Here is a little quiz.....just to get those brain cells moving. Just a little mental exercise to get those juices flowing! Come on! Step 1, 2, 3, 4........kick those BC's into shape! Step 1, 2, 3, 4.......

Where is Tibet? How big is Tibet? When was it invaded? What was given as the reason for the necessary "liberation" of Tibet by China? What is happening in Tibet now? Are the Chinese doing all the beneficial things they say they are? What do you care? Should you care? What if the Chinese did what they did all those years ago, what would the rest of the world do now? Can you imagine a world without the Dalai Lama? My answers all below.

Come now, that is not such a hard quiz, is it? Come now, some answers are pretty easy. Where is Tibet? Tibet is located north of Nepal and India and south of China. It is the highest country of the world and rightly deserves the title "Roof of the World". The lowest point in the entire country is about 4450m! The highest being Mt Everest(which it shares with Nepal). See. Easy!

How big is Tibet? Well, it is only 2/3's the size of India. Yes, that's right. It is massive. 2/3's the size of India (which incidentally is a pretty big place itself!). Surprised? Yes? Us too! Not only extremely high, but pretty huge as well. Nice chunk of land that the Chinese have "liberated"! They graciously liberated Tibet in 1949 and have been providing all sorts of benefits to the local population who have enjoyed a full spectrum of human rights and liberties that Chinese citizens enjoy. Gosh, why are the Tibetans not more grateful! What is all the fuss about anyway?

What is the reason given by China for its liberation of Tibet? For this answer you should consult a variety of sources. There are plenty out there. Google "Tibet" and see what comes back. Then just keep following where your intuition takes you. You will be surprised at what answers you come up with. But essentially the Chinese feel that since Tibet was once upon a time part of China, then it should be so again. Ummm....The facts upon which this claim is made are unreliable at best! Be that as it may, Tibet will contest that China was once actually part of Tibet and ruled from Lhasa to counter that claim. But actually each country were sovereign nations with their own distinct armies, police, religious and cultural structures.

By the same token, Mongolia should actually invade...sorry...liberate China and the whole of Asia (and parts of Europe and parts of the Middle East as well) since theirs was the largest empire the world has ever seen. Yes, the Mongolians actually met the Christians on their Crusades in 1204; they were ready to invade Vienna when they withdrew because the tribes needed to elect a new leader when the Great Kublai Khan died in his palace in Peking (where he located his capital. It was later named Beijing). I am sure that the Chinese would find that claim risible, on the same basis they have applied to lay credence in their liberation of Tibet, and suggest that it is absurd. If that is the case, then it seems that perhaps that China can't practise what it preaches!

Would anybody like to suggest that this is not the case, then I am happy to entertain all answers to the contrary. Please email your full answer to [email protected] . Thank you.

What is happening in Tibet now? Well, since the Chinese believe in human rights and liberties and especially the freedom of speech and the freedom of association (and they have actually signed up to all the right charters and treaties and resolutions of the UN and other influential bodies), you would think that it would all be peace and quiet and happiness in Tibet. But perhaps that is not the case at all. You need to ask yourself, what drives people to cross the highest mountains in the world, sometimes in winter, evade Chinese army patrols with only a very limited chance of success on reaching the other side? And in their droves? Why would the Dalai Lama take his whole government into exile if he had nothing to fear (the fact that he stuck around for 10 years after this act of liberation attests to his determination to seek a peaceful resolution)? Why not allow the world's free press complete an unlimited exposure into this part of "China" if you have nothing to hide and the local population have been liberated?

Did you ever read about, or heard about the story of a party of mountaineers who witnessed a Chinese Army patrol shoot at a party of refugees in the high Himalayas? No? Not surprising really. Liberators don't really want the world to know about their needing to shoot unarmed and defenceless women and children in the snowy high passes that lead from.....or is that to?.....freedom and liberation? Incidentally, the mountaineers where fired upon in an attempt to silence them as well. Luckily they escaped. Unfortunately, the refugees were rounded up and taken away.

It seems incredibly strange that liberated people would feel the need to donate their blood spattered prison shirts to the Tibet Museum as a means of protest and live in another country other than their own and be reduced to virtual beggars?

Are the Chinese doing all the beneficial things that they say they are? This is a very controversial question to ask (and since the Chinese follow Winston Churchill's WWII quote of "truth being protected by a bodyguard of lies", it will always be open to speculation unless hard and fast evidence is presented).But let's try answer anyway. It seems as if it is basically this is socio-political engineering, and cultural cleansing on a massive scale. China has been encouraging ethnic Chinese to immigrate to what is called TAR (Tibet Administrative Region) since they arrived in Lhasa and denying the Tibetans any participation or say in their own affairs. To do so, they have created various push-pull factors to encourage the movement of those Chinese. Tibet has had much infrastructure investment, but only made available to ethnic Chinese. Land has been given to ethnic Chinese and Tibetans "encouraged" to leave the land and live in housing provided by the Chinese. Education and skills training would be too much to give 2nd class citizens since a thinking person is a dangerous person.

Can you imagine a world without the Dalai Lama? No? Well, I suppose like the Pope, he is just always there and you don't really give it much thought. But unlike the Pope, who is elected, the Dalai Lama is believed to a reincarnation. The current Dalai Lama is in his 14th re-incarnation. He is selected by the highest officials in Tibetan religious circles after a variety of vigorous tests; many of which involve recognition of items from previous lifetimes. It usually takes about 4- 6 years between the death of the old Dalai Lama and the selection of the new one. One of those high religious officials is the Tibetans "2nd in command" - the Panchen Lama. The Dalai Lama is involved in selecting him and the Panchen Lama helps select the next Dalai Lama and so on.

On 14 May 1995, the Dalai Lama formally announced that the 10th Panchen Lama had been selected. On the 17 May 1995, he was abducted by the Chinese and he and his family have not been seen since; despite numerous requests by various concerned international bodies and influential governments. Since the date of his abduction he and his family have been held incommunicado.

After the Dalai Lama made the announcement, the Chinese decreed that the Dalai Lama's announcement was "illegal and invalid" and denounced the legitimacy of the 10th Panchen Lama. Instead they produced their own selection as the real incarnation! This is incredibly bizarre and totally unprecedented; especially considering that China is officially an atheist state! Even more so when the selection of the Panchen Lama is a purely religious matter!

But the truly frightening point of this is what happens when the currently Dalai Lama dies? If the Chinese select their own Dalai Lama as they have with their Panchen Lama, they will have effectively nailed in the very final nail into the coffin of the culture and country known as Tibet. Perhaps a great light, like the Mandelas and Ghandis of the world, will be finally extinguished at the hands of Tibet's "liberators".

Do you care? Should you care? These are big questions because the answers that they provoke lead to more questions themselves. Keep asking yourself why? Those answers you give will demand that you are honest with yourself and your place in the world. If you say no, then why? If you say yes, then what have you done about it? These are perhaps the easy questions to answer. Perhaps the answer to why should you care is more taxing and pressing; more demanding.

I think that we should care about what happens here for a number of reasons. China believes that it is the Middle Kingdom and that everybody else should pay homage and tribute to them. Indirectly, perhaps we are already doing so. China produces stuff that the rest of the world consumes and consumption is what drives the world economy forward. Or until recently. Our western standards of living have been based on the economy of consumption. China has been feted as the saviour of the West and its economies. In China alone, there are potentially 1.3billion consumers and the west needs, nay wants, them to consume! So China is in a buyer's market and cash strapped countries are falling over themselves to "get in there" and satisfy China's consumers' demands. They say jump, and the West is starting to say a little louder now, "How high?" They present two choices to the world - take it or leave it. But if your leaving it affects them, then they have the political will to ensure that you are brought into line.

Don't believe me? Ask yourself this: What would happen if China "liberated" Tibet in the 21st century? What would the world do in reaction? Be honest. What does it say about what we think is important and how far we are prepared to take our beliefs? Only you can answer this.

How did you do on that quiz? Top marks or only so-so? What really matters though is what, and how you, feel. In life, it is not what happens to you that is important, but rather how you take it. How are you taking it?