The Unknown Soldier of America Pays Tribute to the Unmourned Soldiers of Special Frontier Force
MONDAY, MAY 25, 2020 – THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER OF AMERICA PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE UNMOURNED FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE
When the Struggle for Democracy is shrouded in Secrecy, who will mourn the Fallen Freedom Fighters.
MONDAY, MAY 25, 2020 – THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER OF AMERICA PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE UNMOURNED FREEDOM FIGHTERS OF SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE
When the Struggle for Democracy is Shrouded in Secrecy, who will Remember and Honor the Fallen Soldiers?
On Monday, May 25, 2020, Memorial Day, I, the Unknown Soldier of America pay my tribute to the Unmourned Freedom Fighters of Special Frontier Force. I am the Living Host of ‘The Living Tibetan Spirits, the Tibetan Soldiers who gave their precious lives on the battlefield in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in 1971. The remote, inaccessible, Chittagong Hill Tracts is the kind of place where human skeletons might sink into the soil undisturbed and unmourned.
When the Struggle for Democracy is shrouded in Secrecy, who will mourn the loss of Fallen Soldiers?
I serve in Special Frontier Force as the Unknown Soldier of America to fight a war in occupied Tibet to secure Freedom, Democracy, Peace, and Justice. The service in the military organization called Special Frontier Force qualifies me as ‘Unknown Soldier of America’ for its Secret Mission serves to defend America from Enemy opposed to American Values of Freedom, Democracy, Peace, and Justice. On this Memorial Day, I may not be a Soldier with a Gun, but I am a Soldier for Life.
When the Struggle for Democracy is shrouded in Secrecy, who will mourn the loss of Fallen Freedom Fighters?
While training for this secret US sponsored military mission, Freedom Fighters of Special Frontier Force gave their precious lives. Their mortal remains lie buried in unmarked graves in the Chittagong Hill Tracts with none to pay respects with flowers. Their deaths are Unmourned and I ask my readers to Remember and to Honor their Memory. Dying away from home, away from the soil of your birth and to do so unseen and unmourned is a profound horror.
BEIJING DOOMED. HIGH-ENERGY COLLISION CAN RESOLVE THE GREAT TIBET PROBLEM
Beijing Doomed. High-Energy Collision can resolve the Great Tibet Problem.
The Great Tibet Problem is described as illegal, illegitimate, military occupation of Tibetan Territory by a foreign invading force. The Great Tibet can be resolved by the application of physical force of a great magnitude that can evict the Occupier of Tibet without any further human intervention or effort.
Such forces with devastating power do exist in Nature. Planet Earth experienced the serious consequences of heavenly bodies such as asteroids, bolides, and meteorites colliding with Earth. These heavenly bodies acquire massive amounts of energy as Earth’s Force of Gravitation accelerates them as they enter Earth’s atmosphere.
Beijing Doomed. High-Energy Collision can resolve the Great Tibet Problem.
The discovery of the highest-energy gamma rays by the Tibet ASgamma Experiment gives the hope of a Heavenly Strike acting to neutralize the military power of Tibet’s Occupier. While the gamma rays are prevented by Earth’s atmospheric shield from causing damage, the impacts by Near Earth Objects will not be undermined by the natural protection afforded by the Magnetosphere.
Beijing Doomed. High-Energy Collision can resolve the Great Tibet Problem.
Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Special Frontier Force
The highest-energy gamma rays discovered by the Tibet ASgamma experiment
Beijing Doomed. High-Energy Collision can resolve the Great Tibet Problem.
The left figure shows the Tibet ASgamma experiment observed the highest energy gamma rays beyond 100 Teraelectron volts (TeV)from the Crab Nebula with low background noise, the cross mark indicates the Crab pulsar position. And the right figure shows the Crab Nebula taken by the Hubble Telescope Credit: NASA
The Tibet ASgamma experiment, a China-Japan joint research project, has discovered the highest energy cosmic gamma rays ever observed from an astrophysical source—in this case, the Crab Nebula. The experiment detected gamma rays ranging from > 100 Teraelectron volts (TeV) (Fig.1) to an estimated 450 TeV. Previously, the highest gamma-ray energy ever observed was 75 TeV by the HEGRA Cherenkov telescope.
Researchers believe the most energetic of the gamma rays observed by the Tibet ASgamma experiment were produced by interaction between high-energy electrons and cosmic microwave background radiation, remnant radiation from the Big Bang.
The Crab Nebula is a famous supernova remnant in the constellation Taurus. It was first observed as a very bright supernova explosion in1054 AD (see Fig.1). It was noted in official histories of the Song dynasty in ancient China as well as in Meigetsuki, written by the 12th century Japanese poet Fujiwara no Teika. In the modern era, the Crab Nebula has been observed using various types of electromagnetic waves including radio and optical waves, X-rays and gamma rays.
The Tibet ASgamma experiment has been operating since 1990 in Tibet, China, at an altitude of 4300 meters above sea level. The China-Japan collaboration added new water Cherenkov-type muon detectors under the existing cosmic-ray detectors in 2014 (see Fig.2). These underground muon detectors suppress 99.92 percent of cosmic-ray background noise (see Fig.3). As a result, 24 gamma-ray candidates above 100 TeV have been detected from the Crab Nebula with low background noise. The highest energy is estimated at 450 TeV (see Fig.2).
Beijing Doomed. High-Energy Collision can resolve the Great Tibet Problem.
The left figure shows the Tibet ASgamma experiment (Tibet-III array+ Muon Detector array); The right figure shows an event display of the observed 449TeV photon-like air shower. Credit: IHEP
The researchers hypothesize the following steps for generating very-high-energy gamma rays: (1) In the nebula, electrons are accelerated up to PeV, i.e., peta (one thousand trillion) electron volts within a few hundred years after the supernova; (2) PeV electrons interact with the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) filling the whole universe; (3) A CMBR photon is kicked up to 450 TeV by the PeV electrons. The researchers thus conclude that the Crab Nebula is now the most powerful natural electron accelerator discovered so far in our galaxy.
This pioneering work opens a new high-energy window for exploring the extreme universe. The detection of gamma rays above 100 TeV is a key to understanding the origin of very-high-energy cosmic rays, which has been a mystery since the discovery of cosmic rays in 1912. With further observations using this new window, we expect to identify the origin of cosmic rays in our galaxy, namely, pevatrons, which accelerate cosmic rays up to PeV energies.
Beijing Doomed. High-Energy Collision can resolve the Great Tibet Problem.
The China-Japan collaboration placed new water Cherenkov-type muon detectors under the existing cosmic-ray air-shower array in 2014. These underground muon detectors can suppress 99.92% of cosmic-ray background noise. Credit: IHEP
“This is a great first step forward,” said Prof. HUANG Jing, co-spokesperson for the Tibet ASgamma experiment. “It proves that our techniques worked well, and gamma rays with energies up to a few hundred TeV really exist. Our goal is to identify a lot of pevatrons, which have not yet been discovered and are supposed to produce the highest-energy cosmic rays in our galaxy.”
Beijing Doomed. High-Energy Collision can resolve the Great Tibet Problem.
THE MOST UNFORGETTABLE WEEK IN US HISTORY – FEBRUARY 21-27, 1972
While the US troops fight the biggest battle on February 25, 1972, near Saigon in Vietnam, the US President Richard Nixon spent time in Peking befriending the adversary, giving care and comfort to the Enemy while Americans bled on the battlefield.
Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
SPECIAL FRONTIER FORCE
U.S. troops fight the biggest battle in nearly a year – HISTORY
U.S. troops clash with North Vietnamese forces in a major battle 42 miles east of Saigon, the biggest single U.S. engagement with an enemy force in nearly a year. The five-hour action around a communist bunker line resulted in four dead and 47 wounded, almost half the U.S. weekly casualties.
THE REVELATION HAS A PLAN FOR THE DOWNFALL OF THE EVIL EMPIRE
The Revelation has a Plan for the Downfall of the Evil Empire.
In my analysis, the LORD God Creator made no plan to end this World. The Apocalypse, the Doom, the Catastrophe, the Cataclysm, the Calamity, the Disaster, and the End Times mentioned in The New Testament Book of Revelation specifically refers to the Downfall of the Evil Empire code-named as Babylon.
The Revelation has a Plan for the Downfall of the Evil Empire.The Revelation has a Plan for the Downfall of the Evil Empire.
In Earth’s long history, the planet encountered several calamities but none of them have ended the World. Indeed, lifeforms have been lost or became extinct and yet the World reemerged with the introduction of newer forms of Life.
How close has the world come to meet its end? Very close, and more times than you think. We know from geologists, paleontologists, and archaeologists that the planet was slammed by asteroids millions of years ago, and the impact virtually wiped out life on Earth. And this was long before humans were on the scene.
Since the ascent of mankind, humans have staved off possible extinction from massive volcanic eruptions, floods, and ice age glaciers.
More recently, many of the threats to our planet have originated with ourselves. Since the end of World War II, we have lived with the Damocles sword of nuclear annihilation, and we have come close to that fiery demise more than a few times because of miscalculation, computer malfunction, and human error.
We are not free from unwelcome visitors from the cosmos, either. Solar flares, asteroids, and comets have threatened our existence in the past and continue to do so.
With a nod toward our mortality, 24/7 Wall St. has compiled a list of the ways the world could have ended, using resource material such as Live Science, NASA, National Geographic, and Scientific American.
9. Permian era extinction
> When: 250 million years ago
The Revelation has a Plan for the Downfall of the Evil Empire.
It was called by National Geographic the greatest natural disaster in Earth’s history. About 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, almost all of Earth’s trees were wiped out, as well as 95% of all marine animal species, and more than two-thirds of land animal species.
There are various theories as to why this event happened, including impact from an asteroid, fallout from a titanic volcanic eruption, depletion of oxygen in the oceans, and massive buildup of carbon dioxide.
The Chicxulub impact is one of the most thoroughly researched, and catastrophic, natural disaster events in Earth’s history. During the Mesozoic era 66 million years ago, an asteroid traveling 40,000 miles an hour struck the Yucatán Peninsula in what is now Mexico with a force estimated to be more than 100 trillion tons of TNT.
It created a crater 115 miles wide and several miles deep. Scientists believe creatures hundreds of miles away were killed by a giant fireball. The force of the blast created a tsunami scientists believe was up to 1,000 feet high.
Marine Isotope Stage 6 is the rather clinical-sounding name for the long glacial event that nearly wiped out Homo sapiens between 195,000 and 123,000 years ago. Scientists believe rapid climate change leading to cold, dry climate conditions made the African homeland of our descendants uninhabitable.
They migrated toward the southern coast of Africa to escape disaster because that region had edible plants and a profusion of shellfish.
The eruption of Mount Thera in Greece about 3,500 years ago was four to five times more powerful than the more widely known Krakatoa event in 1883. Geologists believe the energy emitted from the blast was that of hundreds of atomic bombs exploding in a fraction of a second. The blast could be heard 3,000 miles away.
The Minoan culture that held sway over the Mediterranean region at the time disintegrated. Earth was covered with enough ash to bring on darkness all over the world. Tsunamis raced around the planet and wiped out untold numbers of coastal villages, just as civilization was dawning.
Another volcanic episode that predates Krakatoa was the eruption of the Indonesian volcano Mount Tambora in 1815. The next year became known as “The Year Without a Summer” following what scientists said was the biggest volcanic eruption in history. About 71,000 people perished.
The resulting “volcanic winter” — when debris spewed into the atmosphere from the volcanic event blocked ultraviolet rays from the sun and lowered Earth’s temperature — killed livestock and crops all around the world.
Had electricity been in widespread use in 1859, the solar storm that struck Earth that year would have been a truly catastrophic event. The event was named after British astronomer Richard Carrington, who witnessed it and was the first to understand the connection between the sun’s activity and geomagnetic disturbances on Earth. As it was, the cosmic episode damaged telegraph communications all over the world.
The solar flare was so intense that people in countries where nighttime had fallen thought it was morning.
In the same year Krakatoa erupted in the Pacific, Earth was nearly visited by the Bonilla Comet, and it would have been calamitous if it had. In 1883, portions of the comet, named after astronomer José Bonilla, missed Earth by just 400 miles. Had they not missed Earth, they likely would have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Scientists estimate fragments might have ranged in size from 164 feet to about 3,280 feet across. Each chunk was estimated to be as big as the fragment that hit Tunguska in Russia in 1908.
The Great Comet of 1996 was massive in size. Discovered by amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake just two months earlier in January 1996, it was the closest approach to Earth of any comet in 200 years. At its nearest approach in March 1996, the comet was 9.3 million miles away, the distance between Earth and the planet Neptune. It had been the brightest comet in 20 years. The comet’s tail stretched 311 million miles, one of the longest ever seen.
A latter-day Carrington Event, a massive solar flare, occurred in July 2012. But unlike the Carrington episode of 1859, Earth was not in the line of fire. However, the event was close enough to have struck the Stereo-A spacecraft and touched the portion of Earth’s orbit where the planet had been a week prior.
The Revelation has a Plan for the Downfall of the Evil Empire.
THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EXPANSIONISM – BEIJING DOOMED
THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EXPANSIONISM – BEIJING DOOMED.
People’s Republic of China in 1949 embraced Communism as State Doctrine and lost no time to announce ambitious plan of Territorial, Maritime, Economic, and Political Expansionism. While others painfully reflect upon ‘The Future of the Tibetan Resistance Movement’, I express optimism by announcing Beijing’s Doom, sudden downfall, as consequence of her own evil actions. This predestined Disaster, Catastrophe, Cataclysm, Calamity, Apocalypse, Doom will bring Regime Change and The Evil Red Empire cannot ward it off by paying ransom.
THE FUTURE OF RED CHINA’S EXPANSIONISM. BEIJING DOOMED.
TIBETAN PROTEST MOVEMENT – THE NEWS LENS INTERNATIONAL EDITION
Friday, May 26, 2017
PODCAST: Tibet, Protest and China; The Future of the Tibetan Protest Movement
The Future of Red China’s Expansionism. Beijing Doomed.
Photo Credit: Reuters
TNL Staff
These small acts have reverberations and impact way beyond what we can see through the media and numbers. – Tenzin Dorjee.
Earlier this month, Radio Free Asia reported that a Tibetan monk, Jamyang Losal, had died after setting himself on fire in China’s northwestern Qinghai province. Losal was the 150th Tibetan to self-immolate since 2009 when Tibetan monks started taking their own lives in protest of China’s rule. But it seems these desperate protests are having little impact on China as it continues to crack down on any signs of dissent in Tibet.
In this episode of The News Lens Radio, we are bringing you the views of three Tibetan leaders to discuss the efforts to keep the protest movement alive both inside and outside Tibet. They say not only is the Chinese government continuing to rule Tibet with an iron fist, it is also increasingly working beyond its own borders to shut down the movements calling for Tibetan autonomy or independence from China.
About today’s guests
Tenzing Jigme is the president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, an international organization with about 30,000 members advocating for Tibetan independence.
Pema Yoko is the interim executive director of the New York-headquartered Students for a Free Tibet.
Tenzin (Tendor) Dorjee is a U.S.-based author and program director with the Tibet Action Institute. He is also the former executive director of Students for a Free Tibet.
This podcast is available via SoundCloud, Stitcher and iTunes apps.
Editor: Olivia Yang
2017/05/22
Cold Shoulder: Why Beijing Snubbed Singapore at the Belt and Road Summit
The Future of Red China’s Expansionism. Beijing Doomed. Singapore was not invited to ‘Belt and Road’ event hosted by Beijing.
ANGELA HAN
Angela Han is a Research Associate in the Polling Program. She holds a Masters in European and International Studies from the University of Trento and a Graduate Diploma in Transnational Governance from Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. She has also spent six months abroad learning Mandarin at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. Prior to undertaking her Masters, Angela spent two years as a researcher of labor and economic policies in her home country of Singapore.
Beijing did not invite Singapore’s Prime Minister to attend the Belt and Road event in Beijing this week, signifying strain in Sino-Singapore relations.
Among the 29 Heads of State who converged on Beijing for the Belt and Road Summit earlier this week were leaders of seven of the ten ASEAN states. One leader was noticeably missing: Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Various observers have noted this absence, including Hugh White, who suggested it was no co-incidence that, like others – Japan, India, Australia and “most western countries” – who had not sent their national leaders to Beijing, Singapore was aligned with the U.S. and uneasy about China’s rise – “or perceived to be so.”
However, it has since emerged that Singapore was never given the choice. China had not invited Singapore’s prime minister in the first place.
This is surprising, especially as Singapore has been one of the biggest advocates of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While many other states were initially hesitant in signing up to BRI, including some of its ASEAN neighbors, Singapore’s support has been unequivocal from the beginning. Many high-level cooperation talks between China and Singapore on the subject have taken place, with both sides warmly welcoming cooperation on BRI.
In light of this past co-operation, Beijing’s snub is significant. It is fair to conclude that, if China continues to freeze out Singapore, there could be significant implications on at least three levels.
What it might mean for Sino-Singapore relations
First, this marks a low point in Sino-Singapore relations. Since its independence 50 years ago, managing the U.S.-China dichotomy has been a key tenet of Singapore’s foreign policy. Despite close defense partnerships with the U.S., China has referred to Singapore as an “important partner and a special friend of China.” This long-standing relationship has been fostered not only by historical and cultural linkages, but also the deep bond that existed between former leaders, Lee Kuan Yew and Deng Xiaoping. When Lee Kuan Yew died in 2015 there were video tributes on Chinese state media, and he was described as “an old friend of the Chinese people” by President Xi Jinping.
Of late, however, the bilateral relationship has been less than smooth, particularly since remarks made by the Singaporean prime minister at a White House state dinner in August last year. At that event, Lee Hsien Loong praised the U.S. rebalance and endorsed the arbitral tribunal ruling on the South China Sea. In a separate incident, a Chinese tabloid accused Singapore of bringing up the tribunal ruling at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, which led to a very public spat between the Global Times editor and Singapore’s Ambassador to China.
Singapore is not a claimant state but the fear that China might extend its reach in the South China Sea is nevertheless acute for the tiny island-state. Given its trade volumes are 3.5 times its GDP, any instability in the region would affect Singapore’s trade routes, and therefore its economy. When Singapore advocates for a rules-based order, it is not just values that it seeks to defend but its economic lifeblood.
Singapore’s stance on the South China Sea did not please China. In November nine of Singapore’s armored troop carriers were impounded in Hong Kong on their way back from Taiwan. At the time, many saw Beijing’s heavy hand at work behind the scenes and believed the incident reflected China’s displeasure with Singapore’s joint military exercises with Taiwan, even though these dates back decades.
In their usual quiet diplomatic style, Singapore diplomats worked hard behind the scenes to eventually secure the vehicles’ return after two months. This was then quickly followed up by a high-level bilateral cooperation forum, postponed the previous year due to strained ties. Yet, China still raises the South China Sea matter at bilateral forums.
Implications for other middle powers
China’s snub is yet another example of the narrowing diplomatic space that small states like Singapore have in which to maneuver. Relying on its hard-nosed pragmatism has, for half a decade, served Singapore well. But with most of its ASEAN neighbors increasingly willing to set aside the South China Sea disputes in return for a massive influx of Chinese investment, it is increasingly difficult for Singapore to both protect its national interest and maintain an independent foreign policy of not picking sides.
This has implications for other countries like Australia, which occupy a very similar position in the world. Like Singapore, Australia has strong historical, security and defense ties to the United States, while China is now far and away from its biggest trading partner. Perhaps one lesson from this incident is that it is becoming harder to compartmentalize politics and economics.
Implications for China’s role in the world
Finally, what does the incident say about the Belt and Road Initiative and more broadly, China’s role as architect of global initiatives? Although the BRI is as much about geoeconomics as geopolitics, it is undeniable that just on the basis of scale, access to and participation in Chinese initiatives have a tendency to draw lines in the sand; clearly distinguishing between who is a friend of China, and who is not.
The snub demonstrates Beijing now has another diplomatic tool in its arsenal. Such “sanctions with Chinese characteristics” are proving to be increasingly effective at asserting dominance and deterring actions counter to China’s interest. It is clear that China’s already considerable diplomatic and economic clout is increasing and its reach is becoming more pervasive. This too makes it more difficult for states that seek to steer a middle course.
This article originally appeared in the Lowy Interpreter. The News Lens has been authorized to republish this article.
BEIJING DOOMED – MORAL VICTORY FOR TIBET. PELOSI DELEGATION IN DHARAMSHALA.
Tibetans believe in moral principles that govern lives of individuals and of their chosen leaders. I believe in Moral Principles that govern or rule both man and national entities created by man. I predict Red China’s Doom or Downfall for her “EVIL” actions for Evil means Calamity, Catastrophe, Cataclysm, Disaster, and Apocalypse.
U.S. OFFICIALS VISIT DHARAMSHALA, EXPRESS SUPPORT FOR TIBET, DALAI LAMA
Tibetan Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (left) and Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi stand onstage as they prepare to address exiled Tibetans gathered at the Tsuglakang Temple in McLeod Ganj, May 10, 2017. Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is visiting the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, home to thousands of Tibetans living in exile. (Lobsang Wangyal/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. Officials Visit Dharamshala, Express Support for Tibet, Dalai Lama
KATY DAIGLE and ASHWINI BHATIA, Associated Press
May 10, 2017
Tibetan Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (left) and Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi stand onstage as they prepare to address exiled Tibetans gathered at the Tsuglakang Temple in McLeod Ganj, May 10, 2017. Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi is visiting the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, home to thousands of Tibetans living in exile. (Lobsang Wangyal/AFP/Getty Images)
DHARAMSHALA — As President Donald Trump appears to be warming to China, a bipartisan group from the U.S. House of Representatives took aim May 10 at one of Beijing’s sore spots: Tibet.
Representative Nancy Pelosi accused China of using economic leverage to crush Tibetan calls for autonomy. During a meeting with Tibetans and the Dalai Lama at his main temple in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala, she urged the community not to give up.
“You will not be silenced,” said Pelosi, a California Democrat. “The brutal tactics of the Chinese government to erase race, culture and language of Tibetan people challenges the conscience of the world. We will meet that challenge.”
The visit by Pelosi and seven other U.S. representatives irritated Beijing, where a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry reiterated China’s stance that the Dalai Lama is a dangerous separatist.
“The visit by U.S. congressmen to Dharamshala and their meeting with the Dalai Lama has sent a very wrong signal to the outside world about supporting Tibetan independence, which violates the U.S. government’s commitment not to support independence for Tibet,” the spokesman, Geng Shuang, told reporters.
He said Beijing had complained to the U.S. government over the matter, and urged the American representatives “to stop any kind of contact with the Dalai Lama, and take immediate measures to eliminate the negative impact.”
But Representative Jim Sensenbrenner assured that the U.S. Congress stood in “solidarity with the cause of the Tibetan people to be free from the repression that has been put upon them for a very, very long time from Beijing.”
“Without justice there is no freedom,” said the Wisconsin Republican, noting that the U.S. Constitution has prohibited government restrictions on the free exercise of religion for more than 220 years. “Today there is no justice in Tibet for Tibetans, for their religion, for their culture, for their language, and for His Holiness The Dalai Lama. … This is a civil rights issue.”
China says the Himalayan region has been part of the country for more than seven centuries. Many Tibetans insist they were essentially independent for most of that time. At least 148 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009 to protest China’s rule.
In many cases, China has offered aid packages to foreign governments on the condition that they support China’s position on issues such as Tibet and Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing has pledged to take control of, by force if necessary. Mongolia said in December that it would no longer allow visits by the Dalai Lama after a recent trip by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader led China to suspend talks on a major loan.
“China uses its economic leverage to silence the voices of friends of Tibet,” Pelosi said May 10. “But if we don’t speak out against repression in Tibet and the rest of China because of China’s economic power, we lose all moral authority to talk about human rights anywhere else in the world.”
Pelosi told the gathering that she would limit her comments on China’s “brutal tactics” because the Dalai Lama had “prayed for me that I would rid myself of my negative attitude about dwelling on the negative too much.”
The Dalai Lama, meanwhile, said Tibetans do not need weapons in their struggle for autonomy, and again prescribed a path of nonviolence and compassion. While he has devolved political power to an elected government, the Dalai Lama is still widely revered by Tibetans as their most influential leader.
Tibetans who remain in the closely guarded region “are living in fear and anxiety. Their life is at risk, but they are still preserving our traditions,” said the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet to India in 1959 during an abortive uprising.
“We all are dedicated to the Tibetan cause, but should not think of harming the Chinese people as such. We need to befriend them,” he said, adding that compassion was needed to resolve the Tibetan issue.
The timing of the U.S. congressional visit may irk Trump, who just weeks ago boasted of enjoying cozy conversations and chocolate cake with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Trump’s Florida resort. During Xi’s official visit last month, Beijing also provisionally approved several trademark applications for Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter.
President Trump’s rhetoric on China has warmed considerably since the U.S. presidential campaign, when he repeatedly called the Asian giant a currency manipulator and an economic adversary of the United States.
Many in the crowd at the May 10 gathering in Dharamshala said they were delighted, and relieved, to see a bipartisan U.S. delegation address the Tibetan issue.
“It perhaps shows that there is huge support for Tibet in the U.S. Congress. With Trump at the helm, things are uncertain,” said internet security analyst Lobsang Gyatso, 34.
Rinchen, a 27-year-old antiques dealer who fled Tibet as a teenager in 2006, said the visit had burnished the Tibetan cause and sent a strong message to China.
“The mere fact that this delegation is visiting Dharamshala gives importance to Tibet and the Dalai Lama,” said Rinchen, who uses only one name, as is common in the region. When people inside Tibet hear of the visit, “they will know that the support is real,” he said.
– Daigle reported from New Delhi. Associated Press writers Louise Watt in Beijing and Ashok Sharma contributed to this report.
SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – WHAT IS TIBET’S DESTINY? TIBET’S FUTURE WILL BE DECIDED BY MAN’S SUBJUGATION TO GOD’S WILL.
In India, Nepal, and Tibet, people share cultural belief in the concept of ‘KARMA’ which in general involves actions by individuals and their consequences to individuals in either present or future life. Karma involves events generated by actions performed by individual entity.
The concept of Destiny or Fate involves operation by an external agency or power over which individual entity has no control. Destiny or Fate is manifested by events with its inevitable consequences. The concept of Destiny involves subjugation of man and man’s ‘FREE WILL’ to perform actions. However, Destiny has broader implications for it unfolds events of great magnitude that can affect a large population of people or their collective identity as people.
Tibet is under subjugation by superior military force exercised by Red China. Tibet’s Destiny is decided by people of China who must reconcile to live under subjugation by external Force, Power, or Agency called Destiny.
SPIRITUALITY SCIENCE – WHAT IS TIBET’S DESTINY? THE FUTURE OF TIBET, FREEDOM OR SUBJUGATION WILL BE DECIDED BY DOOM, DISASTER, CATASTROPHE, CATACLYSM, APOCALYPSE WHICH COMPELS RED CHINA TO CEASE HER SUBJUGATION OF TIBET.
In my analysis, I predict Beijing’s Doom. People of Red China may experience Catastrophe, Cataclysm, Disaster, Apocalypse, or Doomsday which cannot be revoked by paying ransom. This fateful event will compel China to reconsider Tibet’s Subjugation while their own Destiny is held in balance.
The latest book on Tibet’s environmental degradation shows how any attempt to save the plateau’s ecosystem must come from within China.
Spirituality Science – What is Tibet’s Destiny?
Photo image credit:Flickr / reurink jan
(This is an essay from our March 2015 print quarterly ‘Labour and its discontents’. See more from the issue here.)
Nineteen million people – a preliminary estimate – have lost their homes, their land and their property. Their only means of survival is to move into other regions; but there is no other region that can feed so many refugees. Hunger will probably drive them to violence. This is harvest time, already there has been plundering of crops and of course if the victims have nothing to eat themselves they will join the starving and seize crops elsewhere.
The excerpt above comes not from a report on climate change or the displacement of local people following the building of a dam, but from China Tidal Wave, a futuristic novel published in 1991 by the writer and activist Wang Lixiong. In the novel, as a result of the central government’s relentless extracting of natural resources, the Yellow River bursts its banks, causing wide scale displacement and chaos. This event sets off a chain reaction in which several members of the ruling party make bids for power and plunge the country, and then the world, into war. In the nuclear winter that follows, those who have survived in China struggle on with what little natural resources remain, cultivating a vegetable called shugua and living in shelters that dot the ravaged land. At the end of the novel, Big Ox, a thuggish henchman of the Green Guards with a penchant for rape and torture is mauled to death by a Tibetan mastiff – the demise of the villain in the jaws of the dog symbolizing the final and grisly triumph of a ‘pure and unspoilt’ remoteness over the brutal pursuit of power.
In parts of Tibet today, there is serious money to be made in breeding dogs to sell in China, where along with a sports car and a beautiful wife, a Tibetan mastiff is one of the three indispensable status symbols for a young man on the make. Six decades after the ‘liberation’, Tibet is being bottled and photographed, televised and sold to the mainland more than ever before, with the government undoubtedly hoping that the glossy packaging will help cover up the tricky cracks in the historical and political relationship with the motherland. The Open Up the West (Xibu da kaifa) campaign launched in 2000 aims to bring the resources of Tibet and Turkestan into more efficient sync with the industry and factories of the eastern seaboard. The showpiece of this drive, the Qinghai-Lhasa railway, was completed (ahead of schedule) six years later, enabling the more efficient transporting of Tibet’s mineral resources to mainland China, and the arrival of workers from the mainland to supply the service industries which accompany the engineers, miners and surveyors.
Along with highways, shopping malls and the Internet have come diggers, fences and the despoiling of sacred sites; development efforts which Tibetan writer and activist Tsering Woeser calls “pseudo-modernization, essentially a kind of invasion, a sugar-coated, disguised act of violence.” An estimated two million Tibetans have been displaced or forcibly removed in preparation for infrastructure projects and mines between 2006 and 2012. Nomads are being cleared from the grasslands where they play an indispensable role in maintaining the fragile ecosystem of the Tibetan plateau, which is larger than the US states of Alaska and Texas combined, and resettled in purpose-built towns where they are euphemistically referred to as ‘ecological migrants’. Cables released by Wikileaks revealed how by 2010 the Dalai Lama had already reached the conclusion that environmental degradation in Tibet had become so severe that questions regarding political autonomy needed to be sidelined in favor of increased campaigning against the further damaging of Tibet’s natural environment. Nine major rivers are sourced on the plateau (five of these, the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Indus and Brahmaputra, are among the ten longest rivers in Asia), providing irrigation, soil enrichment and support for the ecosystems on which more than a billion people depend in China, South and Southeast Asia.
Meltdown in Tibet is not another futuristic disaster novel, although chapter subheadings like ‘Where Is the Thirsty Dragon Going to Guzzle Next?’ and ‘Why Can’t They Just Leave the Rivers Alone?’ give clues to the book’s hand-wringing and polemical tone, and mark a departure from Michael Buckley’s earlier, more tranquil guidebook writings on the Tibetan world. The book deals with two broad themes: first, how Tibet’s natural resources are increasingly featured in the schemes of a government hungry for electricity, timber, water and minerals; and second, the impact these plans are likely to have on the ecosystems, populations and politics of China’s neighbors. Scattered throughout are smaller sections on poaching and mass tourism, the changing face of Lhasa, and growing desertification in Tibet and Mongolia.
Extraction
The chapters dealing with dam building and water politics are the most coherent and sobering. Buckley cites research showing that the construction of “around 400 large dams” is being considered by the Indian and Chinese governments across the Himalayan watershed. The records of both New Delhi and Beijing are far from exemplary when it comes to consultation, safety and resettlement; furthermore, the Himalaya lies across an area of high seismic activity, and so would seem an irresponsible place to plan widespread digging, blasting and tunneling.
Inside China, Buckley explains how the government has begun to look west and further upstream for the power it needs for the cities and industry of the east, partly because of a lack of space for new dams in eastern China.
At 200 GW, China, including the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), has the highest installed hydroelectric capacity of any country in the world (Brazil is second, with 84 GW). It also reflects (although Buckley only briefly mentions this) nascent but growing pressure from sections of Chinese society concerned about or affected by proposed dam projects. For example, the near-moratorium on new dam building during the 11th Five Year Plan (2006-2010) – despite the fact that the Plan envisioned major hydropower projects – was to some extent a result of civil-society groups and environmentalists putting pressure on the government. The 12th Plan, however, has been termed a ‘Great Leap Forward’ for dam building (one laughs at the idea of a cement lobby, but it almost certainly exists), and Buckley shows how much of the ‘Great Leap’ is poised to take place in Tibet.
Currently, there are only a handful of ‘medium sized’ dams inside the TAR and the majority-Tibetan areas that border it, many of which are not operable year-round due to high-altitude rivers freezing up during winter. The government is planning to build twenty new dams, of which a proposed 38 GW capacity mega dam near Metok, in eastern Tibet, will be far and away the world’s largest if completed (the largest at the moment, the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province, generates 22.5 GW, and set its own record in displacing 1.2 million people during construction). Although the area around Metok is sparsely populated, it is a site of religious significance for Tibetans and lies in an area prone to earthquakes. The most recent reminder of this was the 7.9 magnitude earthquake which struck Sichuan in May 2008 and killed 87,000 people. The political aftershocks of the dam will also be far-reaching; the Yarlung-Tsangpo river, upon which the dam will be built, becomes the Brahmaputra once it flows into India, and water-claiming on such a huge scale will undoubtedly raise tensions in New Delhi.
Buckley also shows how the tender and contract-awarding processes for new dams are often hobbled by corruption. While laws introduced in 2003 stipulate that Environmental Impact Assessments must be carried out and approved before construction begins, local governments have been too easily swayed by the promise of immediate economic windfalls, and have given the go-ahead to those wanting to dig or build. Buckley also points out how distance from the central authorities means that there are ways around the government’s diktat:
Work on Ahai Dam, in the upper Yangtze region, was carried out in secret by Sinohydro Corporation. Signs declaring the site a “military zone” were erected to discourage visitors. There was no EIA at Ahai Dam: authorities planning to visit the dam to approve the project were presented with a dam that was practically completed.
Huaneng, another state-owned power company has been fined numerous times by the government for building before permission had officially been given, and yet continues to enjoy favor.
Downstream
The mega dams and water diversion projects planned by the Chinese government will allow China to “turn the water on or off” for countries downstream. Buckley travelled to Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India and Nepal, and these forays worked extremely well in expanding the scope of the book and providing glimpses of the larger ecological and geopolitical picture. Lake Tonle Sap in Cambodia, for example, floods every year, acting like a ‘back up valve’ for the Mekong river, and provides 60 percent of the annual freshwater fish catch when the floodwaters recede. Local sources attribute the disastrous 2003-04 catch – which was half of its usual volume after the lake flooded for three months instead of the usual five – to the completion of the Dachaoshan dam, upstream in Yunnan, in the same year. In Burma, Buckley reports how construction of the proposed 3200 MW Myitsone dam in the northeast, at the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai (the source of the Irrawaddy, the country’s longest river) was officially suspended in 2011. The dam would have submerged more than 60 villages, while 90 percent of the power generated would have been exported back to China, and its suspension is a “rare victory for anti-dam campaigners in Burma”. However, on a visit to Myitkyina with a “Kachin guide and a motorcycle”, Buckley is informed by locals that workers are still on-site, working by night. What they are doing is unclear, and one wishes he had stayed longer to find out, but he reports that those displaced during the original phases of construction have not been allowed to return home, leading to the conjecture that, “Chinese engineers are just biding their time, waiting for the project to resume.”
The book also reports on the activities of Chinese state-owned enterprises in Pakistan, where dam building serves the dual purpose of power generation and territory-claiming in the disputed Northern Territories. The state-owned Gezhouba Group is helping Pakistan build the 969 MW-capacity Neelum-Jhelum dam, even as India proceeds to dam the river further upstream at Kishanganga. In northeast India, similar practices are being employed by New Delhi in the face of competing claims over the waters of the Yarlung-Tsangpo/Brahmaputra: “New Delhi argues that if it has to go to the International Court of Justice to counter Chinese dam building and diversion on the Yarlung-Tsangpo, then it must show beneficial use of the river in India by building its own dams.”
The displacement of nomads from the grasslands and plains of Tibet is an issue with ecological as well as moral implications, and one dealt with at length in the book. With knowledge of the land, weather patterns, flora and fauna, nomadic families and their herds are part of the fragile ecosystem, the “stewards of Tibet’s grasslands”. The central government has been actively discouraging this way of life, claiming that a sedentary population can be better educated and cared for. Buckley has suspicions as to the real reasons for the resettlement programs: the freedom of movement the nomads enjoy, and the presence of valuable minerals like lithium, copper and gold underneath the land they roam over. A conversation with a nomad family near the town of Litang is interesting. The head of the family tells Buckley through an interpreter:
There has been a lot of pressure to sell their animals and settle… He says that he will stay on the grasslands as long as he can, because he has talked to others that settled and they were very disappointed with their new lives. They were no longer free. Everything suddenly came down to a question of money and having to buy food and clothing. Here, he says, he has his freedom – and he never pays for his food or water.
Sadly, Buckley does not explore what life is like inside one of the resettlement towns, although he highlights how exactly nomads are being forced off the grasslands, and, if not into towns, into smaller fenced-in areas, where overgrazing quickly becomes a problem. This is partly achieved through the creation of what he terms ‘Paper Parks’. These are huge areas of land designated as national parks or protected areas (and so off-limits for nomads), inside which mining companies are often free to prospect for minerals.
Within China
The scope of Meltdown in Tibet is impressive. Buckley does a fine job in bringing together current research on Tibet’s environment and the plans Beijing has for harnessing it to maintain the economic growth it sees as a guarantor of political stability. He is clearly at home writing on things Tibetan, and his anxiety and concern for the preservation of Tibetan culture are clear. However, throughout, the polemic follows a too-simplistic ‘environmental Tibetan / materialist Chinese’ agenda, to use the phrase of academic Graham E Clarke. “The tourists and their guides”, Buckley writes of Chinese visiting Tibet, “show little interest in Tibetan culture and religion. Their interest lies in scenery, fresh air, blue skies, photography and shopping.” He backs up this generalization with anecdotal evidence, but seems to forget that European and North American tourists go to Tibet for the same reasons; they too smoke cigarettes where they shouldn’t, and are just as capable of being patronizing and disrespectful of local sensibilities. Anyone who has travelled in Tibet will know this. The arbitrary suspicion of almost everything Chinese firstly betrays Buckley’s politics – common to the rest of the adventure writer/climber/rafter crowd who yearn for Tibet to be free, pristine and unexplored again – but also, more damagingly, does not allow his book to seriously entertain the possibility that ways of combating environmental degradation in Tibet could come from within China itself.
Environmental activism is currently one of the few domains of Chinese politics where protest and dissent are somewhat tolerated. Zed Books’ China and the Environment: The Green Revolution and Joy Zhang and Michael Barr’s Green Politics in China (both published in 2013) explore the growth in environmental NGOs and activism, and tell us that even if green politics in China is not of the confrontational kind we are familiar with elsewhere, it is certainly happening, and sometimes with encouraging results. Following the publishing of data by monitors in the US Embassy in Beijing in 2009-10, which revealed the catastrophically high presence of PM 2.5 molecules in the air, the ‘I Monitor the Air for My Country’ campaign started by the NGO Green Beagle asked citizens to take their own PM 2.5 measurements and upload their findings online. With its catchy, social media-friendly slogan, the ‘citizen science’ campaign showed that it is possible for a group of people outside the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to challenge the party’s position (or lack of one) on an issue that is both political and environmental, even if for a limited period.
Examples of this concern extending to the Tibetan plateau are harder to come by. But they are there. Mining Tibet, published by the Tibet Information Network in 2002 quotes a paper by Chinese academics Hu Angang and Wen Jun published in the government’s China Tibetology journal, in which they argue that the state’s current mining policies are widening the wealth gap between Han migrant workers and local Tibetans, and should be scaled back in favor of sustainable development initiatives which involve local nomads and farmers. In 2011, ‘Globe Trekker: Across the Kekexili’, a publicity campaign by the Snow Beer brand which aimed to send an adventure group to Kekexili reserve in northwest Tibet sparked opposition from a number of environmental campaigners in mainland China mobilized by Weibo and other social media.
There are occasions where it seems Buckley’s book is about to take the ambitious and much-needed step to look at the potential for change from within China. Following a discussion of the successful campaign from 2004 to 2007 to halt the construction of a mega dam at Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan, Buckley writes: “The fate of Tibet’s rivers lies with courageous figures… triggering change from within China.” Earlier, he makes the observation that “Chinese environmental NGOs and activism are tolerated, it seems… But Tibetan action is viewed as subversion.” Neither of these openings are followed up, which is a lost opportunity for the book and its author to take a great leap and enquire into whether the Chinese environmental activism that is currently tolerated also has Tibet on its radar, and if so, whether it could be mobilized to fight the government’s policies on the plateau (or to begin with, in Tibetan areas outside the TAR where restrictions on assembly and dissent do not seem to be as stringent). Hunting for scenarios or instances of ecologically minded Chinese and Tibetans working together would have required much arduous research in Chinese and Tibetan. But if such examples could be unearthed, then surely here was a new topic worth exploring which could have challenged the conventional narrative on Tibet and China.
Possibilities
The renegotiating of Tibet’s status within the ‘motherland’ has been unfolding for a while now. That closer integration with the mainland has so far been characterized by, among other things, the accelerated extraction and exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources should hardly be surprising, depressing as it is. The prices the inhabitants of resource-rich peripheries must pay for their modernity are the same everywhere. The bonds that bind Tibet to China are certainly tightening in many ways, and indeed seem to be shrinking spaces for dissent regarding autonomy and religious rights. But those who are concerned about the fate of Tibet’s environment need to be working out how they can be effective in this changing climate, and what kinds of opportunities it could offer if they learn to negotiate inside it.
Within China, it is not only technocrats and government planners who have visions for what a future Tibet will look like. A small yet growing number of academics, journalists and activists already see a bigger picture in which the preservation of the plateau’s rivers and ecosystems is in everyone’s interest as floods, desertification and soil degradation increasingly affect the lives of those living downstream. Not every tourist from Shanghai drops litter in Lhasa or defaces statues in monasteries, just as every Belgian or Swiss visitor does not possess an inherent capacity to understand the plight of the Tibetans and the exclusive right to speak up for them. We need to begin accepting that growing numbers of Chinese people are also unhappy that Tibet’s mountains are being bulldozed and its rivers blocked up, and that they may in fact be more effective torchbearers than those of us in South Asia or in the West. One would hope that if criticism and opposition to the government’s environmental policies on the plateau could be raised as part of the more mainstream Chinese environmental agenda (and include familiar and tolerated Chinese voices), then the ‘splittist’ label would be less easily applied and voices from Tibet less easily dismissed out of hand. An ‘environmental Tibetan / environmental Chinese’ agenda is surely plausible.
In an episode of the US sitcom Friends from 2004, Phoebe explains indignantly, to audience laughter, why her eccentric, steel-drum playing friend Marjorie is so smelly: “Hey! She will shower when Tibet is free!” Throwaway, pop-culture references like this illustrate how in the West the Tibet issue is effectively dead in terms of questions of political autonomy and religious freedom, even as Tibetans are portrayed as embodiments of compassion and suffering. Meanwhile, as its political and economic clout grows, the CCP continues ignoring the impassioned criticism of its Tibet policies that comes from abroad. Those in the West who have taken up the Tibetans’ cause and chafe at this deafness, often seem to forget that for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, China was bullied, pillaged and shamed by a cohort of rapacious foreign powers and treated with contempt on the world stage. A sign at one of the entrances to the Summer Palace of Qing emperors in Beijing (which was destroyed by British and French soldiers in 1860) now reads ‘Do not forget the national shame, rebuild the Chinese nation.’
Such jingoism does not bode well for the rivers, forests and mountains of the Tibetan plateau. And, when choices need to be made, will those dwelling in the mega cities of mainland China choose a less reliable electricity supply so that a dam need not be built on a river thousands of miles upstream? Possibly not. But – and this is a painfully obvious fact – Tibet’s environment is only going to be saved if people in China desire it to be. For the moment, there may be some breathing space to work out how this is to be done. In Spoiling Tibet: China and Resource Nationalism on the Roof of the World, another excellent book recently published by Zed, Gabriel Lafitte concludes that while Tibet is ‘primed’ for wider scale exploitation, this process has not yet begun in earnest. He also writes: “There is a deep spiritual hunger in China (jingshen weiji), for guidance as to how life can be made more meaningful than the endless consumer pursuit of endless wants.”
The faceless, monolithic and all-consuming behemoth that we are told is China, has its own inefficiencies and failings. It also has ‘courageous figures’ like Wang Lixiong who want change – individuals who are mentioned only in passing in Buckley’s narrative. The excluding of such individuals is unfortunate and demonstrates an unwillingness to come to terms with the realities of Tibet’s political and economic situation today, however distasteful it may be. And when it should be the task of those who have long-standing connections with Tibet and deep sympathy for its people, to tell us where possibilities for saving its environment lie, even if they might be in China, Meltdown‘s refusal to entertain any such possibility can only ensure that the picture it paints of the future is a dark and hopeless one.
~Ross Adkin is a freelance journalist based in Kathmandu.
(This is an essay from our March 2015 print quarterly ‘Labour and its discontents’. See more from the issue here.)
Spirituality Science – What is Tibet’s Destiny? Tibet’s Subjugation by Red China will cease when Chinese people reconcile with Power, Force, or Agency called Destiny or Fate.
DOOMED PRESIDENCY OF GERALD FORD – AMERICA’S UNFINISHED WAR
Doomed Presidency of Gerald Ford – America’s Unfinished War.
Nixon-Kissinger and Gerald Ford initiated era of Doomed US Presidency when they concluded War against Communism through negotiated Surrender. Unchecked Communist Expansionism in Southern Asia poses severe risks to vital US security interests in Asia-Pacific Region.
At a speech at Tulane University, President Gerald Ford says the Vietnam War is finished as far as America is concerned. “Today, Americans can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by re-fighting a war.” This was devastating news to the South Vietnamese, who were desperately pleading for U.S. support as the North Vietnamese surrounded Saigon for the final assault on the capital city.
The North Vietnamese had launched a major offensive in March to capture the provincial capital of Ban Me Thuot (Darlac province) in the Central Highlands. The South Vietnamese defenders there fought very poorly and were quickly overwhelmed by the North Vietnamese attackers. Despite previous promises by both Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to provide support, the United States did nothing. In an attempt to reposition his forces for a better defense, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered his forces in the Highlands to withdraw to more defensible positions to the south. What started out as a reasonably orderly withdrawal soon degenerated into a panic that spread throughout the South Vietnamese armed forces. The South Vietnamese abandoned Pleiku and Kontum in the Highlands with very little fighting and the North Vietnamese pressed the attack from the west and north. In quick succession, Quang Tri, Hue, and Da Nang in the north fell to the communist onslaught. The North Vietnamese continued to attack south along the coast, defeating the South Vietnamese forces at each encounter.
As the North Vietnamese forces closed on the approaches to Saigon, the politburo in Hanoi issued an order to Gen. Van Tien Dung to launch the “Ho Chi Minh Campaign,” the final assault on Saigon itself. Dung ordered his forces into position for the final battle.
The South Vietnamese 18th Division made a valiant final stand at Xuan Loc, 40 miles northeast of Saigon, in which the South Vietnamese soldiers destroyed three of Dung’s divisions. However, the South Vietnamese finally succumbed to the superior North Vietnamese numbers. With the fall of Xuan Loc on April 21 and Ford’s statement at Tulane, it was apparent that the North Vietnamese would be victorious. President Thieu resigned and transferred authority to Vice President Tran Van Huong before fleeing Saigon on April 25.
By April 27, the North Vietnamese had completely encircled Saigon and began to maneuver for their final assault. By the morning of April 30, it was all over. When the North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the gates of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, the South Vietnamese surrendered and the Vietnam War was officially over.
DOOMED PRESIDENCY OF GERALD FORD – AMERICA’S UNFINISHED WAR. NIXON-KISSINGER VIETNAM TREASON DID NOT FINISH AMERICA’S WAR ON COMMUNIST EXPANSIONISM.
REALITY OF DALAI LAMA REINCARNATION vs RED CHINA’S MISCHIEF IN TIBET.
The Dalai Lama a week before his 80th birthday. Credit Will Oliver/European Pressphoto Agency
The Dalai Lama, who may be the only octogenarian spiritual leader with a profoundly mischievous streak, has a suggestion for China’s Communist leaders: Take up reincarnation.
I’m interviewing him in his hotel room in Manhattan, at the end of an overseas tour marking his 80th birthday, and we’re talking about what happens after he dies. He is the 14th Dalai Lama, each considered a reincarnation of the previous one, and usually after one has died a search is undertaken for an infant to become the next. But he has said that he may be the last of the line, or that the next Dalai Lama might emerge outside Tibet — or might even be a girl.
This talk infuriates Beijing, which is determined to choose the next Dalai Lama (to use as a tool to control Tibet). So, startlingly, the atheists in the Chinese Communist Party have been insisting that Buddhist reincarnation must continue.
“The Chinese Communist Party is pretending that they know more about the reincarnation system than the Dalai Lama,” said the Dalai Lama, laughing. “The Chinese Communists should accept the concept of rebirth. Then they should recognize the reincarnation of Chairman Mao Zedong, then Deng Xiaoping. Then they have the right to involve themselves in the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation.”
The Dalai Lama hinted that he would hold some kind of referendum among Tibetan exiles, and consultations among Tibetans within China, about whether a new Dalai Lama should succeed him. The issue will be formally resolved around his 90th birthday, he said.
One reason to end the line, he suggested, is that a future Dalai Lama might be “naughty” and diminish the position. His biggest concern seems to be that after he dies, China will select a new pet Dalai Lama who may act as a quisling to help the Chinese control Tibet and to give legitimacy to their policies there.
“Sadly, the precedent has been set,” he said, referring to the Panchen Lama, the second most important reincarnated lama in Tibetan Buddhism. After the 10th Panchen Lama died in 1989, China kidnapped the baby chosen by Tibetans as his successor and helped anoint a different child as the 11th Panchen Lama. Nobody knows what happened to the real Panchen Lama.
I admire the Dalai Lama enormously, and in 2007 he bravely used my column to send an important olive branch to Beijing — only to be criticized by fellow Tibetans as too conciliatory, and rejected as insincere by China. But I told him that I also thought there were times when he had been too cautious and had missed opportunities for rapprochement with Beijing. My examples: In the 1980s, when the leaders Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang sought compromise on Tibet; after the 10th Panchen Lama died; and in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
The Dalai Lama was having none of that — he doesn’t think he missed opportunities. But he acknowledged that Zhao had been sympathetic and added that if Zhao and Hu had not been ousted, “the Tibetan issue would already be solved, no question.”
To my surprise, the Dalai Lama was also enthusiastic about Xi Jinping, the current Chinese leader. He spoke admiringly of Xi’s anticorruption campaign, said Xi’s mother was “very religious, a very devout Buddhist,” and noted Xi himself had spoken positively of Buddhism.
So, President Xi, if you’re reading this, the Dalai Lama would like to visit China. How about an invitation?
I had asked my followers on Twitter and Facebook to suggest questions for the Dalai Lama, and here are his responses to some of the issues they raised:
• On the Myanmar Buddhists who have murdered, raped and oppressed Muslims: As he has before, the Dalai Lama strongly condemned the violence. He added: “If Buddha would come at that moment, he definitely would save or protect those Muslims.”
• On eating meat: The Dalai Lama said he had been a pure vegetarian for 20 months but then developed jaundice, so his doctors told him to start eating meat again. He now eats meat twice a week and is vegetarian the rest of the week, he said, but added that he thinks vegetarianism is preferable.
• On Pope Francis: “I admire his stance,” the Dalai Lama said. “He dismissed one German bishop [for too luxurious living]. I was so impressed. I wrote a letter to him. I expressed my admiration.”
• On gender: The Dalai Lama says he considers himself a feminist and would like to see more women leaders because he thinks women are often innately more sensitive and peaceful. “I insist that women should carry a more active role,” he said. “If eventually most of the leaders of different nations are female, maybe we’ll be safer.”
REALITY OF DALAI LAMA REINCARNATION vs RED CHINA’S MISCHIEF IN TIBET.
NO DALAI LAMA REINCARNATION WITHOUT FREEDOM IN OCCUPIED TIBET
NO REINCARNATION OF DALAI LAMA WITHOUT FREEDOM IN OCCUPIED TIBET.
As Tibet remains under Red China’s military occupation without Freedom, Dalai Lama “REINCARNATION” remains Impossible. To restore normalcy in Tibetan National Life, Military Occupier must be evicted from Tibetan Territory. The Disease called ‘Occupation’ is the Cause and no Reincarnation is its Effect.
Adherents of Tibetan Buddhism believe the Dalai Lama, the religion’s highest spiritual authority, has been reincarnated in an unbroken line for centuries. But the current Dalai Lama says he may be the last.
In an interview with the BBC this week, the 79-year-old Nobel Peace Prize recipient said that he may not reincarnate after he dies.
“There is no guarantee that some stupid Dalai Lama won’t come next, who will disgrace himself or herself,” he said. “That would be very sad. So, much better that a centuries-old tradition should cease at the time of a quite popular Dalai Lama.”
But what does reincarnation mean, and why would the Dalai Lama not want to have a successor?
How do Tibetan Buddhists believe reincarnation works?
Tibetan Buddhism teaches that after death, nearly all of us are flung back into the world of the living under the influence of harmful impulses and desires. But through compassion and prayer, a few can choose the time, place and the parents to whom they return. This affirms Buddhist teachings that one’s spirit can return to benefit humanity; it also serves to maintain a strong theological and political structure based around monasticism and celibacy.
The process through which reincarnated Buddhist masters, known as “tulkus,” are discovered is not uniform among the four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. But generally, through dreams, signals, and other clues, senior monks identify candidates from a pool of boys born around the time the previous incarnation died. The current Dalai Lama is the 14th in the line of the Gelug school. The son of a farmer, he was recognized in 1950 after he correctly picked out objects owned by his predecessor, such as a bowl and prayer beads, jumbled among unfamiliar items.
So why would the Dalai Lama refuse to reincarnate?
Almost certainly to prevent the Chinese government from inserting itself into the process for political ends. Tibet was incorporated into China more than 60 years ago; the Dalai Lama went into exile in India in 1959 amid a revolt. China’s government has denounced him as a separatist, but the Dalai Lama currently says he only seeks a high degree of autonomy for Tibet.
In the mid-1990s, the Dalai Lama identified a 6-year-old boy as the Panchen Lama, a position second only to the Dalai Lama himself. But Chinese authorities took custody of the child, and his whereabouts remain unclear. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities identified another youth as the Panchen Lama, but he never won the trust of Tibetans.
In 2011, the Dalai Lama wrote: “Should the concerned public express a strong wish for the Dalai Lamas to continue, there is an obvious risk of vested political interests misusing the reincarnation system to fulfill their own political agenda.” He said then that he would reevaluate whether the custom should go on when he was in his 90s.
Why the statement now?
In fact, the Dalai Lama has claimed that as early as 1969 he made clear that the Tibetan people should decide whether reincarnations should continue. He has previously stated that he would not reincarnate in Tibet if it were not free, and he has mused that the Tibetan people should select their religious leaders democratically. To that effect, he has already divested the political power of his role to an elected official, based in India.
In September, the Dalai Lama stepped up his rhetoric on this point, raising the suggestion that he might be the last of his line. “If a weak Dalai Lama comes along, it will just disgrace the Dalai Lama,” he told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.
What do Chinese authorities say?
After the Dalai Lama’s statement in September, the Chinese government issued a firm rebuttal. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters, “The title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government.” China, which is officially atheist, will follow “set religious procedure and historic custom” to select a successor, she said.
Other officials have followed suit. “Only the central government can decide on keeping, or getting rid of, the Dalai Lama’s lineage, and the 14th Dalai Lama does not have the final say,” Zhu eiqun, chairman of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of a high-ranking advisory body to China’s parliament, told the state-run Global Times newspaper this week. “All [the Dalai Lama] can do is use his religious title to write about the continuation or not of the Dalai Lama to get eyeballs overseas.”
What happens next?
It’s unclear what will happen when the Dalai Lama dies, but the decision is a sensitive one that will put pressure on the Chinese government.
If the Chinese government does select a successor, its choice could be rejected by Tibetans, and that could exacerbate strained relations.
But the Dalai Lama has made nonviolence a key tenet of his teachings, and losing him – and any reincarnation – could also be risky.
Wu Chuke, a professor of social science at Beijing’s Ethnic Studies University, said that if the position is left empty, “many of the Tibetan Buddhists in China will feel like that the not being able to be reincarnated will be due to restrictions from the government and will further damage the relationship between them. This will put new pressure on the Chinese government in how they will deal with this problem.”
Whole Dude - Whole Concept 