A Sad Moment in History?

One of America's greatest filmmakers ten years ago made a beautiful, shocking, happy and sad film about one of the greatest humans breathing Earth's air today. Everyone should run out and rent Martian Scorsese's 1997 Kundun. This spiritual leader asked the help of the dominating power of the Free World at the time (that was us in case you have for some reason forgotten) against a Communist invader in the 1950's and the USA ignored him (except for a possible CIA intervention that may have left 1.2 million Tibetans dead). Now, this Noble Peace Prize winner is giving up his struggle against the seeming next leader of the world, China. What if we went to his people's aid in the 50's just as we went to "bring freedom and democracy to Iraq" under George W?

Excerpts from a BBC.com article:

Dalai Lama 'loses hope' for Tibet

This weekend the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, told his followers he had lost hope of reaching agreement with China about the future of his homeland.

For decades, the Dalai Lama's approach to China has been cheerfully patient and optimistic.

So the announcement he is giving up attempts to persuade China to grant greater autonomy to Tibet will come as a shock to many.

He has expressed frustration before - and threatened to go into political retirement. But the key question now is what implications this announcement will have.

The full answers may not emerge until after a special meeting of Tibetan exiles, now scheduled for November.

It is clear that frustration in the Tibet camp has rarely been greater.

In the aftermath of the riots in Tibet and surrounding areas earlier in 2008, China promised fresh talks.

Some Tibetans said at the time that they feared this was an empty gesture, merely designed to ease international pressure on Beijing in the run up to the Olympics.

The apparent deadlock in the talks seems to have confirmed those fears.

Despite China's allegations, the Dalai Lama has always stopped short of a demand for full independence.

But pressure for independence has grown amongst a feistier young generation which feels years of attempts at compromise have achieved nothing.

That would have striking implications. His international profile is one of Tibet's strongest cards and the government-in-exile would surely be weakened without his advocacy.

But his absence would also raise the stakes for China. Many see the Dalai Lama as Beijing's best hope - and urge the Chinese to do business with him while they can.

Read more about one of my great heroes here.