriment, and by Realpolitik to our own detriment also?

By: Lyndall Beddy

Lyndall Beddy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:29:13 +0000

When Mandela was president China objected to him meeting with the Dalai Lama as well. Mandela ignored them – and nothing happened, except that the Dalai Lama and Mandela became friends.

Gordon Brown also ignored China and met with the Dalai Lama as well – at the house of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The real point is our new communist party rulers don’t like the Dalai Lama and do like their Chinese buddies, so they were prepared to snub the Dalai Lama for their pals.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:37:29 +0000

@Lyndall Beddy
Yeah Lyndall, I was wondering how Jack couldn’t see the difference between Taiwan and South Africa in this context.

By: Nic

Nic — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:34:31 +0000

Dont bother us now with Human Rights, for goodness sake we have a FIFA World Cup to organise. We’ll invite the Dalai Lama early in 2011 (sic)

By: Lyndall Beddy

Lyndall Beddy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:00:12 +0000

Jack

That is a stupid question. China is threatening to invade Taiwan – they can’t give them any excuse.

By: Paulo M

Paulo M — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:44:48 +0000

Besides Tibet, I’m worried we’re selling out Africa to the highest brider, for the most guns to oppress the people under the incredibly stupid guise that China can’t do as much harm to this continent as those racist Europeans and those unilaterist Americans. Really? It’s like racial arguments being a front to get to the prize.

The difference is if a democratic society finds out about abuses in Africa, political heads roll. In other societies, people get squashed in Tienneman Square.

But moving along to current developments, it’s heartening to see The Honourable Health Minister Barbara Hogan speaking out on this one – in the interests of our collective health and well being. She’ll probably loose her job because she can’t shut her trap, and can’t be trusted to go along with these unhealthy practises.

And then onto The Honourable Government spokesman Themba Maseko’s admittion that government did not want jeopardise its bilateral and trade relations with China by being nice to the current Dalai Lama. That’s really nice, it’s like if the White House Press Secretary came out and said the United States of America invaded Iraq for oil, thus severelly constraining Middle East peace by giving Iran the credence to do what ever it likes – and that was wrong, necessating ‘change’.