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 THESE VIDEOS: THE SUCCESSION OF THE DALAI LAMA AND TIBETAN DEMOCRACY

Early in 2008, Robert Thurman, President of Tibet House hosted a panel discussion with Elliot Sperling, Jamyang Norbu, and himself.  The topic examined concerns the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama in light of China's decision to control the recognition of these incarnations.  In my previous posting, I included Jamyang Norbu's brief talk on High Asia, which was a part of this discussion.  Below you will find five further installments.  Each one lasts approximately ten minutes, and is extremely informative.  So take your time, take notes, and listen to each of these speakers responding to one of the central problems that confronts contemporary Tibetans as they grapple with the Chinese empire.  You simply can't find information--with its special quality of spontaneity and intelligence--like this anywhere else. Finally--many, many thanks to Tibet House for making this extraordinary discussion available on YouTube.  In the following segment, Robert Thurman is speaking.

And here is Elliot Sperling:

Jamyang Norbu is next:

And the last two segments involve general responses, first from Robert Thurman:

And finally from Elliot Sperling and Jamyang Norbu:

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. 

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.

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.

THE BOYCOTT BROUHAHA

Having just returned from an extensive 3-week trip to India, I was disheartened, angered, dismayed, confused, but unsurprised, I guess, to see that Bush has announced that he will, in fact, attend the Opening Ceremony in Beijing.  "He believes he's going to China to support first and foremost our athletes. He sees this as a sporting competition," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.  It doesn't matter whether Bush sees the Olympics as a "sporting event" or not--it's entirely typical of the man to resort to simplistic, literal-minded language when confronted with complexity of any sort--but it does matter that his advisors have decided to side with China on this issue.  We all, of course, know why they have done so, and the reasons are unflattering:  money & power, both of which China has far more abundantly than Tibet.

The damage done by such a decision will not be immediately apparent to a President who believes that the Olympics are a series of athletic contests because the damage done here concerns the relationship between our national language and our national consciousness.  George Orwell spent a great deal of his time and energy worrying about the kinds of damage that political language inflicts on a country, and what he has to say in "Politics and the English Language" is directly pertinent to the current problem.  Here , Orwell is talking about the typical political speech, the kind that we all have grown to dread and decided largely to ignore whenever we are confronted with it:

In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.  Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of political parties.  Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.  Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets:  this is called pacification . . . Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them.

And so the Olympics, to our President, are a "sporting competition."  The mental picture of the Olympics, however, goes something like this:  the state-sponsored crackdown in Tibet, the arrests, the detentions, the torture, the refusal to negotiate in a meaningful way with the Dalai Lama's envoys, the fundamental denial of human rights to the Tibetans, the continual stream of 3000 Tibetans a year down into India, the forced sterilization and abortion programs in Tibet, the denial of education to Tibetans . . . all of these atrocities are bracketed, minimized, and overlooked when the Olympics becomes a "sporting competition," and our heads-of-state arrive in Beijing for the party.  The wink-and-nod between the Chinese and the visiting heads-of-state as they arrive in Beijing in August will simply nauseate.

It might well be, as some have argued, that the Chinese have become too powerful to snub in this fashion.  That the consequences for such a snubbing too grave, too serious.

I, for one, am thankful that such reasoning never held sway with Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela,  Desmond Tutu,  Aung San Suu Kyi, Jimmy Carter, Elie Wiesel, Lech Walesa, and Vaclav Havel, to name a few.

TEXT: TIBETANS IN EXILE TODAY

Tibetans in EXile Today, or TEXT, is an oral history project being run out of the University of Arkansas.  The project begins this month as Professor Sidney Burris and Geshe Thupten Dorjee travel to India with fifteen students, video cameras, tape recorders, and sound equipment to begin taping and archiving interviews with the oldest Tibetan monks, nuns, and lay people who are currently living in India and have vivid memories of Tibet before 1959. The assumption of the project is simple:  as these elderly Tibetans pass away, so too do their personal histories; there is, accordingly, an increasing urgency that this work be undertaken and completed in a timely fashion. The ultimate goal of the project is to build an online archive of these interviews that will be accessible to the general public.  While in India, the students, under the direction of Professor Burris and Geshe Dorjee, will begin interviewing a broad range of Tibetans in the three-week period alloted to them, and upon return, they will begin the process of editing the film and producing a promotional DVD, as well as preparing the interviews themselves for the archive.  Stay tuned for updates, and please keep these intrepid travelers in your hearts and minds.