much of the heat surrounding the torch relay saga has cooled down this week. the chinese government pulled off a masterstroke by announcing that
they will negotiate with the dalai lama's advisors. with this one brilliant move, they have silenced the western media- after all, it appears that
the chinese have bowed to global protests by initiating peaceful talks. of course, its only the appearance that matters. almost in the same breath
as announcing the talks, the chinese have gone on to accuse the dalai lama of being a terrorist who has sponsored the killling of innocent chinese
etc etc. this gives us an indication of how productive we can expect the talks to be. but nonetheless, china has come out of the whole situation
far better than the west, and tibet. global protests, and particularly the idiot frenchman who attacked the disabled athlete, have firmly united
the chinese. the perceived villification of china by the rest of the world has caused an irresistible swelling of nationalistic pride and further
entrenchment of the victim mentality in the minds of the chinese. then, the global media storm has been blown out to sea by china's apparently
reconciliatory offer of dialogue. the tibetans, for the sake of whom all this was started, have been once again forgotten.