The youth of Tibet will be looking at the last 30 years or so and thinking - hey this good karma approach isn't working.

They'll be thinking - "dignity? why? so some right on westerner can wear a bloody save tibet badge and feel holy by association?"

China may have to choose between killing them all or pulling out.

Their record does not bode well!

It's a bit like Obama and the race issue - no one talks about it but it's always been there and we can't ignore it forever and hope it will go away.

Well it is true that China has an atrocious human rights record and whats more, if we are to complain about western economic exploitation of the third world, china's approach in Africa makes some of the worst western culprits look pretty clean by comparison.

Our friend and ally is dangerous violent and self serving and while there are some who may say thaat we can't talk, at least there is some accountability here and we can complain without being arrested and when the tim comes we can kick thebastards out - even if we're only replacing them with other bastards.

I was still living in my home town of Hong Kong on june 4th 1989 when the tanks rolled into tienanmen square.

I went to Hong Kong from Dublin at the age of three and lived there till I was 18 before coming to live in the UK and Ireland where I have remained ever since.

My Dad and I watched the news coming in from Beijing about the students being murdered and felt - as Obi Wan said in star wars - a great disturbance - like a milion voices crying out all at once, and in the same instaance being silenced.

That is of course a metaphor that describes how we felt.

Times were very uncertain then.

And they are now too.

China won't like it's precious olympic show to be defaced.

I wonder if the distubances will spread over china - or whether racist attitudes to inferior tibetans will mean that people don't really care.

It will be interesting - and terrifying - to watch it unfold.