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Björk’s chanting of “Tibet! Tibet!” at the end of her “Declare Independence” performance in Shanghai has been well documented in the past couple of weeks. What was never really adequately addressed to me, however, was the history of Tibet and the arguments for and against it’s sovereignty (or more precisely, the lack thereof).

Sure, I have always seen “Free Tibet” merchandise and known that Tibet was a territory of China. Having taken AP World History, I also knew a little bit about the Dali Lama and his reincarnation cycle. I had also seen that BradPitt movie for which the actor got a life time ban for China for, but that was in fifth grade and I only remember the part where a white person (presumably Pitt) trick some native Asian people (presumably Tibetans) into thinking that the instruction sheet on his first aid kit was a legal document (presumably to do something he wasn’t supposed to). But when addressed with the issue at hand, I was a little bit disappointed at myself for not having an opinion on the subject matter, when in fact it might be thousand of human deaths that I am being apathetic for.

I was wrong. It is estimated that Tibetan 1.2 million Tibetan deaths have been related to violence since the Great Leap Forward in the 1950’s. Knowing this, I could see it was a big issue, but I wasn’t quite satisfied.

So of course, I went to Youtube and searched “Tibet”. What I found was a 55 minute video called Tibet The Story of a Tragedy and I decided to watch it. The Documentary was no Ken Burns production nor was it anything that could be called the Loose Change of Tibet documentaries. It has extremely slow moments and it’s poor quality footage is worsened by Youtube. It also restricts itself to history fairly well, which in the era of Loose Change, This Film is Not Yet Rated, and Who Killed the Electric Car? left me thinking “when are the experts going to come in and tell me my future opinions?”*. The documentary manages to be semi-compelling in the least expected of ways: by simply telling a story. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. It’s boring as hell and as I later found out, all of the information is better presented in text.

*note sarcasm. I also want to say that unlike Charlie Sheen, I do not believe the theories in Loose Change.

I am still confused on how I would have it. It seems apparent to me that the situation is a direct violation of human rights and oppression, but I am also skeptic on Tibet’s ability to function by itself without being the next Israel because as I learned from the Björk incident, a lot of people are strongly against the independence movement.But although I would not call myself an expert on the topic (I only looked into it on Sunday), I feel my confusion is better informed than before.

EDIT: After looking into it and thinking about it a little more, I think that Tibet’s independence is both achievable and neccesary. I don’t think people react the way they do to Israel unless an ancient religous text indirectly instructs them to do so, and the human rights issues were more severe than I thought. I wish they would publish more statements from the other side of the argument, but all I find on the internet is random hacks going “fuck you, why doesn’t America give it’s land back to the Indians first?”. I’m sure there is more to it than that, but I guess there is no need to argue when you have it your way.

And they say our false idols should never bring up their political views.

There are millions of species in the animal kingdom, thousands of mythical creatures, and hundreds biblical figures in our world today. Of all of these, I don’t think that a school can possibly think of a mascot more inappropriate and insensitive then Seoul Foreign School’s “Crusader”.

Crusaders were religious fundamentalist, mass murderers of the middle ages who waged over a dozen wars against several ethnic groups. Human rights were flagrantly disregarded in these crusades, killing thousands of Islamic civilians as well as utilizing child soldiers to fight their “holy wars”.

Some may argue that to a group of people, the crusaders represented and still stand for being “god’s soldiers” and contend that the crusades were heroic events where god’s servants fought for their beliefs.

But one could make the same argument about Jihadists and Nazis. That doesn’t mean they are appropriate as being high school mascots.

Seoul Foreign School is an international school that travels to internationally in academics and athletics with other international school throughout the world. Most of these schools, unlike SFS, are non-denominational.

The school has every right as a privately funded institution to patronize the crusades and take pride of the history, but to interact with multi-ethnic groups and engage in friendly competition internationally with such a name is not only arrogant, but highly offensive as well.

Like most Ron Paul supporters, I was introduced to Ron Paul by reading about his ideas on the internet. At first glance, I was highly judgmental on the congressman because of his lack of media coverage and the idea that electing a Republican candidate might be no different than extending George W. Bush’s term by 4 years in terms of policy.

But after reading about his ideas and studying the issues, I am now very passionate about my support for Congressman Ron Paul.

Ron Paul has pointed out many things terribly flawed with the United States today, and regardless of the outcome of his campaign, Ron Paul has successfully spread through the internet and to the young people his ideas of liberty and small government.

Adam Smith defined in Wealth of Nations that a government’s role in a nation should be minimal outside of protection, preservation of sovereignty, and erecting public institutions. I think that Smith, as well as the forefathers of America, would support Dr. Paul.

These are the reasons why I support Ron Paul:

1. His stance on the Federal Reserve & it’s attack on capitalism.

“Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States” — Sen. Barry Goldwater (Rep. AR)

2. His opposition of empiralism & his proposition of non-intervention. Dr. Paul opposes preemptive and unconstitutional wars, and sees that the IRS would be unnecessary if the trillion dollar American Foreign Policy- consisting of 700 bases in over 100 countries,- changes it’s practice. For example, the Yongsan Millitary Base in Seoul is highly sought after by Koreans entering the army because of it’s reputation for doing absolutely nothing. Yet, it receives a tremendous amount of funding from tax payers to maintain.

3. He is the only candidate that values and respects the Constitution.

The media treats him like a holocaust denier. Left out of some debates and neglected in those where he is present, Ron Paul is a candidate for 21st century voters that don’t rely on television for their opinions. Ron Paul understands that overextension of empires and a valueless currency are top reasons why great nations fall, and that these very problems are deeply and unconstitutionally integrated in the United States today.