by W.E.B. Griffin
Griffin has a reputation in writing about the military and being a bestseller writer, I assume he should be a good one. It turns out that he lives to his reputation as an expert in US military, but as a writer, rather untalented and boring. Striping off the extensive and often times unnecessary details of army procedures and structures, the story line is so simple and predictable that you can expect to doze off in the course. Not to mention the romance, as disgusting as a piece of sausage!
Freedom in Exile
- the Autobiography of the Dalai Lama
From entertaining point of view, this is a rather boring book to read. Being deprived of a personal life at the age of 3, Dalai's knowledge and view of the world is understandably limited and biased. Though he experienced a great deal of political ups and downs, his involvement is only to a certain degree, and his information only indirect. However, if your interest is to find out at least some of the causes behind the chaos in Tibet, this is must-read.
There are voices who blame Dalai for supporting the separation of Tibet from China, voices who critisize China's invasion and inhuman occupation of Tibet, but little ever being said about how things come to such an end. From this book, we see Dalai as a sincere and simple man, who is easy to be manipulated. Unfortunately, these characteristics of such an important figure were not fully exploited by the Chinese. As I always believe, there are two ways to deal with foreign religious or ethnic group when it comes to conquer. The brutal way is the American way. Kill most of the Indians and drive the rest onto small and seperated reserves so that they could never post any threats to the majority. The peaceful way is also the American way. Respect or even more closely, neglect the differences we have, let drink coke, eat pizza, and listen to the same music. Eventually, you'll come to my way because it is more dearer to human nature. The brutal way is fast but bloody, the peaceful way is very very slow but chocolaty and applaused by the modern world. Instead of choosing either ways, the Chinese government, as its culture predicts, chose a middle way. We beat the people but not terminate them, and we give them candy wraps in stead of candy. Above all, the Party screwed up twice. First in the 50s, when the PLA first entered and tried for a decade to pacified Tibet, and eventually it led to the exile of Dalai Lama. The second time is after the Cultural Revolution, when everyone wanted to give it a try again. It's not clear that whether the Chinese leaders really have no insights in dealing with this kind of problem, or, they in fact really don't care about Tibet that much. After all, Dalai is only one man, and he could live for only so long.
From entertaining point of view, this is a rather boring book to read. Being deprived of a personal life at the age of 3, Dalai's knowledge and view of the world is understandably limited and biased. Though he experienced a great deal of political ups and downs, his involvement is only to a certain degree, and his information only indirect. However, if your interest is to find out at least some of the causes behind the chaos in Tibet, this is must-read.
There are voices who blame Dalai for supporting the separation of Tibet from China, voices who critisize China's invasion and inhuman occupation of Tibet, but little ever being said about how things come to such an end. From this book, we see Dalai as a sincere and simple man, who is easy to be manipulated. Unfortunately, these characteristics of such an important figure were not fully exploited by the Chinese. As I always believe, there are two ways to deal with foreign religious or ethnic group when it comes to conquer. The brutal way is the American way. Kill most of the Indians and drive the rest onto small and seperated reserves so that they could never post any threats to the majority. The peaceful way is also the American way. Respect or even more closely, neglect the differences we have, let drink coke, eat pizza, and listen to the same music. Eventually, you'll come to my way because it is more dearer to human nature. The brutal way is fast but bloody, the peaceful way is very very slow but chocolaty and applaused by the modern world. Instead of choosing either ways, the Chinese government, as its culture predicts, chose a middle way. We beat the people but not terminate them, and we give them candy wraps in stead of candy. Above all, the Party screwed up twice. First in the 50s, when the PLA first entered and tried for a decade to pacified Tibet, and eventually it led to the exile of Dalai Lama. The second time is after the Cultural Revolution, when everyone wanted to give it a try again. It's not clear that whether the Chinese leaders really have no insights in dealing with this kind of problem, or, they in fact really don't care about Tibet that much. After all, Dalai is only one man, and he could live for only so long.
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