One of the questions the Dalai Lama was asked was how does one continue to practice non-violence when faced with evil. A monk who was arrested and tortured by the Chinese told the director that when he was let out of jail he hated the Chinese. He said he told the Dalai Lama that his message of peace and non-violence is outdated, it does not work, and that the Tibetans must take up arms against the Chinese government. He said that after talking with His Holiness for two hours the monk was a changed man, that he returned to his Buddhist convictions of peace and ahimsa.
Unless you're a jazz fan, you might not know who Oscar Peterson was. This jazz great died just the other day. He had this to say about peace:
...My vision of peace encompasses an awareness of the rights of our fellow man irrespective of race, color or creed. Words spoken and repeated many times on many occasions, political or otherwise, and by many individuals; but so often only used to fill spaces on paper. I believe that if mankind could honestly embrace the true embodiment of those misused words, the world would be much farther along the road to good health....
Pictures of the Dalai Lama are not allowed in Tibet. If I visited Tibet and wore my pendant containing the Dalai Lama's likeness, any number of things could happen to me -- if a Chinese guard or soldier saw it, it would be taken from me and that would be the easiest thing I would have to endure. Would my American passport protect me from a government that shoots Tibetans in the back when they try to cross the Himalayas into India?
When the Chinese army marched into Tibet, the Dalai Lama, then a young man, asked the US for help. The American government did nothing because there was nothing to be gained by helping a country that has no oil.
and so the genocide continues.
Where is the outrage over Tibet?
Why there's blood on the Olympic rings
Boycott 2008 Olympics : Free Tibet & Darfur
2 comments:
Great post. And thank you for the video, which also mentions Darfur. China is also active in southern Sudan, to the detriment of the local population. Here is an excellent article I came across last summer about China's presence there.
unfortunately the rest of the world are whores for cheap Chinese products and are afraid to stand up to China. Any place the Dalai Lama travels, China threatens the governments with trade sanctions, blah blah blah. There are many countries that have refused the Dalai Lama's entrance.
While the US gave HHDL the Medal of Honor, it means nothing. Boycotting the Olympics and standing up to Chinese threats would mean so much more.
As far as I'm concerned, this government is spineless in more ways than one and even our politicians' "outrage" about Darfur means nothing, and are empty words.
where is the outrage about Tibet? The cultural genocide has been going on since 1949.
Post a Comment