Mar 152008
 

In light of Russia’s recent use of “hate crimes” to prosecute an anti-government blogger, is it ominous that The Sunday Times would use the word “hate” to describe the situation in Tibet?

Headline: “Fears of another Tiananmen as Tibet explodes in hatred”

So that’s what it’s called when oppressed people rebel against their oppressors? I wonder who or what put it into their head to call it that. Why hatred? Why not, say, anger?

The article itself says the initial emotion among the Tibetians was “almost a spirit of liberation and joy.” So why would the reaction to the “predictable and harsh” response by the Chinese (as the Times calls it) be “hatred”? And don’t we have equal reason to refer to what the Chinese government is doing as “hatred”?

And why apply that word “predictable” to what the Chinese government is going? Wouldn’t what the Tibetians are doing also be called “predictable”?