Save Tibet: Real or One of the Best Scams in History?

Really, enough already. First I saw Free Tibet signs around the country years ago. This time I am seeing signs celebrating 50 years of the Free Tibet movement. This trip I started seeing signs for Free Palestine! Where does it end?

I understand the meaning behind the movement and agree that what occurred with Tibet at the hands of the Chinese government was not fair. Here are the facts that the “enlightened” wannabe hippies who flock to Mcleodganj and jump onto the Free Tibet cause don’t seem to seek out or ignore:

India granted asylum to Tibetan people
India provided free land for Tibetan people
India allowed Tibet to set up their government inside the country
Tibetans are some of the wealthiest residents in India, thanks to the free land granted by India, by becoming huge growers of Himachal apples.
Tibetan NGO’s (charities) are big businesses for many Tibetans, often times not registered with the government. Photos and forged documents are shown to perspective donors highlighting the benefits of the fake programs when in reality there are no programs, the money goes directly into the Tibetan pockets.
Tibetan Monks walk around with new cell phones and iPods, eat in local restaurants from budget to high-end, own cars (which most Indians can’t afford), and engage in rampant sexual relations with Foreign tourists openly. This is a suppressed and enlightened population?
Luxury homes, condos and cars are being purchased at a high rate within the Tibetan communities from the money they are receiving from fake NGO’s, real NGO’s, apple farming on the free land India provided, countless items sold to unsuspecting tourists such as hats, wallets, keychains, jackets, T-shirts, etc. emblazoned with FREE TIBET.

I understand Tibetans are making the most from what they have. Running restaurants, being merchants selling Tibetan items to tourists, farming and other businesses is upstanding. My issue is Tibetans have marketed a real issue through the years into a big money making machine for themselves. This process has turned into nothing more than exploitation of their own people for which they are trying to prevent China from doing.

Also disconcerting is the amount of waste produced by the visiting Dalai Lama. Followers line the road holding incense sticks, white scarves purchased that day from local vendors and other nonsense items in hopes of giving to the Dalai Lama when he appears from his car. Indian military personnel are brought it, streets are cleaned and adorned with freshly drawn Buddhist symbols. I get that we have waste when our President visits a location, especially just with transportation. People are so consumed with the movement that they don’t even question the realities.

When your cause produces signs marking 50 years of exile, 50 years of uprising, 50 years of fighting as if it was the 50th annual Oscars broadcast, your movement is no longer a cause, it’s a business.