TIBETSPACE

TYC TO LAUNCH 2ND PHASE OF TIBETAN PEOPLE'S MASS MOVEMENT

Mr. Tsewang Rigzin, President of the Tibetan Youth Congress, today announced in Dharamsala, the second phase of "The Tibetan People's Mass Movement."  On July 28, Tibetan protestors will begin an "Indefinite Fast for Tibet--Without Food and Water," as a kind of preliminary action to a full-scale demonstration, based on Gandhian principles of satyagraha.  The demonstration will begin on August 7, 2008, the day before the Olympics open in Beijing.

The TYC is the largest Tibetan NGO outside of Tibet, and has long advocated independence for Tibet.  While they differ with His Holiness on his bid for autonomy, the TYC has always respected His Holiness's opinions and recognized him as the greatest living benefactor of the Tibetan people.  This recent announcement is extremely important as it represents the final initiative before the Olympics begin.  It is important that the world's attention be turned toward the Tibetan community during this time.  In the months following the March 10 demonstrations in Tibet, the Chinese were visibly surprised by the general outrage shown around the world, and it is time to rekindle this response.

And remember:  the Olympics in Beijing bring up several instances of racial and cultural suppression at the hands of the Chinese empire, and it's incumbent upon all of us to recognize that awareness of this widespread oppression provides us with more leverage in bringing awareness to the Tibetan situation.  So we should all applaud Luis Moreno Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, for seeking an arrest warrant for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the President of Sudan on charges of genocide.  This is a brave and necessary step, and even if it has little immediate effect on Darfur, it serves notice to the world that the ICC has taken its role seriously.  China of course is directly implicated in the slaughter in Darfur, and while this action will have little impact on the Tibetan situation, it brings China's brutal foreign policy schemes into the light of day.  This can only benefit all those who suffer under the Chinese yoke.

Also, thanks to Agam's Gecko for alerting us to another racist policy well under way in Beijing as that city buckles down for the Olympics.  Here's an excerpt:

Bar owners in Beijing are now being forced to sign pledges to ban black people and Mongolians from their establishments. Question: Wasn't it the apartheid laws which disqualified South Africa from Olympic participation not so many years ago? Can we now disqualify China, or is there a double standard somewhere?

Excellent question, vital information.  With approximately three to go before the Olympics begin, it's important that our thoughts and prayers--and actions--take notice of the larger arena of human oppression.   Shaping the proper consciousness  doesn't require us to be on the front lines, and without the proper consciousness, nothing of  lasting importance will be accomplished.
 

U.S. REPRESENTATIVES MILLER (D-CA) & SENSEBRENNER (R-WI) INTRODUCE TIBETAN REFUGEE ASSISTANCE ACT

Representatives George Miller and Jim Sensenbrenner introduced a bill (HR 6536) in Congress to provide visas for 3000 Tibetans to enter the United States.  The bill comes on the heel of earlier legislation  (SR 504) calling for China to cease their persecution of Tibetans currently living in Tibet.  "The Tibetans face severe persecution under the Chinese government," Representative Miller said, "and must be recognized by the United States for refugee assistance. I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Rep. Sensenbrenner and our other colleagues to address this particular problem and I look forward to working with the State Department as this bill moves forward."

Bills, of course, move slowly through their stages, but I applaud Congress's long-term support of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people.   And  visas themselves take a good deal of time and patience in the post 9-11 era,  but Tibetans, as I currently understand the phrase, can apply for political asylum in the United States, and I would assume that this would become an option for many who are granted a visa.  As a refugee, their status is clearly defined (this comes from the Refugee Act as amended in 1996):

'a refugee' means a person who, owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his or her nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his or her former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it . . .

Tibetans are roundly considered to fall under this definition, and we would hope that our country might eventually become a safe harbor for those Tibetans who would wish to come here.

 

WATCH THIS VIDEO: TIBETAN (MIS)REPRESENTATIONS

As the Tibetan cause becomes more visible around the world, so too do those commentators who are vying for authority and respect.  As a result of these growing numbers, however, misinformation, disinformation, and progaganda have increased as well, and in the following video you will see Jamyang Norbu announcing the new journal, High Asia, which is devoted to correcting those misperceptions about Tibet and Tibetans that are becoming more and more prevalent online, in books, and on the air waves.  Propaganda does not come simply from Beijing anymore.  It's everywhere, in the most unlikely locations and streaming from the most unpredictable podiums. 

RANGZEN: SAY IT LOUD (AND WATCH THIS VIDEO)

For any of my readers who haven't heard of Jamyang Norbu, it's time to become familiar with his work.  He's a prolific and astute commentator on all things related to Tibet, and his authority and broad-based appeal only seem to grow as the years pass.  Information about Norbu is widely available, but this site provides a concise starting point.  The motherlode, however, lies in his blogsite where he regularly posts substantial, ground-breaking essays.  Pay special attention to the "Comments" section, which is always long, mostly serious, and informative.  This section consistently attracts authoritative and well informed voices, and you will learn much from reading it.   You'll find here the best and the worst of the Tibetan debate:  everything from the ego-driven "I'm-a-greater-authority-than-you-are-because-I-know-this-or-that" to the plaintive, intelligent, carefully considered arguments for Tibetan independence. It has become the great clearing-house of opinion on Tibetan affairs. I read it continually.

The video below was posted in late May of this year and records Norbu's speech at a rally organized by Team Tibet in San Francisco.  It runs just under eight minutes and begins with a series of images before Norbu begins his speech (sit through those; Norbu's coming).  His brief talk provides a nice summary of the major issues in the fight for Tibetan independence (distinguishing between religious freedom, human rights, and independence), and gives you a dose of his charisma.  He also places the Tibetan struggle in the larger context of the Chinese empire . . . Burma and others.  He could have easily added, of course, Darfur.

So have a look at this video.  There is a larger issue here which I will comment on in my next posting.

CHINA: EARTHQUAKES, NUCLEAR TESTS, CONSPIRACY THEORIES & A MEDIA NARCOSIS

The story at this point hasn't got legs, and isn't likely to find them, but rumors have circulated recently that the earthquake in China was caused by an underground nuclear test carried out by the Chinese military.  Have a look at one of the recent articles here.  As you'll see, the story has all of the elements of a good conspiracy theory--unexplained physical evidence, suspicious troop movement in the area, anonymous sources defined as "experts," anecdotal evidence everywhere--but it is nonetheless a good story. particularly now that Iran is lobbing missiles through the empyrean air over the Middle East. 

'Tis the season to be testing, apparently.

And not only nuclear missiles . . . China has recently evidenced the kind of talent for hair-splitting that would test the mettle of the best American Sophists who are still wondering what our definition of "is" is.  China has now announced that they will be happy to talk about His Holiness's personal future, but certainly would have no interest in discussing Tibet's future.  Revel in the rollicking embarrassment of it all here.

A teaser from the article:

The Chinese official averred that the Tibetan people had overthrown the 'theocratic system' and established the "People's Republic" in Tibet in 1959.

'He has lost all right to negotiate on the future of Tibet,' Dong said.

You decide not to respond to this because you don't have the time, the patience, or the  emotional reserves it takes to stoop this low, right?  Errors of this nature are like those errors that crash your computer . . . they're so egregious, so viral, so malevolent that they will certainly and clearly crash the engine that's spreading them, right?

Probably not.  Have a look, for example, at the popular perception of Barack Obama in the United States.  Twelve percent of both Democrats and Republicans currently believe he's a practicing Muslim.  Thirty-six percent are convinced he attended a Muslim school while he was living in Indonesia.  And when The New Yorker cover hit the stands yesterday, the firestorm that erupted over its bungled intention--Or was it bungled?--showed just how ready we are to believe whatever we wish to believe without seriously considering the evidence.

There is a further danger.  The popular media--I can't and won't attempt a definition of this phrase--so draws us out of our ourselves, so thoroughly interrupts any moment of potential introspection that might haphazardly arise in our lives, that we are losing the unique analytical powers that introspection bestows upon us.  And here's the stinger:  I don't see those powers returning, not as our culture's common inheritance, without each of us making eccentric and individual commitments to bring it back.

And of course individualism and eccentricity are what the popular, homogenizing media fears the most.   

Weariness with the Chinese obfuscation is symptomatic of this.  Constantly overload your media victims--that's what we are, victims of the media--with patently absurd and obviously time-wasting assertions, and soon you'll have us where you want us:  in a state of media narcosis where snippets of Jon Voigt's fascination with his estranged grandchildren are entwined seamlessly with reports of forced sterilization in Tibet.

Here's the problem.  The brain is a highly capable organism, and it can multi-task with the fluency and speed of a computer, but it's not so good at quality control, particularly when the incoming data stream is a corporate mixture of sludge, trivia, tragedy, and tears (this latter, of course, the staple of the American afternoon talk show).  China's rhetoric--and don't kid yourself, it's working--is no different from McDonald's rhetoric in its essential technique:  overload, overload, overload the air waves with fatuous claims and misleading suggestions, and while there'll be those who monitor and scoff, the media deployed in this fashion is akin to a kind of intellectual carpet-bombing:  some will escape, and pride themselves in having escaped, but most will succumb.

So in America, where we gallantly try to divert attention from our $250 billion trade deficit with China by periodically suggesting to the Chinese that the Tibetans have feelings too, we're drowning in a de-regulated media.

It is tiring, of course, to point out all of the small inaccuracies and tragic lies coming from the Chinese leadership, a stream of propaganda that seems recently to have grown in quantity and boldness as the Western leaders back off their threats of a boycott.  It is so tiring in fact that I often feel that it's no longer worth the effort.  Won't Americans see through this anyway?

No, they won't.  So this, then, is our fight.  The media fight.

Most of us aren't on the ground in Tibet; most of us aren't confronting the Chinese security forces on a daily basis, fearing for our lives.  I don't think we should ever forget that simple fact.  That is not our fight.

We're dealing with the media, our own front lines.  And that's a very different enemy, one that requires very different strategies for victory.  But that's our fight, should we choose to enlist. 

WATCH THIS VIDEO: KESANG YANGKYI TAKLA SPEAKS OUT

Part of the modern neurosis derives from our ability to be a spectator of calamities, atrocities, and abuses that occur in other countries, other cultures, other neighborhoods.  For the past 150 years, journalists have served up the fare that now crowds our living rooms, spilling out of the TV, leaping off the newspapers . . . bodies in varying degrees of dismemberment, exploded cars, decapitated buildings, and all the while many of us safely viewing the carnage with every imaginable human reaction.  Mostly we look away, make a resolution or two, and fear for the future.  Or rather, our future. 

Because the pain of others most often isn't personal.

Except when it is.  And for one reason or another, the pain of the Tibetan people has become deeply personal to many around the world.  Yet at times, one senses a weariness, a nagging notion that the images of atrocity won't stop, that resolutions will not be reached, and that a kind of incipient apathy is seeping into the dialogue of even the most committed.  These images work on us invisibly, they fly into our psyches well below our daily radar, and they have their effects.  They have their way with us.

I suspect that at times like these when the resistive energies are low--and failed boycotts suggest such times are upon us--it is a good thing to learn how to listen all over again.  The video below is a good place to start.  The woman speaking is Kesang Yankgyi Takla, Minister of Information & International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration; she was in Tokyo in early July when this was recorded.

CRACKDOWN IN TIBET, SEVEN PEACEKEEPERS DEAD IN DARFUR & BUSH IS OFF TO BEIJING

Kudos to the Los Angeles Times for reminding their readers, as the outcry for the Beijing boycott has faded to a whimper, of the unique opportunity our leaders have missed, an opportunity that might have aligned us, however fleetingly, with the global struggle for human rights.  It should be noted, however, that the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, have made it abundantly clear that their absence from the Opening Ceremony has nothing to do with a boycott.  And while the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose country has a substantial Tibetan population, has declared his intention to boycott, one Canadian newspaper has called his gesture empty and meaningless, and implored him to attend.  As the Times points out, boycotting the Opening Ceremony would seem the perfect compromise, making a clear statement to China, while allowing the athletes to perform their appointed tasks.  To walk away from such a humanitarian opportunity this rare, to turn a blind eye to these blatant, long-term, and highly organized programs of human oppression, seems inexplicable and indefensible to me.

At the very least, this should be pointed out with mechanical regularity. 

LE TOUR DE FRANCE & A FREE TIBET

For the first three weeks in July, the Tour de France courses through the French countryside, and I'm typically glued to the couch, watching Versus's extended coverage several times a day.  It's a ritual I've been indulging now since the late 80's when Greg Lemond became the first American to break into the European ranks. 

While I was in India last month, Cadel Evans, one of the leading contenders for this year's yellow jersey (worn by the race leader), voiced his support for the Tibetan cause, and it's created a bit of a disturbance because it's likely that he'll be riding for the Australian team at the Beijing Olympics.  Check out his website, and you'll see that Evans is selling T-shirts in support of Tibetan students.  Evans is an Aussie, and Australians, of course, have long supported His Holiness and the Tibetans he represents.  Evans has also been sensitized to the Tibetan's plight by watching what has happend to the Aborigine population in his own country.

So stop by the website, and pull for Evans to win the Tour this year.  Yell for Cadel, as they say.  He's my pick to win the yellow jersey, for what it's worth, and if he can hold off Alejandro Valverde, my pick for second, I think the race is Cadel's to lose.

BEIJING'S BULLY PULPIT AND HOW WE GAVE IT TO THEM

Anyone who has recently browsed the Google headlines regarding Tibet and the Beijing Olympics, and who hasn't yet confused cowardice and conscience, has to be deeply depressed.  A mere four months ago, the world had arisen in outrage over the Chinese oppression in Tibet, and while China was sending in security forces, China's international demeanor was, at least, and for a time, chastened.  The Chinese were waiting and watching.  Buying time, formulating their plans, seeing who lined up where, agreeing to engage His Holiness in meaningless talks, but agreeing nonetheless. 

Now, as the major nations back off the boycott of the Opening Ceremony, China has begun to feel rightfully emboldened.  Victorious in their international campaign to stage a successful Olympics by bullying world leaders to attend, they've adopted a rhetoric that is now aggressive and imperial.  One headline reads, "China warns French President against meeting Dalai Lama;" another crows "China warns Dalai Lama ahead of Olympics;" and still another enthuses, "Bush tells Hu he is looking forward to the Olympics." 

Is there any end to this maudlin cow-towing to an openly oppressive regime?  One that stands defiantly in support of depriving those who fall under its sway their most fundamental human rights?  It's difficult to imagine the impact such hypocritical stances will have on our future international policies. 

I know what some of you are thinking.  Realpolitik recognizes that power trumps human rights on most occasions, and that to think that serious participants in the global economy would ruffle China's feathers over a few Tibetans and Darfurians is at least naive, and certainly ill informed.  Isolating China in this way simply compounds the problem. 

I have heard this argument, repeatedly, and while I recognize its mass appeal, I don't  fundamentally agree with it.  Why?  Because the issue at stake--money--is not inherently a moral quantity, while the matter of human rights most certainly is.  To confuse matters of the global economy with matters of the human spirit is fundamentally wrong and logically indefensible.  To make decisions about how we handle issues of the human heart based on a country's potential and actual market value should simply not be condoned.  Of course, it happens--greed is as much a part of our lives as compassion--but it shouldn't be publicly celebrated in this fashion.  It's unethical to do so and illogical to confuse these categories.

Who can view us now as a nation of people who seriously support the basic welfare of all human beings around the globe? 

It's a dark hour both for America and Europe.

AFTER THE BUSTED BOYCOTT, WHAT NEXT?

Most Americans had to be disappointed today when they read Lodi Gyari's report on the Tibetan delegation's recent meeting with the Chinese.  Disappointed, but not surprised.

"There is a growing perception among the Tibetans and my friends that the whole tactic of the Chinese government is to engage us to stall for time," said Lodi Gyari, who led the two-man team which met Chinese officials in Beijing.  While commentators like Jamyang Norbu have long embraced a far more impatient version of this opinion, even the most conservative of us realized early on that these talks seemed nothing more than empty exercises, designed to quiet the international community until the Olymics were done. 

Of course, it's sometimes difficult for Americans to read between the lines of Gyari's carefully considered prose, but one sentence in today's statement concerning China's stall tactics seemed to verge on the comical:  "My colleague and I told our Chinese counterpart candidly that we ourselves are beginning to inch towards this school of thought."  Inch?  How about leap?  Pounce?  While the Tibetan delegation expressed its disappointment with the talks, the Chinese had another perspective:  "The Chinese side expressed the view that the dialogue process has been productive," Gyari reported, "and that we need to keep in mind that a half-a-century-old issue of great complexity, cannot be resolved in a matter of years."  These are the kinds of comments that simply defy a rational response . . .

I still cannot help but feel that a boycott of the Opening Ceremony would have been an effective means of maintaining the kind of international pressure that was brought to bear on the Chinese in the wake of the March protests.  But that's a dream, as the Globe and Mail reports: 

The boycott movement is now in tatters, with no major Western leaders still on board. Only a few smaller countries - Estonia, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic - have announced that they will not send any representatives to the opening ceremony in Beijing.  Several other leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, are not planning to attend the opening ceremony, but they have made it clear that that they are not participating in a boycott.

Even our state newspaper here in Arkansas ran an editorial a couple of days ago protesting China's involvement in the genocide in Darfur and pronounced these the genocidal games.

If our world leaders are unable to respond forcefully to the Chinese, we can.  Watch the Olympic Trials, then cut the television off.  Don't watch the Olympics. 

Besides, the Tour de France has started, and they're trying to clean up their act this year, which is more than I can say for the rogue's gallery that will soon be packing for Beijing.