Comments on: There is no happy ending http://dailytroll.com/2009/06/19/there-is-no-happy-ending/ Sat, 20 Mar 2010 20:35:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Terry http://dailytroll.com/2009/06/19/there-is-no-happy-ending/comment-page-1/#comment-88551 Terry Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:50:52 +0000 http://dailytroll.com/?p=2729#comment-88551 Thanks, A. There needs to be some cost for violence - I hope that eventually they'll pay for it. It's been a long day watching. Thanks, A. There needs to be some cost for violence – I hope that eventually they’ll pay for it.

It’s been a long day watching.

]]> By: Ahistoricality http://dailytroll.com/2009/06/19/there-is-no-happy-ending/comment-page-1/#comment-88525 Ahistoricality Sat, 20 Jun 2009 06:10:30 +0000 http://dailytroll.com/?p=2729#comment-88525 When this happened twenty years ago in China, I made the mistake of assuring a friend that the protesters were protected from violent group reprisal by international attention. I was stupid then, naive, and I've seen plenty more cases in the two decades since I learned my lesson about predicting the future with certitude. I wish I could tell you something comforting or, conversely, tell you to look away because I know how it's going to end. I have nothing, but I'm very sorry that this reaches you in these disturbing ways. I do have that: you're not watching this alone. I can also say this: the Myanmar junta is <i>not</i> safe and secure because of their massacre; the Chinese government has been paying a slow but real price for Tiananmen (and Zhao Ziyang's memoirs just came out, which really stung), and trying to assuage the Chinese people with prosperity (which isn't a bad thing, mostly). Just because they survive in the short term doesn't mean that they were unscathed; just because our lives go on doesn't mean we forget or forgive; just because the protest ends doesn't mean the discontent is gone. When this happened twenty years ago in China, I made the mistake of assuring a friend that the protesters were protected from violent group reprisal by international attention. I was stupid then, naive, and I’ve seen plenty more cases in the two decades since I learned my lesson about predicting the future with certitude.

I wish I could tell you something comforting or, conversely, tell you to look away because I know how it’s going to end. I have nothing, but I’m very sorry that this reaches you in these disturbing ways. I do have that: you’re not watching this alone.

I can also say this: the Myanmar junta is not safe and secure because of their massacre; the Chinese government has been paying a slow but real price for Tiananmen (and Zhao Ziyang’s memoirs just came out, which really stung), and trying to assuage the Chinese people with prosperity (which isn’t a bad thing, mostly). Just because they survive in the short term doesn’t mean that they were unscathed; just because our lives go on doesn’t mean we forget or forgive; just because the protest ends doesn’t mean the discontent is gone.

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