uighurs, tibetans, jews

In China, Moslems called the Uighurs
are fighting to be free
of rule by Han Chinese. It figures
that they want liberty,
just like the other captive nations
the Han now rule, Tibet
the largest, but their expectations
aren’t likely to be met.

The Han call freedom fighters in
both places terrorists,
and almost certainly will win
by force of arms and fists,
but no one cares about these Asians
here in the west, because
we fear our vital trade relations
might suffer, with a loss
of our prosperity, and let
the Chinese use their terror
in both East Turkestan, Tibet,
committing a grave error
based on our need to save the dollar
from falling, which it might
if we grew hot beneath the collar,
declaring might ain’t right.

It seems we need Han Chinese more
than they need us, and so
we can’t show them that we feel sore
about the Uighurs’ woe.
By contrast, since we need much oil,
with Dreyfusard “J’accuse”
we may, when Jews protect their soil,
hurl at them our abuse.


Inspired by the news concerning the massacre of more than 150 Uighurs in Urumqi, the capital of East Turkestan, a region the Chinese government calls Xinjiang and is trying to repopulate with Han Chinese, displacing the ethnically and culturally different indigenous population. Erik Eckholm in the NYT on July 7 writes about the exiled leader of the Uighurs, Rebiya Kadeer, whose fame does not yet parallel that of the Dalai Lama, but may do in the future. While Ms. Kadeer condemns the Chinese government’s excessive use of force, she said that the Uighurs “also condemn in no uncertain terms the violent actions of some of the Uighur community.”

© 2009 Gershon Hepner 7/7/09