TIBETSPACE

CHINA OPENS UP TO THE MEDIA?

A brief update on the situation in Urumqi:

The Christian Science Monitor is reporting today that China has staged something of a media coup by adopting modern PR tactics that have long been a staple of Western journalism.  "Officials are certainly studying the media-management techniques that are practiced elsewhere in the world," says Rebecca Mackinnon, an expert on the Chinese media at Hong Kong University. "And they actually don't work too badly."

The unmitigated media disaster that followed China's clampdown in Tibet during the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics might seem, on the face of it, to have taught the Chinese a valuable lesson about free and open societies.  Or at least that's what this current article in CSM is claiming. 

"The approach appeared to mark a further step in Beijing's efforts to manage the news more subtly," Peter Ford writes, "taking a page from the Western public relations playbook and getting ahead of the news so as to spin it, rather than impose a total blackout."  Maybe.  But before we begin to lay laurels at China's door for their adoption of Western spin techniques, I think we need to make a few very obvious points about the differences between Tibetans and Uighurs.  They both fall under the category of China's ethnic minorities, but that category is large enough to be essentially useless in making meaningful discriminations between the two groups, particularly when what is at stake here is a judgment of China's evolving media control. 

First of all, there seems little debate about the fact that at least 156 are dead and over 1000 wounded, numbers that automatically elevate the unrest in Xinjiang to unprecedented levels.  The Uighurs have a long tradition of separatism within China, and their willingness to embrace force and aggression when they deem it necessary distinguishes them from the Tibetans who have traditionally articulated a coherent non-violent stance.  Tibetans, of course, do not speak with one voice, and non-violence has recently come under question among the Tibetan community.  Nonetheless, as long as we are talking about media spin, it must be said that the Western understanding of the Tibetan community has been set largely by His Holiness and the monastic community--a distinct minority among the Tibetan community--and so Westerners, whether accurately or not, identify the Tibetan community with non-violent resistance. 

Reports are now coming out of Urumqi that there are dead Han Chinese on the street, victims, presumably, of Uighur violence, and if this is so, it makes perfect sense that the Chinese would encourage the media to report this.  Eighteen months ago, with monks and nuns being imprisoned in Lhasa, and with summary executions occurring in the more remote provinces, it also made perfect sense as well that the Chinese would ban foreign journalists from traveling anywhere in Tibet and covering the Chinese repsonse to the Tibetan protests.  Executing monks and nuns doesn't make good copy.

So what the Chinese have learned is fairly rudimentary:  let the media cover acts of violence committed against the government, but don't let the media cover acts of violence undertaken by the government against its own people.  The American government has perfected this technique; that's what China has learned from Western media control, and it's unflattering to all of us.

Yet, we cannot miss the take-home message here.  The wholesale slaughter of populations who have publicly articulated and privately embraced fundamental principles of non-violence will most often receive widespread condemnation from the world community.  It is clear that this kind of slaughter must be hidden from public view, which is to say that, for one reason or another, non-violence still occupies the moral high road in the Western ethical sensibility. 

Certainly, there may come a time when the Tibetan people will decide that this particular high road is leading them nowhere fast, and at this time perhaps they will decide to embrace more aggressive resistance strategies.  The Tibetan people will make that decision, and they will, like the Uighurs, live with the consequences of that decision, whatever they may be. 

I wouldn't presume to counsel the Tibetan people on their decision; I'm an American, and violence in every corner of my culture, both at home and abroad, is part of my birthright. Understanding just how saturated I am with violence is a full-time job, and until I've gotten a handle on it, I'll leave off giving advice to the Tibetan people. 

But I will suggest that the next decade--and the next year, particularly, leading up to the election of a new Prime Minister--will find the Tibetan people having a conversation amongst themselves about the future of non-violence, national identity, political process, and life in exile that stands to have international implication.

I believe that Americans can a learn a lot from listening to that conversation. The Tibetans have a rich and diverse set of perspectives on issues that concern all of us, and they run the gamut from the sacred to the secular.  Over the upcoming months, I hope to highlight some of these issues here. 

TEN WAYS TO FREE TIBET (1-3)

I continually meet people who want to “do something” about Tibet and the Tibetans.  And who wouldn’t?  An entire people committed, particularly over the last 700 years, to the principles of non-violence, whose homeland has been occupied with varying degrees of brutality over the last half century, and whose leader has become not only an adroit ambassador for his country, but one of the most revered spiritual figures in the world . . . What’s not to like?  And don’t forget:  George Lucas, in Return of the Jedi (1983) had those cute little Ewoks speaking Tibetan. 

So if you google the phrase, “help Tibet,” you’ll get over 8.5 million hits.

Take your pick.  Many of these organizations have made substantial contributions to the Tibetan cause, and there’s a lot you can do that will make a difference.

But having been involved over several decades now, and with dramatically varying degrees of commitment, to understanding what Tibetan culture might reasonably offer Americans, I wanted to offer my own Ten Ways to Free Tibet, and then be done with it.  It’s not a manifesto; it’s not a declaration.  It’s just a list of suggestions that are offered here as tentative answers to persistent questions. 

My working plan:  In this posting I’ll list three suggestions; in the next posting, four; and in the third posting, three, making for a total of ten.  I’ll eventually offer a bit of commentary, a very little commentary, on each item, hoping to provide a picture of the overall conceptual structure that stands behind the entire set of ten.  But for now, here are the first three ways to free Tibet.

1. Set aside 20 minutes and watch the following video. It's a recording of a talk given by Jill Bolte Taylor at a TED Conference on February 27, 2008.  (If you're unfamiliar with TED, correct that problem asap.  Their website contains a library of TED talks, and they're routinely amazing, jaw-dropping, and inspiring.)  Dr. Taylor, a neuroanatomist, suffered a massive brain hemorrhage in the left hemisphere, and her description of this experience lays the scientific groundwork for Americans to approach and potentially understand one of the most important legacies the Tibetan philosophers have left us.  Warning:  Don't even think about starting this video if you don't have twenty minutes to give to it because you'll completely ignore whatever you were supposesd to be doing.
2. Memorize this fact:  Before Western explorers arrived in America and began its colonization, noted anthropologist Henry Dobyns estimated the population of Native Americans to be approximately 10 million.  By the end of the 19th century, the number had dwindled to 250,000.  Over 9 million Native Americans perished as a result of our arrival on these shores.
3. Memorize this quotation by Mahatma Gandhi:  "The outward freedom . . . that we shall attain, will be only in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment" (from The Essential Gandhi, ed. by Louis Fischer with a Preface by Eknath Easwaran,  p. 165.)

So, the first three ways to save Tibet.  Four more in the next posting.  Stay tuned.

MANDALA-TIME!

The monks from the University of Arkansas are now at the University of Northern Iowa, and the construction of the mandala is in its early stages, as the captured image of my desktop to the left reveals.  To get in on the fun, go to UNI mandala.   You'll need to download RealPlayer if you don't already have it, but there's a link on the site to do so.  The Opening Ceremony went off without a hitch, a fitting prelude to His Holiness's visit to this campus next year.  Thanks to the monks for their extraordinary effort and to the hospitality shown them by the University of Northern Iowa.

THE DEATH PENALTY, TIBET & AMERICA

When the Chinese courts sentenced two Tibetans to the death penalty recently (check out the BBC report here), an outcry arose immediately among the Tibetan community and has now gradually spread around the world.  Both the Tibetan Youth Congress and Amnesty International have registered their protests against this unfair, inhuman, and brutal practice. 

Amnesty International continues to be one of the agencies that makes public the grim statistics of judicial killing; many countries have their own branch of AI, such as Amnesty International USA.    These are all carefully maintained websites that have devoted themselves to humanitarian causes around the globe, and if you haven't bookmarked them yet, you might think about doing so.  Reading them on a regular basis will have a direct impact on your humanitarian practice, however you wish to define it. 

Have a look at the following video that chronicles the Get on the Bus movement, sponsored by Amnesty International and supporting, among other issues, free speech in Tibet.

Grass-roots movements like Get on the Bus allow, for example, Irene Kahn, Secretary General of Amnesty International, to do her work (see a brief video statement by Kahn here) on a global scale.  With these local initiatives in place, the balance between barbarism and humanitarianism (the two sides are always at war because they are two forces warring within the individual human psyche) can begin to shift ever so slightly toward human dignity and a respect for human life.  In this campaign, the ongoing fate of capital punishment is a kind of yardstick on how we're faring as a compassionate and caring global village.

Several facts and figures regarding the death penalty that you might want to know (all taken from Amnesty International's report on the death penalty in 2008) are listed below.  Call it a kind of statistical autobiography of the world's spirit:

1. Fifty-nine countries have retained the death penalty for ordinary crimes.  Here they are:  Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Botswana, Burundi, Chad, China, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad And Tobago, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United States Of America, Viet Nam, Yemen, Zimbabwe.
2. Only 25 countries of those 59 listed above actually carried out an execution in 2008.  This is seen as a sign that these countries are drifting away from this practice.
3. A disproportionate number of sentences were handed down to the poor, minorities and members of racial, ethnic and religious communities in countries such as Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and USA.
4. Regarding the United States:  The current total number of defendants on state and federal death rows is 3,307, of whom 45% are white, 41.6% are black, and 11% are Latino/Latina.  Over 98% of those on death row are male. The states with the largest death rows are California (662), Florida (399), Texas (367), and Pennsylvania (226).
5. The big killers continue to be China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
6. Paradoxically, Asia, the font of non-violent philosophy, leads the world in state-sponsored executions.  More people were executed in Asia than in any other part of the world in 2008.
7. China carried out more executions than the rest of the world put together.

So what can you do?  Read the Amnesty International website.  That's the first thing.  If you're interested in Tibet, then you want to concentrate, for the time being, on human rights violations in China, and AI has a site for that.  And if you're an American reading this blog, you need to be aware of the international perspective on America's own reputation in the human rights arena.  Click here for more details.

It's a global issue.

CHINA, CHINA EVERYWHERE . . . AND A VIDEO ON THE KARMAPA

 The global tech community was shocked recently to learn of Ghostnet, a cyber-snooping operation that orginated in the PRC and whose virus had turned up in over 1200 computers in over 100 countries, not an out-sized number at all, but discretely targeted, and thus harder to detect.  You can find a link to the full 53-page report on Scribd (which you'll need to join to download, but it's worth the email address and password you have to give to get it). To summarize, the capabilities of Ghostnet are extensive, and the main computers of the Dalai Lama's office were clearly compromised.  David Gelernter, a national fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, recently wrote, concerning the likelihood that China was the culprit in engineering and spreading the virus:

After the Dalai Lama's office sent an e-mail invitation to a foreign diplomat, Beijing diplomats happened to phone the same diplomat and discourage the visit. A China-bound traveler who had used the Internet to help put Tibetan exiles in contact with Chinese dissidents was stopped at the Chinese border, shown transcripts of the online exchanges, and warned to cut it out.

And so it goes.  Gelerntner argues, persuasively, that what we're seeing here is the Second Cold War:  "China is our new Cold War enemy, and her favorite weapons will also be novel: financial weapons, trade weapons, cyberweapons. Welcome to Cold War II."

It's not news to anybody that technology changes lives, and that it is currently changing our lives here in America, sometimes in ways that seem insufferable.  It still isn't clear to me why anyone would want a Twitter update on my choice of an espresso over a latte as I'm standing in line to teach a class that my caffeine addiction will cause me to start a bit late.  The problem is, however, that the technology in question reflects the gravitas of the culture that embraces it.  So six students in Chisinau, Moldova--the only post-Soviet Union country that elected a communist government--started an anti-government rally recently using Twitter and instantly had summoned 10,000 students to the protest. (Read the NYT account here.) Our own election of Obama marshaled the text-technology in similar ways, and the cell-phone videos from Tibet have left a lasting record of the atrocities inflicted by the Chinese in Tibet throughout 2008. 

So the new technology, like all new technologies, mirrors the intention and morality of those who use it.  Twitter then, the very same Twitter, can be an agent of narcissism or an advocate for civil liberty.  Twitter doesn't come with a user manual, a code of ethics, or even the vaguest guidelines for how the human animal might represent itself through its one-line updates.  But all we have to do is read the updates and draw our conclusions: we are both magnanimous and narcissistic.

Recently, the Dalai Lama and his special envoy Lodi Gyari have called on all Tibetans everywhere to record their suffering over the past fifty years, a project that will clearly profit from the video and web technologies available today even to amatuers.  (Our very own TEXT Project at Arkansas is an example.)  Central to this effort is Harry Wu, the founder and director of the Laogai Research Foundation.  If you don't know Mr. Wu's work, you need to become familiar with it.  "Laogai" means "reform through labor," and the term generally refers to Chinese labor camps--where Mr. Wu spent 19 years of his life.  He is now an American citizen and has taken up the Tibetan cause.  He has curated an exhibit in Washington, D.C. on the Tibetan struggle, and he is a significant force in encouraging Sino-Tibetan dialogue.  His ideas are in line with Martin Luther King Jr.'s who encouraged the poor whites in the South to understand that they had more in common with the poor blacks than they did with the middle-class white Southerners who were behind racism's corporate and cultural structure.  Wu is making a similar argument about the Tibetans and the Chinese, and how they should be looking at what they hold in common.  And he might well be right.

The economic problems in both Tibet and China--read about the struggles of one of China's billionaire women in the March 30 issue of The New Yorker--are fertile ground for unification across lines of race and ethnicity, the kind of unification that, if it occurred in China, would have an immediate and long-range global impact.  As the Dalai Lama ages, and finally retires to his spiritual practice, and ultimately dies, the transitional period would benefit from this kind of economic revolution.  In the meantime, the 17th Karmapa is waiting in line, but that in and of itself is enough for another posting . . . in the meantime, watch the following video for a good introduction to this extraordinary young man, and the problems that he currently confronts.

Follow this link to watch the video.

<a href="http://technorati.com/claim/aprtazbccu" rel="me">Technorati Profile</a>

THANKS FROM ARCHBISHOP TUTU TO ALL TIBET SUPPORTERS

To all of you who responded to my posting of 24 March, and signed the letter protesting the South African action against the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Tutu has thanked you:

Keep it up. You are the people who make freedom happen.
It warms my heart to see so many of my fellow Nobel Laureates, stars, leaders, and people from around the world put their signature on paper, so to speak, to stand behind our friend the Dalai Lama.

We have just seen a shameful example of South African leaders becoming timid in the face of Chinese 'might' and their own economic interests, and refusing this incredible, peaceful being entry to our county --for a peace conference!

It's an embarrassment that this could happen in a country that has known how dark life can be when your human rights are being smashed. And we, of all people, know what it means when someone in another part of the world stands up for your rights and freedom.

So it's a joyful thing, to turn around and see you -- people from all countries, from all walks of life, who are willing to step forward, put their name down, and say 'wait a minute, I object to this mistreatment!'

It lets me know, once again, that good will ultimately prevail in this world.

Keep it up. You are the people who make freedom happen.

Mary Wald writes further about these issues on The Huffington Post.  She includes comments from Archbishop Tutu as well that she recently received in an email correspondence with him.

The letter is still open for signatures at www.thecommunity.com.  If you haven't signed yet, and you feel inclined to add your voice to the mix, stop by and do so; also send the link to your friends who might be interested.

As I mentioned in my last posting, these kinds of off-the-radar actions are extremely important, and even, in my opinion, the driving forces behind political change in the new technological era (witness the Obama campaign).  Here's what I said (and pardon the egocentricity of self-quotation): 

But we can do something off the radar, something in fact, more powerful, more fundamental, and more effective than many of those who are on the radar, under constant scrutiny, can do.  We can transform the fundamental ground of consciousness that in the long run will make the change we envision inevitable.

I mean, we recently signed a letter of protest regarding South Africa's treatment of the Dalai Lama, and within several days, we've got a response in our inboxes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, thanking us for our commitment. 

You're probably thinking what I'm thinking . . . we're having an effect, anonymously, off-the-radar, working the ground of consciousness.

Thanks for your help.

A TOUGH WEEK FOR TIBETANS, WOESER'S NEW PREFACE & A WONDERFUL VIDEO

A tough week indeed for Tibet and the Tibetans.  China claims to have reopened parts of Tibet to tourists, which means that parts of Tibet have now come once again under control of the Chinese police forces.  France and China on Wednesday signed a diplomatic communique in which France restated its resolution that Tibet should never achieve independence and that the Himalayan region is unalterably part of China.  (You can read the The New York Times account here.) Sarkozy's feeble recounting of France's history of recognizing China's sovereignty over Tibet was sad . . . a kind of 11th hour recantation of his recognition last year of His Holiness and the Tibetan struggle.  China has also asked New Zealand to withdraw its invitation to the Dalai Lama who is scheduled to visit that country in the near future, but in an act of increasingly uncommon civility and bravery, Prime Minister John Keys pre-emptively approved the visa in spite of China's threats.  And remember the Tibetan farmers of Kardze County, Sichuan Province, the ones who refused to plant their crops, risking their own security, in protest of oppressive Chinese policies?  The Chinese have begun an "arrest and beating drive" that has left many Tibetan farmers injured and imprisoned.  And the monk who was beaten so severely has finally died of his injuries.

The global financial crisis has helped the Chinese in their campaign to oppress the Tibetan people, and they're taking advantage of their leveraged position.  In debt to the once booming Chinese economy, Western nations are now finding themselves being held hostage by Chinese demands to recognize China's rule over Tibet.

And because of our reckless economic policies, many of these states and countries are either softening or silencing their criticism of China's policies or publicly denying Tibet's bid for freedom.  California, South Africa, France . . . who's next? 

So what can we do?  We can push back in the manner that is suited to our current situation, our current ability, and our current goals.  We cannot all be freedom fighters; we cannot all command the audience of a Jamyang Norbu; we cannot all be elected officials in places of power. 

But we can do something off the radar, something in fact, more powerful, more fundamental, and more effective than many of those who are on the radar, under constant scrutiny, can do.  We can transform the fundamental ground of consciousness that in the long run will make the change we envision inevitable. 

In fact, Secretaries of State, Senators, Chancellors, Prime Ministers, none of these exalted and capable people can effect the change we wish to see until we effect these very changes within ourselves.  Remember:  legislative change, or a change in diplomatic relations, or the acceptance of a new international policy, these are the last links in a series of changes that begin anonymously, at the ground level, within our own individual perspectives.  Look at the passage of the Civil Rights Act in America, remember how many unnamed, committed individuals changed their minds, refurbished their perspectives, and did the unrecognized work that only changed minds can do, and so made the life and career of Martin Luther King, Jr. possible.  The Dalai Lama's career has been made possible, not only by the scores of devoted Tibetans, both in Tibet and in exile, who support him, but also by the world community that has gradually become persuaded of the fundamental importance of human rights and non-violence in a world whose population is exploding.

But now the financial crisis has thrown our excessive spending and borrowing, both at the personal and national level, into dramatic relief.  And so as we recover financially, as we find ways to weather the temporary advantage the Chinese have gained over those countries and states that I believe would otherwise happily support the Tibetan bid for fair treatment, we have to effect those gradual changes within ourselves that come through reading and writing and thinking about the abuses that are currently being administered to Tibetans who are living in Tibet. And we have to expand our concern with the Tibetan population to a concern with the fundamental issue of human rights.  

The role model for this gradual change is Tsering Woeser, a writer who lives in Beijing, who is in and out of house arrest, whose blogs are regularly shut down, and whose safety is constantly threatened by the authorities.  Still, she has taken it as her life's work to record the atrocities, to note the heroism, and to chronicle the struggles that her people are undergoing, day by day.  She has taken it as her life's work to provide us with the record we need to effect the changes that we wish to see within ourselves.  She has published a new book too, The Snow Lion Roaring in the Year of the Mouse, a history of 2008 in Tibet.  The Preface has already been translated into English and you can read it here.  It is a monumental work of memory, of cultural memory, and we read it so that we don't forget the enormity of the struggle that many Tibetans underwent in the year leading up to the fiftieth anniversary of their exile.  And reading it, we change our consciousness ever so slightly; we prepare the ground ever so gently for the change that must come; and we render more and more inevitable a tipping of the scales toward human rights and non-violence. 

This we can do.

"Our Buddhist nature is able to forgive every experience," Woeser writes, "but forgiving does not equal forgetting." And so we read not to forget, we write not to forget, and we act not to forget.

Finally, a wonderful video, ten-minutes, narrated by Susan Sarandon, that just might inspire someone who needs inspiration, or empower someone who needs empowering, to undertake this work of personal renovation.  Send it around.  You can see it at the urbanZen Foundation web site.

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ECONOMIST INTERVIEW W/ PROFESSOR BARNETT RE TIBET & CHINA

The Economist, one of the most reliable and intelligent news outlets in the world, has a 13-minute interview with Professor Barnett of Columbia University on their website.  Among other things, Professor Barnett discusses the current state-of-affairs in China, focusing on the long-terms effects of the current crackdown in Tibet.  As always, a very intelligent and balanced consideration of the problem.

SOUTH AFRICA BARS HHDL FROM PEACE CONFERENCE IN JOHANNESBURG

First California reneged on the resolution supporting Tibet, and now South Africa--home of Tutu and Mandela, two great humanitarians--has declined to give His Holiness permission to visit South Africa (story here).  The Dalai Lama was scheduled to attend a peace conference in Johannesburg--specifically, to discuss what role soccer, of all things, might play in fighting racism and xenophobia.

The Chinese, of course, "urged" South Africa to rethink their invitation as His Holiness's arrival in South Africa might harm their bilateral relations.  South Africa and China marked the ten-year anniversary of their diplomatic relations last year.  And of course South Africa, like the California Assembly, gave in to China's veiled threats.

Yet another effect of the world financial crisis comes home to roost, and the Chinese use it further to inhibit the Dalai Lama's program of world peace.

So--with China now firmly ensconced as our world bully, and with most nations quaking in fear when China threatens its disfavor, it is time to bring some serious questions to our legislators. 

More on this later.

ANOTHER MONK DEAD BY HIS OWN HAND

Another monk, this time of Amdo Golok Ragya monastery in Gyulgho township, Machen county, Qinghai, committed suicide by drowning himself in the Machu River.  His name is Tashi Sangpo, and he's pictured to the left.

Say a prayer for him.

It's early morning, Saturday, and raining here as I read of this latest suicide in Tibet.  The world, or my world, at least, seems affected by this latest death.  I have previously posted about this unfolding tragedy, and I don't have much more to add.  But the number of Tibetans who find life impossible under Chinese rule seems to be increasing; I don't have any definite figures.  Maybe someone does and will share them with me.

In the final three years of his life, Martin Luther King, Jr. began to expand his civil rights movement into a human rights initiative that focused on the three evils of racism, militarism, and poverty.  He began to see the deeper links that unite all human suffering.  And began to envsion ways to excavate those links and bring them into public view. 

He began, in fact, the renovation of consciousness within a political arena.  It was a destabilizing initiative, one that sent shock waves through his own community of supporters, and might well have ultimately led to his assassination.  After all, if it's difficult to break a bad habit like smoking, imagine how difficult it will be to stop thinking of anyone anywhere as somehow, someway different from yourself. 

Imagine then trying to break a habit of perception . . . that's what King would ask us to do now, but he wouldn't attempt this in retreat and seclusion.

He'd do it in the Wal-Mart parking lot.