permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: BD Now! News about the protests against the illegal invasion and 
occupation of Tibet by the chinese thugs.
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 03:57:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
To: Biodynamic Food and Farming Discussion <bdnow@envirolink.org>

Anders,

  I strongly disagree. You ridicule the very real suffering of a people that is threatened by cultural genocide and 
that has suffered the most brutal occupation and repression for over 50 years if you compare it to the inconveniences 
brought about by European bureaucracy. How can you reduce this suffering and the earnest desire of innumerable people 
around the World who believe in non-violent action to a conspiracy theory you don’t even understand yourself how it is 
supposed to work and for which you cannot produce a shred of evidence except for half-baked ideas about parallels with 
Afghanistan that don’t have any historical basis whatsoever?

  Boycott does not work when people take the convenient way out by claiming that boycott does not work anyway. When it 
comes to consumer boycott, the mere threat of it or a partial implementation of around 20 to 30 % can have a strong 
impact. What do you think brought the racist regime of South Africa to its knees? Certainly not guns! It was the 
persistent disapproval over many years in large parts of the World that sapped the confidence out of the racist regime 
to continue its reign of repression.

  We have compared the collapse of the Soviet empire with the situation in China. You are wrong in your understanding! 
China’s economic strength is its weakness and not its strength as it makes it vulnerable to outside pressure. What is 
different is the attitude of its leaders. At the fall of the Berlin wall, the conviction had gone out of the Soviet 
leaders, a conviction that had made them quell previous popular revolts in Budapest, Berlin and Prague by the force of 
tanks. At the fall of the Berlin wall, there was a moment of suspense in which the World held its breath at the question 
of whether Gorbatchev would send Russian tanks into Berlin or not. Just one short moment in which it could have gone 
either way, a moment in which the a East German border guard could still have aimed his gun at a civilian or know that 
he will lose his gun and position in the next moment. That conviction to defend the monopoly on political power by the 
communist party by all means, that still
 existed in 1989 when Chinese tanks massacred civilians in Tiananmen square. That conviction is still there today in 
Lahsa, and calls to understand the Chinese side is like believing Monsanto’s claims about GM crops at face value or 
defending the right of Nazis to propagate their views on concentration camps. That’s just not on!

  There are few people as nationalistic as the Chinese, and Chinese intellectuals are grieved by the fact that they 
themselves and their great nation lead a second class existence, devoid of freedom and the access to basic human rights. 
 But most of them would not willingly compromise a square inch of territory of the Chinese empire at its greatest 
historical expansion.

  In fact the frustration of these proud Chinese intellectuals is not unlike what many educated Spaniards felt under 
the Franco dictatorship in the 1960s and 70s when any common tourist from Sweden or other European countries would take 
for granted many rights and liberties they themselves could only dream of. It is here were change starts.

  Finally, all religious systems know prayer and know deeds. There is no religion that condones words of prayer without 
corresponding deeds. A boycott is a non-violent action that will produce an effect over time if adhered to.

  Dieter Brand
  Portugal



Anders Skarlind <Anders.Skalman@telia.com> wrote:

Patti, did you consider boycotting U.S. products too? For a multitude
of reasons of course, like Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. And I think you
should boycott Japanese products because they kill whales. And
Australian because they oppress the aboriginals (or at least they
used to). And EU products because EU oppresses the citizens of EU by
ridiculous bureaucratic rules.
In fact herein lies perhaps the principal reason why boycotts don't
succeed. Once you start boycotting it is hard to stop. But you cannot
boycott everything. Basically this reflects that the world isn't
black and white.
However I support a boycott of the Chinese government. I will not
have anything with them to do. That is business as usual for me. And
I will also boycott the olympics. In my world olympics is TV, and I
already boycott TV. I continue to honour media who give a good
reporting of the state of the world, including China and Tibet, while
I boycott other media. Finally I continue to practice the chi gong
excercises of Falun Gong now and then, totally ignoring what the
Chinese government might think of that.
In fact herein lies another reason why boycotts don't succeed. It
involves our individual, more or less conscious, choices and
preferences in life. But for a boycott to succeed, a large collective
must make the same decisions. I think all you can do is to give them
information and let them choose, based on their life situation. And
in a sense this is is what Lawrence and Dieter are doing. Fair enough I think.
Cheers
Anders