Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Seattle this week and my former colleagues in the Seattle news media are giving a lot of coverage to the economic importance of trade between Washington state and China. Local and national political and business leaders are out in mass, literally rolling out a red carpet in welcome and smiling and hand-shaking with the visiting president.
The Chinese government's abuses of the human rights of its own people are getting less media attention. Though we in the US know that an everyday citizen in China can get tossed into jail for publicly expressing what the Chinese government deems a subversive opinion, we still appear to want/need to do business with that economic giant.
As human societies weigh considerations of values and ethics vs. business concerns and profit, I am sorry to say that, more often than not, the scale seems to tip toward dollars.
The Tibetan communities from Seattle and Portland were out in the streets of downtown Seattle Wednesday, waving Tibetan flags (which are not permitted in China,) handing out informational leaflets, and chanting protest slogans. The next day the Tibetans traveled to the Boeing plant in Everett and to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, again in an attempt to focus the public eye on matters of human rights abuses in China.
I spent both days photographing the events; and while I did see and document high-energy, passionate moments of the Tibetans shouting slogans with voices raised (above,) I also was amazed by the peaceful, resolute convictions of the Pacific Northwest Tibetan Community. Tibetan Buddhist prayers were offered, and demonstrators joined together, again and again, in quietly singing the Tibetan national anthem.
I have been a professional photographer for nearly 40 years now and I help to keep a roof over our heads by taking pictures for money. Nevertheless, I turn away professional, income-producing shoots to make time for the volunteer photography I do of Tibetan events. For me, the personal ethics vs. profit issue is a no-brainer.
