[转自英文论坛] 一个睡不着的老外冥思苦想希望找出答案

carson

大家好：

现在已经是凌晨1点钟，可是我睡不着，我的脑子很乱。我希望倾听您的回复，但是请理解我们之间存在的隔阂，并且能够尊重彼此的观点。我是一个爱尔兰人，已经在中国生活和工作了3年，所以我可能知道的比一般的老外多那么一点。

首先，对于发生在西藏的骚乱我并不感到意外，这也许只是‘什么时候发生’而不是‘如果什么时候’的问题。让我感到意外的是，很多中国朋友对于这起事件其实毫无心里准备。大部分原因可能是因为年轻的中国人是与政治话题绝缘的，这其中有很多因素，比如说参政议政的机会比较少。还有可能是跟中共肤浅的政治教育有关。对于我来说，西藏和新疆想利用奥运会这个机会来引起关注是天经地义的。

我对于自己看到的感到震惊，但我同样对中国政府没有准备好应对措施感到震惊。也许他们真的很自信，就象他们告诉我们的那样，西藏其实很高兴成为中国的一部分。

共产党坚持‘不要把奥运会政治化’，对于外交事务的处理来说，我想这个观点会让他们依附在一个清白的层面上。奥林匹克运动一直都是政治化的，无论是积极的还是消极的。当奥运会来到伦敦的时候，也许会遭到更多人的抗议，只不过将会是英国人自己来抗议。（这是指在对于抗议游行的观点上，很多欧洲人和中国人有很大不同）他们的抗议范围从保护小动物的权益到伊拉克战争应有尽有。（我确定很多中国人也曾经参与过，让英国人自己尝尝苦药的滋味）

我想说的是这已经都算不上什么新鲜事了，感觉新鲜的仅仅是新一带的中国人通过出国和上网的方式来了解和认知，这是他们的父母一辈想都不敢想的。2002年的时候，有史以来最大的一次抗议活动是由于反对英美侵略伊拉克所发动的战争。我是全球2千万（2千万啊）抗议者中的一员。抗议奥运会和这相比简直是小意思，当时美国是这起事件中的代罪羔羊，现在轮到中国了，这样的事情反复发生，天知道也许下次就是爱尔兰了 。不要感到意外，西方世界从上世纪60年代起就已经是这样了。（当我还是一个在校学生的时候，父亲曾经是一个追随毛泽东的社交人物，真是时代变迁啊）所有我能说的是，他抗议，你回应，也许过些时候你们就不会再去抗议同一件事情。因为你永远不会找到一个解决问题的答案。当然我知道这是非常非常遗憾的，但却是事情发展的必然。

现在对于‘西方媒体’遭到强烈抵制的现象（包括本站也参与其中）。我只能说干的漂亮！大家已经开始向独立分析新闻媒体方面迈出了第一步：那就是提出你的问题，并且不要相信你所读到的东西，无论它的信息源是哪里。这也许是聪明的西方人分析问题的方式，比中国的年轻人起源要早。（愚蠢的西方人到处都是，而且就是不会这么分析问题）

要想真正拥有一个自由的新闻媒体，你就必须学会聆听不同色声音，无论他是好的还是不好的。你还必须接受好的新闻工作者也会说错话这个现实。这就是新闻自由的真谛。我想中国朋友可能错误的认为CNN和BBC好比是新华社一样的国家媒体，他们是官方的喉舌所以只有一个唯一的观点。这和真理相差甚远。哪怕在BBC内部也会出现不同的声音，而没有‘官方党派一根筋’，因此你会拥有更多选择来看问题，并对你所相信的慎重起见。CNN很糟糕，但是总会有一些好的媒体存在并且绝对比新华社要好（我对于中国媒体报道问题的方式感到尴尬，它让我回想起那些负面的美国媒体，象CNN和福克斯简直把自己的听众当傻子）我的观点是不要放弃其他国际性的新闻媒体。（我不喜欢被‘西方’这个词，真的让我感觉很排外）。要变的成熟，批判，选择多样化。真理永远摆在那里，它并不只来源于一个地方。

好了，很晚了，我真的累了。但是我很高兴能够和您分享我的见解，我希望倾听您的意见，但是请礼貌的回复。如果我无意冒犯了谁请您原谅，我已经试着公平的阐述我的观点。

大卫

http://bbs.m4.cn/forum/en/thread-371-1-1.html

carson

One Sleepless Laowai Trying to Make Sense of it all...

Hello all,
its one o'clock  in the morning and I'm having trouble sleeping thinking about all these issues, so let me try to give my opinions. I look forward to hearing your replies, but please, lets watch our manners, and respect each other's point of views. I'm an Irishman, who has been living and working in China for more than 3 years, so I'm a little more informed than your average laowai.

First: I wasn't surprised that some trouble started in Tibet, it was only a matter of "when", not "if", I'm actually very surprised that many of my Chinese friends weren't expecting it. I think in many ways young Chinese people are sheltered from political issues, for a variety of reasons (lack of involvement with the processes of government, and a very shallow and CCP-centered political education perhaps...). It seemed obvious to me that both Tibet and Xinjiang would use the Olympics to draw attention to themselves.
It was shocking to see, but I was surprised that the Chinese government weren't better prepared. Maybe they really believed what they tell us about Tibetans being happy to live under the PRC!   

As for the CCP's mantra of "don't make the Olympics political", I think that also relied on a level of innocence regarding international affairs. The Olympics has ALWAYS been a political affair, in both positive and negative ways. When the Olympics come to London there will be even more protests, the difference is that the protesters in London will be British (this says a lot about the difference between many European societies and China in terms of how they view the right to protest) - protesting about everything from animal rights to the war in Iraq (I'm sure there will be some Chinese people too, giving the Brits a taste of their own medicine:loveliness: )   
What I'm trying to say is that none of this is anything new, its only new for a generation of young Chinese people who are experiencing life abroad and online for the first time and in a way that their parents couldn't dream of. in 2002 the big protest was against America and England because of the illegal Iraq war - I was on of 20 million (20 MILLION!!!!) people that protested around the world against this war. Compared to this the anti-Olympics protests are tiny. At that time the USA was the world's whipping boy, now it's China, these things go round and round, who knows, maybe next time it'll be Ireland's turn :'( . Don't be surprised, the West has been doing this since the 60's (my father was a Socialist marching FOR Mao Zedong when he was a college student! See how times change?) All I can say is welcome to the world. They protest, you reply, then maybe sometime later you will end up protesting for the same thing. You can never tell how these things will work out. I know it can be hugely disappointing, but this is the way things are.  

Now as for the very strong reactions against "Western Media" (including this site), I can only say well done, people are learning the first rule of independent media analysis: question everything, never believe everything that you read, no matter where it comes from. This is something that perhaps intelligent Westerners  come to terms with (stupid Westerners, as with stupid people everywhere,:Q  will never come to terms with this!) earlier than young  Chinese people. The thing about having a free media is that you have to accept the good and the bad, you must accept that there will be bullshit as well good journalism, this is the  price of a free media. I think that many of my Chinese friends make the mistake of believing that CNN and BBC are like Xinhua, that they are the national media and therefore the only point of view. This is far from the truth. Even within the BBC you will get very different points of view, there is no "official party line", so you must be much more selective, and careful about what you believe. CNN is crap, but there are dozens of other agencies out there that are far better, and  definitely less biased than Xinhua (i find it embarrassing how simplified the Chinese media makes things, it reminds me of the worse American stations like CNN and FOX - really treating their citizens like they are fools)... my point is DONT GIVE UP ON THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA (I don't like the term western, sounds racial to me), just be mature, be critical, be selective. The truth is out there, but it doesn't come from just one place.

Ok, its late and I'm tired, but I'm glad I shared my thoughts with you all, and I look forward to hearing your opinions, but keep it polite, and sorry if I offended anybody, but I was trying to be as fair as possible.

Love and peace and maturity to you all, whether you're Han, Tibetan, Uyghur, American, English, French or even......Irish!

Dave