Indecisive

Over the fierce protests of the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington D.C. today.

I'm a bit torn by this. I respect Buddhism for its messages and the Dalai Lama in turn for conveying those messages so well over that past several decades. He has his controversial moments (don't we all?) but in the end, I think he displays what humanity is capable of - peace, unconditional love and acceptance.

On the other hand, I'm not so sure we should be ticking China off right now. We've done it before and we'll do it again, but the timing on this one just makes me raise an eyebrow. They've pulled out of talks about Iran over this and the president is surprisingly nonchalant about angering such a superpower. We sort of need as many friends as we can get at the moment. I'm no fan of the Chinese government and I don't think bowing down to them is the right thing to do. I just... well, I'm just not sure how I feel about this.

Perhaps I should take the Dalai Lama's view about China's reaction - "Oh, that always happens."