on East Timor was Re: Tibet

[C. Petersen]

> 
> i think the original question about tibet (from doug?) raised exactly
> the opposite point. u.s. liberals, hollywood-types in particular, have
> rallied to the tibet cause because of some perceived mystical
> specialness of tibet and of the dali lama. where was/is the cavalcade of
> concerts/movies/benefits to aid east timor? so it's not the reflexive
> support of self-determination for timor but rather the unreflective
> romantic rallying to the cry for 'independence for Tibet' << that causes
> everyone's computers to instantly reboot. >>
> 

I bet that this is due to the fact that most people in the u.s., our
celebrities included, don't know shit about politics or our recent world
history, other than representations in movies. I doubt this was a
deliberate choice. I mean, it's difficult enough for me to find accurate
international news when I put forth an effort. You can't really blame 
people for being ignorant, who just watch the 11 o'clock news. There was
an interesting article by Amy Goodman in Z who was at the Reebok human
rights awards and sat next to Michael Stipe, and she was unaware of who he
was and popular culture, and she felt that he and the other stars were
pretty unaware of her domain.