TIBETSPACE

WHEN CHAOS IS ENOUGH—MORE ON WHY IT'S KICKING OFF EVERYWHERE

Paul Mason's book, Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere, ought to be required reading for anyone interested in the recent social movements that have been agitating for democracy around the globe.  I made this clear in an earlier post. The book has had a generally favorable reception, and unless you're in the middle of one of these movements, I think Mason will give you a lot to think about as we face our rapidly unfolding future, or futures—if you buy the technological multi-faceted horizon that our exploding social media are busily preparing for us.  

The book has been gently chastised, however, for dropping the names of serious people—Jameson, Zizek—whose high purpose doesn't quite make it into Mason's prose.  Maybe.

But I don't really care what Jameson might think about Mohamed Bouazizi, for example, the Tunisian who set himself on fire and ignited the Arab Spring. There are, I realize, explainable economic reasons why Bouazizi was making $140 a month, and why he was trying to support his sister's college career with those minimal wages.  The ideological analysis, however, amounts to an asbestos shield against the man's flaming sacrifice, and while our economic and political theorists will weigh in with their abstractions, these abstractions have none of the power that social media brought to Bouazizi's action.  In fact, it turns out that there are segments of the human psyche on display in Tunisia that theory can't touch, and the attempt to understand it theoretically always arrives too late, often devours the event within its own conceptual apparatus, and most likely disgraces the essential and informing spirit that might otherwise define a compassionate citizenry. Mason has resisted the theorizing that will inevitably arrive later, after things settle down, when theory is once again possible.  He ought to be congratulated for that.

After all, theory can't exist in the moment, particularly the social-media moment, because theory requires stable phenomena that support extended analysis. As Mason points out, many of the occupiers and protesters resist ideology of any sort and move in a kind of serendipitous way from commitment to retreat to apathy to employment to attack, and all of these forms manifest over a matter of weeks.  A moving target.  

Does this signal a lack of commitment?  Naivete? Immaturity? Ignorance?  Who cares? Theoretical analysis is a form of intellectual targeting, and in this case, to get out of the line of fire, the protestors, either driven by the roulette wheel of Tweeted realities or by a loose concern for managing and publicizing social chaos, have withdrawn themselves from the theoretician's view.

Good for them.  Mason's book captures this perspective accurately, and for that alone, ought to be praised.

SENATE RESOLUTION 356 PASSES

Senate Resolution 356 in support of the Tibetan people, and condemning China's abusive treatment of the Tibetans, has passed unanimously! See a full story here.

SENATE RESOLUTION 356: SUPPORT TIBET

Senator Diane Feinstein and other senators have introduced Senate Resolution 356 which urges China to cease and desist from its persecution of the Tibetan people and reaffirms the "friendship" between American and the Tibetan people.  I would urge you to write your Senators and ask them to support this resolution.

In a letter that Jamphel Yeshi wrote before he self-immolated recently in New Delhi, he asked that if "you have any empathy, stand up for Tibet."

Here is one way of standing up.  On the right navigation bar of this page, under "Action Corner," you can easily locate your Senators and send them an email.  You may, of course write whatever you wish, but in the interest of time, you may also want to cut and past the following message:

Dear Senator . . . 

I am writing to ask that you lend your support to Senate Resolution 356 which requests, among other things, that the Chinese government suspend its brutal oppression of the fundamental religious and civic liberties in Tibet.  It also asserts that America is a friend to the Tibetan people and does not condone the abuse of human rights that China has visited upon these people.

The Tibetan people are making the supreme sacrifice for the restoration of their liberties, and I feel that is only right that we offer our support in their heroic struggle.

Sincerely, 

Thanks for your help in this important matter.  Feel free to re-blog this or forward the information.

CHINA! READ THIS NOW!

First, watch this brief video:

Here's what's happening.  Six million Tibetans are living under Chinese oppression, and thirty of them have self-immolated over the last year in an attempt to secure two of their most fundamental human rights:  freedom and self-determination.  There's over 100,000 Tibetans living in exile, and most prominently—how much more prominent can you get than the front of the UN?—three of them are now in the late stages of a hunger strike.

These three heroic Tibetans, gradually ending their lives in front of the UN (one was removed recently to a hospital where he is still refusing food, but is being fed intravenously) are speaking out in solidarity with their Tibetan brothers and sisters in Tibet.  They are happy for the rest of us to listen in on this conversation, and of course, they are happy if we act on their behalf, but make no mistake about it: the primary conversation here is between Tibetans who are struggling for basic freedoms in Tibet and those who are supporting that struggle in exile.

If I were just a bit more advanced spiritually, I believe I might see extending from eastern Tibet to the eastern United States, an arc of light that is the manifestation of the human desire to live a free and independent life.  

So Tibetans in Tibet are talking to Tibetans in exile, and the Tibetans in exile are talking back, and they are using an eloquent semaphore of survival, an evolved sign-system that, were I part of the Chinese occupying force, would send fear running up and down my spine.

This is the conversation that the rest of us are witnessing.

The power of the human heart, in this case, manifested dramatically through the Tibetan heart, and manifested in solidarity among Tibetans separated by many thousands of miles, and moving in step, inexorably toward freedom, of one mind and many hearts . . . well, I can't point to a time in history when this particular spirit was finally and ultimately defeated.  No lie, as Thomas Carlyle wrote, can live forever.

When you looked into Dorjee Gyaltso's eyes in that video, didn't you see that?

LOCK-DOWN IN LHASA

By mid-February of this year, Lhasa was in complete lock-down.  Please read the report at Shadow Tibet. There are currently 1.2 million Chinese in Lhasa—ironically, the number of Tibetans slaughtered by the Chinese by 1959—and 200,000 Tibetans.  Tibetans in Lhasa have largely been coralled in ghetto-like quarters, much like the Jews in 17th-century Venice. Military patrols are on the streets around the clock.  The Chinese military are locked and loaded. Tibetans are disappearing.  Patriotic re-education programs are being carried out across the country.  Food is too expensive for many Tibetans. 

After reading this report, you might want to pass it along to someone else.  There are links on this site under "Action Corner" that might get you started. Information matters, knowledge makes a difference.  No lie can live forever, as Thomas Carlyle said.  

By spreading this information rapidly, efficiently, perhaps we can hasten the death of the Chinese lie.

THUPTEN JINPA, HHDL'S TRANSLATOR, SPEAKS OUT ON THE CURRENT SITUATION IN TIBET

On February 5th, 2012, Thupten Jinpa, the principal translator of the Dalai Lama, tweeted:  "Three more Tibetans have sacrificed their precious lives.  With these self-immolations, our struggle has probably crossed a threshold."  When I read this, I wondered specifically about the the word, "threshold."

What did he mean?

On March 8, he answered my question.  Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Jinpala said that "there is a growing recognition among Tibetans that Beijing lacks the political imagination and will to resolve the question of Tibet."  Jinpala also indicated that the Chinese leadership had only a narrow window of opportunity now to settle the Tibetan question, and if it missed this opportunity, then it would lose Tibet altogether.  Tibetans in Tibet, he reasoned, were crossing the threshold.

Many believe this has already happened.

Jinpala's statement is important not only for what it says, but perhaps most importantly, for the simple fact that he is the Dalai Lama's translator, and in many ways, is as close to His Holiness as anyone.  He has been a monk, and he understands the monastic perspective.  

And he is now sounding the warning signals about the serious nature of Tibetan unrest, and by implication, about the very real struggle in Tibet for nothing less than independence.

That is a statement of significance.  Or so it seems to me.

HUMAN RIGHTS, KONY 2012, AND VIRAL MARKETING—WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE

KONY 2012, the viral video that has been making the rounds on YouTube and college campuses, has come under fire recently. (Read the account on The Daily What and the WSJ).  The group behind it, Invisible Children, was recently on our campus, and I wrote at the time that the organization had one of the slickest internet presences I'd seen in a long time.  And it's galvanized attention among college students around the world.  If my sophomore literature students didn't know a thing about Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army last year, they do now.  And the only reason they do is because of KONY 2012; or rather, because of the social media support KONY 2012 has engineered.

The problem is that Invisible Children has a bad credit rating in the non-profit world, giving only 31% of their funding to the cause of stopping Kony.  I won't rehash these two articles.  You can read them whenever you're ready to read them.

My point is that we need to exercise some caution as we correct these abuses. Of course, part of my reaction is cynical.  As social media campaigns can now be designed and produced with a relatively small staff, a relatively small staff with the wrong intentions can have a pervasive and international influence, while maintaining their deep and well-stocked pockets.  That's the bad news.

The good news is that a few well-intentioned reformers can just as easily construct social media campaigns that trade in pure compassion and awareness.  There are fewer checks and balances on social media because anyone can use it.  But intentions, whether good or bad, are exposed quickly and efficiently in social media.  And that's a good thing.

Social media, in fact, highlights one of the most important dimensions of any sort of social action devoted to helping others.  From a neighborhood renovation to an international intervention, our approach to human rights ought to begin with an examination of our personal motivation—without such an examination, the philosophers of intention tell us, the results of our action might be compromised or weakened.

Publicity—it's not just for ad agencies and glossies anymore.  Intention?  That's where we ought to focus a good portion of our energy.

EVEN T.S. ELIOT THINKS TIBET SHOULD BE FREE, AND HE'S DEAD.

In "Little Gidding," the last section of TS Eliot's Four Quartets, one of the greatest poems of the last century, now under-appreciated, under-read, and under-taught, Eliot closes by writing:

Quick now, here, now, always—

A condition of complete simplicity

(Costing not less than everything)

And all shall be well and

All manner of things shall be well

When the tongues of flame are in-folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire and the rose are one.

Every time I read this poem—quite a lot recently—I am reminded of the "complete simplicity" of human freedom and the Tibetan's will to achieve it; I see in Tibet through our realtime media a "crowned knot of fire" that the Chinese cannot unravel and will not unravel.  

But I don't see a "rose" when I look toward Tibet; I see a lotus flower, the symbol of compassion and His Holiness the Dalai Lama's great benevolence, and I feel that this "fire" in Tibet is serving this lotus, and that one day, the fire and the lotus shall indeed be one.  And His Holiness and all Tibetans will return to their homeland and to their family and once again regain their soveriegnty and independence.  

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT TIBET. SERIOUSLY.

You might have read about the most recent self-immolation in Tibet: an eighteen-year- old monk who, as he was burning, exclaimed, "May His Holiness the Dalai Lama live thousands of years." And then he screamed, "Freedom for Tibet."

Note:  As the flames enveloped him, he did not scream, "Meaningful autonomy for Tibet." This is an important point because many Americans, rightfully respectful of His Holiness's opinions on all matters sacred and secular, have come to embrace autonomy as the only workable solution for the future of Tibet.  

But I believe we must exercise caution here.  Americans are accustomed to forming opinions about the development of other countries because we are accustomed to having a military that has traditionally made the development of other countries its major business.  

But take a moment and look around you.  Are you doing something now that Tibetans in Tibet cannot do?  Do you plan on shopping freely at the market?  Reading what you want to read?  Exercising your religious preferences as you wish?  Are you employed? Do you speak the language the police and  the military speak?  Examine your own freedoms, and the heavy price we paid for them.  

And then consider:  when we have strong evidence that many Tibetans within Tibet, as well as many of their brothers and sisters living in exile, are daring to dream of freedom, and are giving their lives with calls for that freedom on their lips, Americans must honor this very human urge:  to live in freedom and independence and to determine our own future.

And we must extend the same privilege to the Tibetans.  Their resistance to the Chinese oppression now is fierce.  Thupten Jinpa, the main translator for the Dalai Lama, recently tweeted that he felt a threshhold had been crossed.  And as we know, threshholds can be dangerous places.  But many Tibetans have obviously judged that crossing that threshhold is worth the risk.  And they, at least, deserve our support.

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.

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