Who says China isn’t involving Tibet in the run up to the Olympics? It sounds as though they are as acutely aware of international sentiment as was the USSR when it invaded Afghanistan in 1979. I suppose the thinking is that if they get the purging, quelling and brutal suppressions in well ahead of the summer everyone will have forgotten by the time the Olympic flame is lit in the National Stadium. Maybe they will: we’ve already discounted the uncomfortable rumours that tens of thousands of people unfortunate enough to live in or near land required for the Olympic village were forcibly evicted. According to Kurt Streeter of the LA Times, a news blackout applied to any CCN report on Tibet and the streets were full of (not-so) secret police last week during nothing more controversial than a Dodgers’ exhibition baseball game. It doesn’t sound too welcoming. I’m surprised that there is a news blackout if the government is confident that, mischievously, Tibetan protesters are shooting and stabbing themselves to death in large numbers in Lhasa, Sichuan and elsewhere. That’s what I call news.
Tibet won its first gold medal for China before the Games even started. That old splittist the Dalai Lama, a well-known advocate of violence if ever there was one, received a Gold Congressional Medal last year from the US Congress for “human compassion, courage and conviction as his tools in carving a path for peace. For half a century, he has struggled to better the lives of the Tibetan people. In doing so, he has been a shining light to all those fighting for freedom around the world,” according to Senator Dianne Feinstein. Renowned Peacenik George W. Bush presented the gong in a private ceremony - in marked contrast to our lovely UK leaders who daren’t offer the twinkly old reincarnation of Chenrezig, Bodhisattva of Compassion, a cup of buttered tea when he comes to England this May.
Perhaps this is not so surprising: Britons never, never, never, will be slaves but we don’t mind other people having them so long as there’s a quid in it. And we aren’t slaves to the US, despite what cruel foreign devils like the French and Germans might sneeringly say. We uncharacteristically defied our US cousins and sent a crack team of hopefuls to the 1980 Moscow Olympics (and still didn’t win much against Togo and the Faroe Islands apart from Daley Thompson who won the three-legged race and probably would have won anyway). In passing, it’s ironic that the US boycotted the Ruskies for invading Afghanistan in a vain, brutal and savage attempt to form a bulwark against Islamic fundamentalism. Was this the same US who armed the ‘freedom fighters’, brought down the Soviet Union and - invaded Afghanistan?
The Dalai Lama has never urged Tibetans to rise in violent protest, and continually avows that he is not an advocate of independence for Tibet, merely free autonomous status, which China claims it already has, so what’s the problem? (It might be that the Gelugpa leader leans towards feudal theocracy, to be fair). This much we know. Several millions have died, been exiled or have been imprisoned since the invasion in 1950. Innocent Tibetans have been forced to endure Richard Gere, Prince Charles, The Beastie Boys, Bjork, ‘comedian’ Russell Brand and Steven Seagal, yet we still turn a blind eye to their plight.
The autonomous region of the Publisher’s office at Prospect has decreed that if you like, you can sign a petition asking Gordon Brown to show an ounce of gumption and meet the Dalai Lama. He probably won’t, but Mr Lama is welcome to come round here and write an article. People outside the UK (though probably not in China) can sign a petition here. To make it fair, Hu Jintao is also more than welcome to drop round if he’s in London provided he asks his mates to stop allowing these misguided Tibetan monks to shoot, stab and stomp themselves to death with such monotonous regularity.
This is a welcome turn up for the post. Unfortunately, the deadline for the petition has now passed ( 17 March ), but we can continue to do our bit by writing to Mr Brown in person at his temporary home :
10 Downing Street, London, England, SW1A 2AA, UK
or, fax him on 020 7925 0918
( from outside the UK, the number is + 44207 925 0918 )
or, send an e mail via the satirical website http://www.pm.gov.uk
which lists ” Contact Details for Prime Minister Tony Blair ”
Item 1 on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour today featured an eye witness Tibetan female former prisoner ( 11 years in brutal captivity just for shouting “Free Tibet, long live his holiness the Dalai Lama” ) who described Chinese wardens using electronic cattle prods on prisoners trussed up and left hanging them from trees; and measured, expert analysis from the Professor of Contemporary Tibetan Studies at Colombia University, Robbie Barnett; along with extracts from the incredibly moving Songs of Hope ..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/mainframe.shtml?http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/index.shtml?button
Sue Burn at Tibet Watch would be interested in seeing if the DL can take you up on that offer, or at least one of their researchers. I will direct her here and give her your email if that’s OK.
Interestingly John, there is a climate change angle in all this (surprise, surprise) since Tibet is sitting on the Glaciers that are disappearing, which help support agriculture for 1/3 of the world’s population.
There is an argument in all of this for Tibet being under a governance framework for the benefit of both India and China, in order to help safeguard political stability in Asia, which is, after all, the workhouse of the global economy.
Yes, that’s fine, Daniel. Tell Sue to email. Climate considerations are paramount - good point - but I don’t think that Tibet should be put under any sort of protectorate status, given the terrible record of these sort of arrangements. Indeed, part of the problem appears to be that China thinks it’s doing Tibet a favour by modernising it and maybe some of this is true. It has invested hugely in infrastructure (though it would have been nice to have first asked whether Tibet wanted all those flats and highways). We’ve got to be a tad careful about imposing a western Shangri-la utopian mindset on all this. There is clearly a democratic deficit in China but lovely as it may be to think otherwise, medieval theocracies haven’t got a great record either. I don’t know the answers or even where to start and it’s dangerous to pontificate from afar: that’s why it would be good to hear from the highest authority - The DL would be a good place to start.
Credit where it’s due. According to reports, Gordon Brown has today agreed to meet the Dalai Lama in the UK in May, after talking to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. “The Premier told me that subject to two things that the Dalai Lama has already said - that he does not support the total independence of Tibet and that he renounces violence - that he would be prepared to enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama,” Mr Brown said. According to the Telegraph, The Dalai Lama said last Sunday that he would resign as spiritual leader of the Tibetan government in exile if the violence by Tibetans continues: “If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign,” he told reporters at his Indian base in Dharamsala. He added: “Even if 1,000 Tibetans sacrificed their life [this would be] not much help”. “Please help stop violence from Chinese side and also from the Tibetan side.” Aides later explained that he would only renounce his political status as leader of the government in exile and would remain the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.” So no need for a summit meeting round at the Prospect offices after all. Buttered tea all round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLYvTQMORt4
JK, Thanks for your Olympic concern.
Just adding the above link again re. the Dalai Lama illuminating the Beijing Olympics, and in so doing be a harmonious way for China both to save face and do the right thing ……..
Mr Brown’s timely Cresta run down Everest is very welcome news ( of course, he was probably going to meet the DL all along ? ) if not on the evidence so far, for the Dalai Lama , who might be subjected to another international nose-picking ceremony
( miss it ? http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6VaP1HB7Vew )
At any rate, GB’s timely adoption of Obama’s intelligent and poll-friendly message ” It’s good to talk ” must have been a nose-picking decision ; given that for many over-paid UK politicians, politics is now an industry ( arm in arm with the media, Prospect apart, that is ) ever drumming up business, and the barometer of Labour’s social engineering policies ( removal of cultural and religeous identity and brainwashing the electorate into protection racket tax to a
no-neck state ) since WWII reveals communist party rule is in fact their ultimate role model, if not main goal
Moreover, Obama and the magnificently humble Dalai Lama both glow peace, in stark contrast to Tony Blair’s chief of staff 1996-2007, Jonathan Powell. In a recent BBC interview he declared that Britain should engage in talks ONLY if a military solution is not possible. Apparently there is another chap out there keen to talk … who knows, may be Mr bin there done that might get invited along too