Thursday, December 29, 2011
Krakauer article from The New Yorker
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December 28, 2011
Why Is Nepal Cracking Down on Tibetan Refugees?
Posted by Jon Krakauer
Friction between Chinese authorities and the five million Tibetans who live within the borders of China is on the rise, and nowhere is the strife more apparent than in the neighboring nation of Nepal. Last month in Kathmandu, I spoke with five young Tibetans who had just journeyed across the Himalayas to escape draconian policies imposed by the Beijing government in their homeland. More than six hundred Tibetans have fled to Nepal this year, even though it’s a dangerous undertaking. Asylum seekers have lost limbs to frostbite, perished in blizzards, and been arrested by Chinese border patrols. Some have been shot. The youngest of the refugees I met was a fourteen-year-old girl. She was aware of the hazards but lit out for the border anyway, hoping that if she made it into Nepal she’d find safe passage to India, where in 1959 the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government-in-exile, and where more than a hundred thousand Tibetan refugees presently reside.
According to an informal arrangement hammered out twenty-two years ago between the government of Nepal and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (U.N.H.C.R.), Kathmandu pledged to allow Tibetans to travel through Nepal en route to India, and to facilitate their transit. Lately, however, this established protocol has been ignored with increasing frequency. Nepalese police have been apprehending Tibetans far inside Nepal, robbing them, and then returning them to Tibet at gunpoint, where they are typically imprisoned and not uncommonly tortured by the Chinese. According to “Tibet’s Stateless Nationals,” a hundred-and-thirty-three-page report issued by the Tibet Justice Center, a relatively small number of these Tibetans have been beaten, raped, and/or shot by the Nepalese police—abuses confirmed by several refugees with whom I spoke during my recent visit to Nepal.
These violations of the U.N.H.C.R. agreement and international law were bought and paid for by Beijing. According to a confidential U.S. embassy cable published by WikiLeaks in 2010, China “rewards [Nepalese forces] by providing financial incentives to officers who hand over Tibetans attempting to exit China.” Another cable stated, “Beijing has asked Kathmandu to step up patrols … and make it more difficult for Tibetans to enter Nepal.”
With an annual per capita income of $645—less than two dollars a day—Nepal is desperate for whatever alms China offers, never mind the strings attached. In 2009, Beijing promised to promote tourism to Nepal, invest in major Nepalese hydropower projects, and increase its financial assistance by approximately eighteen million dollars annually. In return, Kathmandu pledged to endorse Beijing’s “one-China policy” (which decrees that both Taiwan and Tibet are “inalienable parts of Chinese territory”) and to prohibit “anti-Chinese activities” within Nepal. Activities deemed unacceptable include gathering for prayers on the birthday of the Dalai Lama and displaying the Tibetan flag. On November 10th, after a Buddhist monk in Kathmandu doused his robes with kerosene and ignited himself to protest Chinese thuggery, a spokesman for Nepal’s Home Ministry declared that the government was considering revoking “all the rights granted to Tibetans residing in Nepal,” despite the fact that Nepal’s constitution guarantees such rights as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to all persons, and Nepal’s Supreme Court has ruled that restricting Tibetans’ civil rights is illegal.
An estimated twenty thousand Tibetan refugees now live in Nepal, mostly in settlements established after the 1959 invasion of Lhasa by the People’s Liberation Army prompted many Tibetans to flee. For the next thirty years, Nepal welcomed Tibetans, and every Tibetan in the country was issued a “refugee identity certificate,” known as an “R.C.” But Kathmandu stopped accepting additional Tibetan refugees in 1989, ceding to pressure from Beijing, and that pressure has been intensifying. Since 1998, the Nepalese government has refused to issue R.C.s to Tibetans, including children born in Nepal to refugee parents who’ve been residing in the country for decades.
The upshot is that a generation of Tibetans who’ve spent their entire lives in Nepal don’t exist as far as the Nepalese bureaucracy is concerned. Lacking R.C.s, these young refugees cannot obtain driver’s licenses, apply for jobs, or open bank accounts. It is difficult or impossible for them to attend Nepalese schools. Without an R.C., a Tibetan has no legal right to remain in Nepal and may be deported to China at any time—yet Kathmandu refuses to provide these refugees with travel documents that would allow them to immigrate to nations such as the U.S., Canada, and India, where they have been offered asylum.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was slated to travel to Kathmandu on December 19th for an official state visit, leading a hundred-and-one-member delegation from Beijing. Wen was expected to sign a commitment to provide Nepal with a five-billion-dollar line of credit—in return for promises from Nepal to clamp down even harder on Tibetan refugees. At the last minute, however, Beijing postponed the visit indefinitely; according to an official quoted by AFP, the delay had to do with security concerns, specifically the “possibility of protests from Tibetan exiles.” The Chinese ambassador to Kathmandu, Yang Houlan, had previously warned that “Nepal is turning into a playground for anti-China activities,” prompting speculation that Beijing is using the postponement of Wen’s visit as a cudgel to discourage Nepal from softening its policies toward Tibetan refugees.
At a refugee settlement outside the city of Pokhara, a Tibetan in his twenties proposed a simple step to dial down the tension: “If the government is worried about Tibetans threatening Nepal’s security, give us R.C.s.” Such a move would be win-win for all parties, he suggested, because it would allow the authorities to “know what we are doing, and we can get education and jobs.”
“How would it harm China for me to have an identity card?” a Tibetan teen-ager wondered at another refugee settlement. “I was born in Nepal. I’m seventeen years old. All I want is the opportunity for education and a job. How does denying me such things help anyone?”
He has a point. Nepal’s bullying of its Tibetan community is more likely to incite unrest inside China than to dampen it. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly and unequivocally stated that he and his followers “do not seek independence for Tibet.” But few Chinese trust such assurances from a man their leaders have long characterized as a conniving monster. Beijing is adamant that granting concessions to any Tibetans, even Tibetans in exile, poses a dire threat. The great fear is that Tibetan dissent will inflame other ethnic groups inside China, initiating a chain reaction that culminates in the People’s Republic suffering the same fate as the Soviet Union. Given Chinese perceptions of what’s at stake, and Beijing’s ability to purchase apparently limitless influence in Kathmandu, the future doesn’t look bright for Tibetan youth now coming of age in Nepal.
Photograph by Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images.
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Keywords
China;
Nepal;
Tibet
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I would like to see these alleged statements by the US lauding the Nepalese government's handling the Tibetan situation in Nepal. Earlier this year, in the "2010 Human Rights Report) released by the State Department, the report condemned the Nepalese Government for confirmed reports of the Nepalese government returning Tibetans to Chinese occupied Tibet. What sort of government returns refugees to the country they are fleeing from, fully aware of what will happen to them once they are in the hands of such repressive authorities? The Maoists and UPN-CML reneged on the "Gentleman's Agreement" in 2008, as cited in the article "Nepal Deporting Tibetans to China Secretly" in the "Indian Defense Review" issue of April 15, 2011, or read more about this and other articles concerning Nepal and Tibet at dwhammerblog.blogspot.com.
Posted 12/29/2011, 7:26:24pm by dwh
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Oh please "JRINALDI" you are too much of an apologist. I have no view on Tibetan independence, but the fact that Nepalese police are robbing and raping Tibetans is a bit over-the-top no? Or is that the Nepalese police are only raping 30% of the refugees, while the Chinese government is demanding that they rob and rape 100%?
Posted 12/29/2011, 2:33:22pm by PxP
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No, the UN Agreement has stipulated that Tibetans be allowed to transit through Nepal to India. The sticking point is that Nepal does not, in its constitution, recognize refugees as a valid, existential and political status. From what I have read the US Government has not indicated that they feel that the Nepalese government is doing a "good" job, and have, in fact, registered deep concern over the treatment of Tibetan refugees in Nepal. I live part time in Nepal, and have assisted Tibetan refugees at the Tarshi Palkhiel Refugee Camp outside of Pokhara, and I can attest from personal experience that what Mr. Krakauer states here is spot on. Prachanda, the Maoist leader, offered a few years ago to send refugees back to Tibet, a violation of many UN Human Rights agreements that the Nepalese government has signed on to. There have been videos taken of Chinese border guards shooting Tibetan refugees attempting to cross into Nepal in the Himalaya. Nepalese police brutalized pro-Tibet protesters during the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in Kathmandu and Lalitpur. I helped a Tibetan family relocate from the refugee camp, to the US, and on to Canada, and though the husband, like many Tibetans of his generation, was born in Nepal in the refugee camp (he is 43 now), and had the right to residency status, he was never granted this status, and the government let it be known that it would cost thousands of dollars to have his status readjusted, on top of the regular fees. Almost everyone of his generation in the camp, and outside of it, born in exile in Nepal, cannot get their ID cards, and therefor exist in legal limbo: they cannot work, own land, even travel. Really, the list of crimes and prejudicial acts against Tibetans, legally residing in the country, and those of Tibetan origins, such as the Tamang, Sherpas, and others, is too long to reiterate. But the assertion that China, through the Maoist Party in Nepal, is trying to control Nepal's domestic policy, is undeniable. The International Campaign for Tibet has had its Nepal workforce team detained and beaten up by Chinese government squads IN Nepal. Why should the US worry about irritating a "volatile" China, when their policy towards Tibet, and those who are in a position to help Tibetans, has been perfectly clear for the past 60 years - exterminate Tibet. I suspect that part of China's contempt for Nepal's right to sovereignity stems from the fact that the Nepalese Government allowed the CIA to train Khampa guerillas, and launch attacks, from Mustang, a semi-autonomous region in Nepal, up until Nixon signed detente with Mao, then disbanded the entire operation, but now I'm getting a little off track. In short, China cries foul when it deems that foreign powers are meddling in its internal affairs. Yet it is doing the same here to Nepal, but some posters condemn Americans for "irritating" the Chinese - is this our biggest concern in foreign affairs? Maybe himalayanaid.org receives significant funding from the Chinese.
Posted 12/29/2011, 12:55:41pm by dwh
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Your assessment is fundamentally incorrect in one key aspect: The UN agreement, as it is, simply stipulates that transiting Tibetans that are captured by Nepali forces in Nepal are to be turned over to the UNHCR for a determination of status. It is tremendously irresponsible and dangerous to put forward the idea that Nepal must somehow guarantee safe passage for Tibetans. Such false assertions irritate a volatile China which in turn pressures Nepal to increase its oppression of Tibetans. It would certainly have benefited your level of accuracy here if you would have done a bit of research on the U.S. position regarding this issue as offered by Ambassador Scott DeLisi. You would have uncovered the fact that the U.S. believes Nepal is doing a good job in handling Tibetans considering the tremendous pressures exerted upon their efforts by a China that seeks a more repressive treatment. James Rinaldi himalayanaid.org
Posted 12/28/2011, 8:32:34pm by JRinaldi
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Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/why-is-nepal-cracking-down-on-tibetan-refugees.html#ixzz1hyShjz00
Notes on Washington and the world by the staff of The New Yorker.
.
« Ben Nelson and the Politics of Pork and Polarization
Main
To-Do List: Betrayal in the Bachmann Camp? »
December 28, 2011
Why Is Nepal Cracking Down on Tibetan Refugees?
Posted by Jon Krakauer
Friction between Chinese authorities and the five million Tibetans who live within the borders of China is on the rise, and nowhere is the strife more apparent than in the neighboring nation of Nepal. Last month in Kathmandu, I spoke with five young Tibetans who had just journeyed across the Himalayas to escape draconian policies imposed by the Beijing government in their homeland. More than six hundred Tibetans have fled to Nepal this year, even though it’s a dangerous undertaking. Asylum seekers have lost limbs to frostbite, perished in blizzards, and been arrested by Chinese border patrols. Some have been shot. The youngest of the refugees I met was a fourteen-year-old girl. She was aware of the hazards but lit out for the border anyway, hoping that if she made it into Nepal she’d find safe passage to India, where in 1959 the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government-in-exile, and where more than a hundred thousand Tibetan refugees presently reside.
According to an informal arrangement hammered out twenty-two years ago between the government of Nepal and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (U.N.H.C.R.), Kathmandu pledged to allow Tibetans to travel through Nepal en route to India, and to facilitate their transit. Lately, however, this established protocol has been ignored with increasing frequency. Nepalese police have been apprehending Tibetans far inside Nepal, robbing them, and then returning them to Tibet at gunpoint, where they are typically imprisoned and not uncommonly tortured by the Chinese. According to “Tibet’s Stateless Nationals,” a hundred-and-thirty-three-page report issued by the Tibet Justice Center, a relatively small number of these Tibetans have been beaten, raped, and/or shot by the Nepalese police—abuses confirmed by several refugees with whom I spoke during my recent visit to Nepal.
These violations of the U.N.H.C.R. agreement and international law were bought and paid for by Beijing. According to a confidential U.S. embassy cable published by WikiLeaks in 2010, China “rewards [Nepalese forces] by providing financial incentives to officers who hand over Tibetans attempting to exit China.” Another cable stated, “Beijing has asked Kathmandu to step up patrols … and make it more difficult for Tibetans to enter Nepal.”
With an annual per capita income of $645—less than two dollars a day—Nepal is desperate for whatever alms China offers, never mind the strings attached. In 2009, Beijing promised to promote tourism to Nepal, invest in major Nepalese hydropower projects, and increase its financial assistance by approximately eighteen million dollars annually. In return, Kathmandu pledged to endorse Beijing’s “one-China policy” (which decrees that both Taiwan and Tibet are “inalienable parts of Chinese territory”) and to prohibit “anti-Chinese activities” within Nepal. Activities deemed unacceptable include gathering for prayers on the birthday of the Dalai Lama and displaying the Tibetan flag. On November 10th, after a Buddhist monk in Kathmandu doused his robes with kerosene and ignited himself to protest Chinese thuggery, a spokesman for Nepal’s Home Ministry declared that the government was considering revoking “all the rights granted to Tibetans residing in Nepal,” despite the fact that Nepal’s constitution guarantees such rights as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to all persons, and Nepal’s Supreme Court has ruled that restricting Tibetans’ civil rights is illegal.
An estimated twenty thousand Tibetan refugees now live in Nepal, mostly in settlements established after the 1959 invasion of Lhasa by the People’s Liberation Army prompted many Tibetans to flee. For the next thirty years, Nepal welcomed Tibetans, and every Tibetan in the country was issued a “refugee identity certificate,” known as an “R.C.” But Kathmandu stopped accepting additional Tibetan refugees in 1989, ceding to pressure from Beijing, and that pressure has been intensifying. Since 1998, the Nepalese government has refused to issue R.C.s to Tibetans, including children born in Nepal to refugee parents who’ve been residing in the country for decades.
The upshot is that a generation of Tibetans who’ve spent their entire lives in Nepal don’t exist as far as the Nepalese bureaucracy is concerned. Lacking R.C.s, these young refugees cannot obtain driver’s licenses, apply for jobs, or open bank accounts. It is difficult or impossible for them to attend Nepalese schools. Without an R.C., a Tibetan has no legal right to remain in Nepal and may be deported to China at any time—yet Kathmandu refuses to provide these refugees with travel documents that would allow them to immigrate to nations such as the U.S., Canada, and India, where they have been offered asylum.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was slated to travel to Kathmandu on December 19th for an official state visit, leading a hundred-and-one-member delegation from Beijing. Wen was expected to sign a commitment to provide Nepal with a five-billion-dollar line of credit—in return for promises from Nepal to clamp down even harder on Tibetan refugees. At the last minute, however, Beijing postponed the visit indefinitely; according to an official quoted by AFP, the delay had to do with security concerns, specifically the “possibility of protests from Tibetan exiles.” The Chinese ambassador to Kathmandu, Yang Houlan, had previously warned that “Nepal is turning into a playground for anti-China activities,” prompting speculation that Beijing is using the postponement of Wen’s visit as a cudgel to discourage Nepal from softening its policies toward Tibetan refugees.
At a refugee settlement outside the city of Pokhara, a Tibetan in his twenties proposed a simple step to dial down the tension: “If the government is worried about Tibetans threatening Nepal’s security, give us R.C.s.” Such a move would be win-win for all parties, he suggested, because it would allow the authorities to “know what we are doing, and we can get education and jobs.”
“How would it harm China for me to have an identity card?” a Tibetan teen-ager wondered at another refugee settlement. “I was born in Nepal. I’m seventeen years old. All I want is the opportunity for education and a job. How does denying me such things help anyone?”
He has a point. Nepal’s bullying of its Tibetan community is more likely to incite unrest inside China than to dampen it. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly and unequivocally stated that he and his followers “do not seek independence for Tibet.” But few Chinese trust such assurances from a man their leaders have long characterized as a conniving monster. Beijing is adamant that granting concessions to any Tibetans, even Tibetans in exile, poses a dire threat. The great fear is that Tibetan dissent will inflame other ethnic groups inside China, initiating a chain reaction that culminates in the People’s Republic suffering the same fate as the Soviet Union. Given Chinese perceptions of what’s at stake, and Beijing’s ability to purchase apparently limitless influence in Kathmandu, the future doesn’t look bright for Tibetan youth now coming of age in Nepal.
Photograph by Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images.
.
Keywords
China;
Nepal;
Tibet
POSTED IN
News Desk
6
Comments
6 comments |
I would like to see these alleged statements by the US lauding the Nepalese government's handling the Tibetan situation in Nepal. Earlier this year, in the "2010 Human Rights Report) released by the State Department, the report condemned the Nepalese Government for confirmed reports of the Nepalese government returning Tibetans to Chinese occupied Tibet. What sort of government returns refugees to the country they are fleeing from, fully aware of what will happen to them once they are in the hands of such repressive authorities? The Maoists and UPN-CML reneged on the "Gentleman's Agreement" in 2008, as cited in the article "Nepal Deporting Tibetans to China Secretly" in the "Indian Defense Review" issue of April 15, 2011, or read more about this and other articles concerning Nepal and Tibet at dwhammerblog.blogspot.com.
Posted 12/29/2011, 7:26:24pm by dwh
Report abuse
Oh please "JRINALDI" you are too much of an apologist. I have no view on Tibetan independence, but the fact that Nepalese police are robbing and raping Tibetans is a bit over-the-top no? Or is that the Nepalese police are only raping 30% of the refugees, while the Chinese government is demanding that they rob and rape 100%?
Posted 12/29/2011, 2:33:22pm by PxP
Report abuse
No, the UN Agreement has stipulated that Tibetans be allowed to transit through Nepal to India. The sticking point is that Nepal does not, in its constitution, recognize refugees as a valid, existential and political status. From what I have read the US Government has not indicated that they feel that the Nepalese government is doing a "good" job, and have, in fact, registered deep concern over the treatment of Tibetan refugees in Nepal. I live part time in Nepal, and have assisted Tibetan refugees at the Tarshi Palkhiel Refugee Camp outside of Pokhara, and I can attest from personal experience that what Mr. Krakauer states here is spot on. Prachanda, the Maoist leader, offered a few years ago to send refugees back to Tibet, a violation of many UN Human Rights agreements that the Nepalese government has signed on to. There have been videos taken of Chinese border guards shooting Tibetan refugees attempting to cross into Nepal in the Himalaya. Nepalese police brutalized pro-Tibet protesters during the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in Kathmandu and Lalitpur. I helped a Tibetan family relocate from the refugee camp, to the US, and on to Canada, and though the husband, like many Tibetans of his generation, was born in Nepal in the refugee camp (he is 43 now), and had the right to residency status, he was never granted this status, and the government let it be known that it would cost thousands of dollars to have his status readjusted, on top of the regular fees. Almost everyone of his generation in the camp, and outside of it, born in exile in Nepal, cannot get their ID cards, and therefor exist in legal limbo: they cannot work, own land, even travel. Really, the list of crimes and prejudicial acts against Tibetans, legally residing in the country, and those of Tibetan origins, such as the Tamang, Sherpas, and others, is too long to reiterate. But the assertion that China, through the Maoist Party in Nepal, is trying to control Nepal's domestic policy, is undeniable. The International Campaign for Tibet has had its Nepal workforce team detained and beaten up by Chinese government squads IN Nepal. Why should the US worry about irritating a "volatile" China, when their policy towards Tibet, and those who are in a position to help Tibetans, has been perfectly clear for the past 60 years - exterminate Tibet. I suspect that part of China's contempt for Nepal's right to sovereignity stems from the fact that the Nepalese Government allowed the CIA to train Khampa guerillas, and launch attacks, from Mustang, a semi-autonomous region in Nepal, up until Nixon signed detente with Mao, then disbanded the entire operation, but now I'm getting a little off track. In short, China cries foul when it deems that foreign powers are meddling in its internal affairs. Yet it is doing the same here to Nepal, but some posters condemn Americans for "irritating" the Chinese - is this our biggest concern in foreign affairs? Maybe himalayanaid.org receives significant funding from the Chinese.
Posted 12/29/2011, 12:55:41pm by dwh
Report abuse
Your assessment is fundamentally incorrect in one key aspect: The UN agreement, as it is, simply stipulates that transiting Tibetans that are captured by Nepali forces in Nepal are to be turned over to the UNHCR for a determination of status. It is tremendously irresponsible and dangerous to put forward the idea that Nepal must somehow guarantee safe passage for Tibetans. Such false assertions irritate a volatile China which in turn pressures Nepal to increase its oppression of Tibetans. It would certainly have benefited your level of accuracy here if you would have done a bit of research on the U.S. position regarding this issue as offered by Ambassador Scott DeLisi. You would have uncovered the fact that the U.S. believes Nepal is doing a good job in handling Tibetans considering the tremendous pressures exerted upon their efforts by a China that seeks a more repressive treatment. James Rinaldi himalayanaid.org
Posted 12/28/2011, 8:32:34pm by JRinaldi
Report abuse
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/why-is-nepal-cracking-down-on-tibetan-refugees.html#ixzz1hyShjz00
Big Trouble in Little Nepal
Big Trouble in Little Nepal
It’s the dry season now in Nepal, stretching from the end of the monsoon in early September until the humid and moisture-laden clouds start pushing into the country from the south in late spring. In between, little to no snow or rainfall disturbs this land-locked mountainous country. But something has been ruffling the political climate in the country, creeping through the Himalayas, that impassible physical barrier that forms a giant barrier along the northern edge of the country. The clumsy hand of Chinese politics, like a puppeteer working the instruments of Nepalese domestic policy, has manipulated Nepal’s treatment of its Tibetan residents – legal and refugees – in the country to the point where the message is clear to the Tibetans, and to others: do not criticize China or you will be dealt with harshly. Beatings and imprisonment have become common, often carried out not only by the Nepalese police, but by agents of the Chinese government working inside Nepal. This, despite a UN “gentleman’s agreement” that allows Tibetan refugees to pass through Nepal on their way to India (China Brief Volume: 11 Issue: 11; J. Vijay Sakhuja; “China’s Strategic Advantage in Nepal”).
This, among other topics, was discussed at an Executive Annual Meeting of the International Campaign for Tibet in San Francisco on Wednesday December 8th, at the Urban Center on Mission Street. The Special Envoy to his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari, spoke, along with ICT Vice President Mary Beth Markey, and others, to a group of ICT members. Ms. Markey, in detailing ICT’s activities around the world, especially in light of the recent spate of immolations by Tibetans in Tibet, Western China and Nepal, addressed the extreme pressure being put on the Nepalese government to silence Tibetans in their country, and to deny Tibetan refugees entrance. Nepal, situated as it is between the two Asian giants of India and China, now more than ever before, finds itself caught in a vice between the two countries, both attempting to secure Nepal within their respective domains of influence. Historically, due to its Hindu and Buddhist populations (the former around 80% of the total population, the latter at least 8%), the plain fact that Nepali, the national language, derives from Hindi and ultimately Sanskrit, economic, cultural and social ties, India has played the role of the mother ship, from which all things emanate (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/asia-oceania/nepal/). China, walled off by the Himalayas, has historically been relegated to the sidelines. But this all started to change dramatically about five years ago.
With the ascendancy of the Nepalese Maoist Party, now the largest of Nepal’s over 20 political parties, China saw an opportunity to get their foot in the door. The dragon has been generous in economic support, but as usual with China, there is a price. That price is toeing the line on the “One China Policy” dogma espoused by the CCP, which states that Tibet never existed – it was always China – and that anything that the Chinese Politburo deems as being against this policy cannot be tolerated. The crackdowns on pro-Tibet protests in Kathmandu and its sister city of Lalitpur have been numerous, and ongoing since before the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Maoist’s eagerness to follow Beijing’s dictates has led them to abandon the 2008 “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” as detailed in the April 15, 2011 issue of the Indian Defense Review, in the article “Nepal Deporting Tibetans to China Secretly” by Nidhi Bardwaj:
But the political ascendancy of Nepalese Maoist and Communist parties and their assertion of “One-China” policy, Kathmandu dumped the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in 2008. The government stopped giving refugee status to Tibetans and with this they lost their right to safe passage through Nepal. In fact, Nepalese police and Maoist cadres were ordered to spot and arrest Tibetan refugees escaping into Northern Nepal, and hand them over to the immigration authorities.
Nepal, formerly an independent country, is now becoming a puppet state controlled by the Chinese, turning their backs on their historic partners in South Asia, namely India, and in the process also rejecting basic human rights agreements that they have signed on to.
This brings us to the case of Tibetans burning themselves as an act of protest against Chinese occupation of their homeland, acts that testify to the Tibetan spirit in the face of 60 years of oppression. These should be read rightfully as acts of desperation, but also as symbols of an unshakeable belief in Tibetan rights to self-determination, freedom and basic human rights. Demonstrations have been held in Kathmandu by Tibetan refugees and residents, mainly in Jawlakhel, Lalitpur, and demonstrators showing their solidarity with pro-Tibetan freedom sympathizers were beaten and jailed. Ms. Markey, at the meeting, also detailed how one of their support teams was corralled by a group of Chinese political operatives, dragged into a van and beaten. And this is only the latest example of Chinese pressure on Nepal to toe the party line.
I lived in Nepal during 2008 and 2009, and had spent time in the country before then, back to the time of the People’s Revolution toppling King Gyanendra in the spring of 2006. A similar situation played out during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics of 2008, when pro-Tibet demonstrations – which the Chinese government depicts as the emanations of “splittist” anti-China agitators – were also attacked by government police in Nepal, with demonstrators beaten and jailed. In fact, in the past few years, the Maoist led government in Nepal has reacted in lock-step to Chinese pressure, and whenever an upwelling of pro-Tibetan activities have occurred, the red faction of the Nepalese government applies force without regard to freedom of speech or human rights. At least 20,000 Tibetan refugees live in Nepal, most of them without the right to work, and own land, farm or other basic rights – rights which are guaranteed by the Nepalese Constitution. Additionally, historically, virtually all of the northern half of the country – north of the Himalayas and to the south as well – are areas where the indigenous populations – the Sherpas, Bon-po, Tamangs and others – are of Tibetan descent. But under the current government, you wouldn’t know this. As Chinese money and influence pours into the country, Nepalese government oppression of the Tibetans within their own country becomes more openly draconian. With a wretched national economy, depleted by years of civil war, and one of the most corrupt governments in the world – whether ruled by a King, the Maoists, the UPN-CML or Nepali Congress, it’s the same “pocket” economy – perhaps it is understandable that the government would cave in to any foreign power willing to devote large amounts of aid. That this aid comes with such a heavy ideological, and human price, is something that clearly matters little to Prachanda and his fellow Maoists.
It is high time for the US government to step up and do something. The US government decries oppression and genocide in Sudan, in the Balkans, in Burma, in many countries around the world, and moves to pressure governments to cease such policies. It’s time for the US government to apply such pressure on Nepal, before the situation grows direr. For to ignore such developments, wherever they might occur, in the long run, only validates them, and makes it easier for oppressive governments to continue their atrocious actions. We should make it clear that aid to Nepal, and visas for students and workers seeking to come to the US, will be severely curtailed, until the Nepalese government allows Tibetan refugees Tibetan citizens of Nepal the full rights to demonstrate for their beliefs – as is allowed to all other citizens in Nepal – and give them full residential rights, transit rights, employment and land ownership rights. Unless pressurized, the Nepalese leadership will continue their drift towards becoming a willing satellite of Chinese foreign policy.
Notes and sources
Religion(s): Officially 80% Hindu, 8% Buddhist and 4% Muslim – but accurate figures are not available. Hinduism and Buddhism overlap considerably in Nepal. Estimates suggest that there are some 400,000 Christians in the country. United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office. http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/asia-oceania/nepal/
In the past, the Nepalese police and government officials had worked closely with the UNHCR and agreed to abide by a ‘Gentlemen's Agreement,’ “an informal compact established in 1989 with the UNHCR thus ensuring a safe transit for Tibetan refugees through Nepal and onward to India” [7]. This arrangement had worked well before the Nepalese Maoist and Communist parties gained political ascendency in 2008. Since then, there has been a sharp decline in the number of Tibetan refugees registering at reception centers in Kathmandu. China’s Strategic Advantage in Nepal
Publication: China Brief Volume: 11 Issue: 11
June 17, 2011 06:19 PM
By: Vijay Sakhuja C:\Users\David\Desktop\Writing and Blog\The Jamestown Foundation China’s Strategic Advantage in Nepal.mht
A former Nepalese ambassador to China has noted that, “China's concerns over Nepal are growing” and that “the visit [of General Chen Bingde, chief of general staff of the PLA] shows that China wants the support of our army to control anti-Chinese activities following the resignation of the Dalai Lama” (Thetibetpost.com, March 28). It is also reported that China may be secretly giving financial incentives and paying Nepalese officials to arrest and deport Tibetans in Nepal (Indian Express, December 20, 2010). On March 10, the Nepalese police arrested 34 protesters after thousands of Tibetan refugees marched through the streets of Kathmandu to commemorate the Chinese invasion of Tibet of 1951 (Asia-news.us, March 18). The next day, Nepalese police prevented a prayer meeting at the Buddhist temple in Kathmandu, and two days later on February 13, the police stormed into polling stations and seized ballots and other electoral material for Tibetan community internal elections to vote for a new Tibetan Government in Exile (Thetibetpost.com, March 28). The Nepalese government has been under great pressure to control Tibetan refugees in Nepal, and the chief district officer of Sindhupalchowk was quoted as saying “They [the Chinese] urged us not to allow anti-Chinese activities [on] our soil' (TIME, March 29). It is quite evident that China has been able to prevail upon the Nepalese government to ensure that anti-China activities by the Tibetan refugees are sternly dealt with.
….
First, Beijing has obtained assurances from the Nepalese leadership that the territory would not be used by the Tibetan refugees living in Nepal for anti-China activities. This issue is particularly significant when there is a ‘Free Tibet’ movement spreading across the globe and China has been under international scrutiny over human rights issues, particularly against the Tibetans.
Same source as above
When Chen Bingde, the Chinese army chief, and his 15-member delegation landed in Kathmandu on March 23, 2011, he brought him a loyalty-trust proposal for the pro-China ruling coalition of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) aka CPN-UML and the Unified Communist Party (Maoist) under Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal.
Bingde laid down a clear cut proposal: Deport Tibetan refugees to China to prevent the rise of a militant Tibetan émigré force. Nepal deporting Tibetans to China secretly
By Nidhi Bhardwaj
Issue: Net Edition | Date: 15 April, 2011 http://www.indiandefencereview.com/
It’s the dry season now in Nepal, stretching from the end of the monsoon in early September until the humid and moisture-laden clouds start pushing into the country from the south in late spring. In between, little to no snow or rainfall disturbs this land-locked mountainous country. But something has been ruffling the political climate in the country, creeping through the Himalayas, that impassible physical barrier that forms a giant barrier along the northern edge of the country. The clumsy hand of Chinese politics, like a puppeteer working the instruments of Nepalese domestic policy, has manipulated Nepal’s treatment of its Tibetan residents – legal and refugees – in the country to the point where the message is clear to the Tibetans, and to others: do not criticize China or you will be dealt with harshly. Beatings and imprisonment have become common, often carried out not only by the Nepalese police, but by agents of the Chinese government working inside Nepal. This, despite a UN “gentleman’s agreement” that allows Tibetan refugees to pass through Nepal on their way to India (China Brief Volume: 11 Issue: 11; J. Vijay Sakhuja; “China’s Strategic Advantage in Nepal”).
This, among other topics, was discussed at an Executive Annual Meeting of the International Campaign for Tibet in San Francisco on Wednesday December 8th, at the Urban Center on Mission Street. The Special Envoy to his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari, spoke, along with ICT Vice President Mary Beth Markey, and others, to a group of ICT members. Ms. Markey, in detailing ICT’s activities around the world, especially in light of the recent spate of immolations by Tibetans in Tibet, Western China and Nepal, addressed the extreme pressure being put on the Nepalese government to silence Tibetans in their country, and to deny Tibetan refugees entrance. Nepal, situated as it is between the two Asian giants of India and China, now more than ever before, finds itself caught in a vice between the two countries, both attempting to secure Nepal within their respective domains of influence. Historically, due to its Hindu and Buddhist populations (the former around 80% of the total population, the latter at least 8%), the plain fact that Nepali, the national language, derives from Hindi and ultimately Sanskrit, economic, cultural and social ties, India has played the role of the mother ship, from which all things emanate (http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/asia-oceania/nepal/). China, walled off by the Himalayas, has historically been relegated to the sidelines. But this all started to change dramatically about five years ago.
With the ascendancy of the Nepalese Maoist Party, now the largest of Nepal’s over 20 political parties, China saw an opportunity to get their foot in the door. The dragon has been generous in economic support, but as usual with China, there is a price. That price is toeing the line on the “One China Policy” dogma espoused by the CCP, which states that Tibet never existed – it was always China – and that anything that the Chinese Politburo deems as being against this policy cannot be tolerated. The crackdowns on pro-Tibet protests in Kathmandu and its sister city of Lalitpur have been numerous, and ongoing since before the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Maoist’s eagerness to follow Beijing’s dictates has led them to abandon the 2008 “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” as detailed in the April 15, 2011 issue of the Indian Defense Review, in the article “Nepal Deporting Tibetans to China Secretly” by Nidhi Bardwaj:
But the political ascendancy of Nepalese Maoist and Communist parties and their assertion of “One-China” policy, Kathmandu dumped the “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in 2008. The government stopped giving refugee status to Tibetans and with this they lost their right to safe passage through Nepal. In fact, Nepalese police and Maoist cadres were ordered to spot and arrest Tibetan refugees escaping into Northern Nepal, and hand them over to the immigration authorities.
Nepal, formerly an independent country, is now becoming a puppet state controlled by the Chinese, turning their backs on their historic partners in South Asia, namely India, and in the process also rejecting basic human rights agreements that they have signed on to.
This brings us to the case of Tibetans burning themselves as an act of protest against Chinese occupation of their homeland, acts that testify to the Tibetan spirit in the face of 60 years of oppression. These should be read rightfully as acts of desperation, but also as symbols of an unshakeable belief in Tibetan rights to self-determination, freedom and basic human rights. Demonstrations have been held in Kathmandu by Tibetan refugees and residents, mainly in Jawlakhel, Lalitpur, and demonstrators showing their solidarity with pro-Tibetan freedom sympathizers were beaten and jailed. Ms. Markey, at the meeting, also detailed how one of their support teams was corralled by a group of Chinese political operatives, dragged into a van and beaten. And this is only the latest example of Chinese pressure on Nepal to toe the party line.
I lived in Nepal during 2008 and 2009, and had spent time in the country before then, back to the time of the People’s Revolution toppling King Gyanendra in the spring of 2006. A similar situation played out during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics of 2008, when pro-Tibet demonstrations – which the Chinese government depicts as the emanations of “splittist” anti-China agitators – were also attacked by government police in Nepal, with demonstrators beaten and jailed. In fact, in the past few years, the Maoist led government in Nepal has reacted in lock-step to Chinese pressure, and whenever an upwelling of pro-Tibetan activities have occurred, the red faction of the Nepalese government applies force without regard to freedom of speech or human rights. At least 20,000 Tibetan refugees live in Nepal, most of them without the right to work, and own land, farm or other basic rights – rights which are guaranteed by the Nepalese Constitution. Additionally, historically, virtually all of the northern half of the country – north of the Himalayas and to the south as well – are areas where the indigenous populations – the Sherpas, Bon-po, Tamangs and others – are of Tibetan descent. But under the current government, you wouldn’t know this. As Chinese money and influence pours into the country, Nepalese government oppression of the Tibetans within their own country becomes more openly draconian. With a wretched national economy, depleted by years of civil war, and one of the most corrupt governments in the world – whether ruled by a King, the Maoists, the UPN-CML or Nepali Congress, it’s the same “pocket” economy – perhaps it is understandable that the government would cave in to any foreign power willing to devote large amounts of aid. That this aid comes with such a heavy ideological, and human price, is something that clearly matters little to Prachanda and his fellow Maoists.
It is high time for the US government to step up and do something. The US government decries oppression and genocide in Sudan, in the Balkans, in Burma, in many countries around the world, and moves to pressure governments to cease such policies. It’s time for the US government to apply such pressure on Nepal, before the situation grows direr. For to ignore such developments, wherever they might occur, in the long run, only validates them, and makes it easier for oppressive governments to continue their atrocious actions. We should make it clear that aid to Nepal, and visas for students and workers seeking to come to the US, will be severely curtailed, until the Nepalese government allows Tibetan refugees Tibetan citizens of Nepal the full rights to demonstrate for their beliefs – as is allowed to all other citizens in Nepal – and give them full residential rights, transit rights, employment and land ownership rights. Unless pressurized, the Nepalese leadership will continue their drift towards becoming a willing satellite of Chinese foreign policy.
Notes and sources
Religion(s): Officially 80% Hindu, 8% Buddhist and 4% Muslim – but accurate figures are not available. Hinduism and Buddhism overlap considerably in Nepal. Estimates suggest that there are some 400,000 Christians in the country. United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office. http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/asia-oceania/nepal/
In the past, the Nepalese police and government officials had worked closely with the UNHCR and agreed to abide by a ‘Gentlemen's Agreement,’ “an informal compact established in 1989 with the UNHCR thus ensuring a safe transit for Tibetan refugees through Nepal and onward to India” [7]. This arrangement had worked well before the Nepalese Maoist and Communist parties gained political ascendency in 2008. Since then, there has been a sharp decline in the number of Tibetan refugees registering at reception centers in Kathmandu. China’s Strategic Advantage in Nepal
Publication: China Brief Volume: 11 Issue: 11
June 17, 2011 06:19 PM
By: Vijay Sakhuja C:\Users\David\Desktop\Writing and Blog\The Jamestown Foundation China’s Strategic Advantage in Nepal.mht
A former Nepalese ambassador to China has noted that, “China's concerns over Nepal are growing” and that “the visit [of General Chen Bingde, chief of general staff of the PLA] shows that China wants the support of our army to control anti-Chinese activities following the resignation of the Dalai Lama” (Thetibetpost.com, March 28). It is also reported that China may be secretly giving financial incentives and paying Nepalese officials to arrest and deport Tibetans in Nepal (Indian Express, December 20, 2010). On March 10, the Nepalese police arrested 34 protesters after thousands of Tibetan refugees marched through the streets of Kathmandu to commemorate the Chinese invasion of Tibet of 1951 (Asia-news.us, March 18). The next day, Nepalese police prevented a prayer meeting at the Buddhist temple in Kathmandu, and two days later on February 13, the police stormed into polling stations and seized ballots and other electoral material for Tibetan community internal elections to vote for a new Tibetan Government in Exile (Thetibetpost.com, March 28). The Nepalese government has been under great pressure to control Tibetan refugees in Nepal, and the chief district officer of Sindhupalchowk was quoted as saying “They [the Chinese] urged us not to allow anti-Chinese activities [on] our soil' (TIME, March 29). It is quite evident that China has been able to prevail upon the Nepalese government to ensure that anti-China activities by the Tibetan refugees are sternly dealt with.
….
First, Beijing has obtained assurances from the Nepalese leadership that the territory would not be used by the Tibetan refugees living in Nepal for anti-China activities. This issue is particularly significant when there is a ‘Free Tibet’ movement spreading across the globe and China has been under international scrutiny over human rights issues, particularly against the Tibetans.
Same source as above
When Chen Bingde, the Chinese army chief, and his 15-member delegation landed in Kathmandu on March 23, 2011, he brought him a loyalty-trust proposal for the pro-China ruling coalition of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) aka CPN-UML and the Unified Communist Party (Maoist) under Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal.
Bingde laid down a clear cut proposal: Deport Tibetan refugees to China to prevent the rise of a militant Tibetan émigré force. Nepal deporting Tibetans to China secretly
By Nidhi Bhardwaj
Issue: Net Edition | Date: 15 April, 2011 http://www.indiandefencereview.com/
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Just when you thought ...
Just when you thought that the organized, city by city, responses across the US to evict, squash and silence the Occupy movement had to be more than a coincidence, you find out you were right! Read this article from columnist Naomi Wolf in the Guardian (the best online newspaper in the UK or the US). Our system is hopelessly corrupt, and it is exactly movements like Occupy that are needed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy
Thursday, November 24, 2011
My favorite style icon - Queen Jetsun Pema of Bhutan
She was married only some six weeks ago. As with many royal marriages her lineage also eminates from the aristocracy of this small, Eastern Himalayan kingdom, reputedly the happiest country on earth. And with a queen like this, who wouldn't be happy. Tibetan style chuba, but unlike any chuba I have ever seen. Beautiful fabrics and patterns -
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Tibetan suicides continued ...
This appeared on the International Campaign for Tibet's website. Why is it that this is getting absolutely zero press play? I read the SF Chronicle, and I have seen pretty much nothing. I honestly cannot remember reading anything there. Likewise the NY Times, the alleged leader in US journalism. The Guardian ... hmmmm .... Why is this? Has the Chinese government's control over press coverage become so effective and accepted that even when the citizens of an occupied territory set themselves on fire very few outsiders, and no governments, raise their voices in protest. Please spread this story so that more people become aware of this and more pressure is put on Hu and his government to stop the repressive tactics against Tibetans that makes them see suicide as preferable to living under Chinese occupation.
24 October, 2011
http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/tibet-news/ngos-appeal-un-human-rights-chief-over-tibetan-self-immolation-protests
NGOs Appeal to UN Human Rights Chief over Tibetan Self-Immolation Protests
25 October, Amsterdam - Yesterday on the the occasion of the United Nations Day, 27 NGOs from 17 countries submitted the following urgent appeal to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights seeking intervention with the Chinese authorities over the recent self-immolation protests by Tibetans in Tawo and Ngapa:24 October, 2011
http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/tibet-news/ngos-appeal-un-human-rights-chief-over-tibetan-self-immolation-protests
Monday, October 10, 2011
Uhmm, I'll opt for the painful, non-mandatory surgery ... continued
So I've been thinking about this more, and really this is just a litany of complaints about working in secondary education, so if this sounds boring and potentially damaging to your equilibrium, then read no further.
I was teaching in a school district in the East Bay, in a large city just south of where the Raiders live, at a high school that had rampant discipline problems, every year failed to make adequate test progress, and has an ineffective principal and a librarian who made the bulk of personnel decisions. Why, I don't know - evidently it has been this way for a while, and I was only there for two years. There was this immense pressure from certain influential members in the community to do nothing but musicals, oddly enough just like when I taught in Hollister for one year at their high school. And, oddly enough, in both cities the groups pressing for musicals were dominated by members of a certain quasi-Christian cult, the same cabal that a certain Republican presidential candidate associates with. Lets just call them Mermen, a "religion" that, in itself, eschews dancing, music, alcohol, smoking, anything that may be deemed to be part of the Devil's workshop. So what, you might ask, as I did, does a group that denigrates music and dancing have to do with pushing musical theatre down the audience's throat? The leading member of the pro-musical cabal in that city south of the East Bay's largest city was pushing for a Musical Academy. Let me digress by explaining - the high school had a couple of academies - Social Justice, Media Arts - to give students an opportunity to specialize, and have all of their general education classes in that academy rather than mixing in with the general student population. I had let it be known that I thought that a musical academy was not a great idea - I think I equated it to trying to have a balanced diet by eating only white bread, marzipan and drinking just cream soda. And I related a similar situation, when I was at UCLA, where a prominent Hollywood and musical theatre star had passed away, and left a good chunk ( a couple million) of his estate as an endowment to the UCLA School of Theatre to be used only to start a musical theatre program. And there was an immense amount of hand wringing on whether to accept the money, as the faculty was havinga difficult time coming up with a program rigorous enough to be accredited, and approved by the UC. Eventually they did. But that was my concern at this high school.
Now, to get back to why the Mermen like musicals, and want to swamp high school theatre programs with it. Because really, they don't like theatre, or they don't trust it, and want theatre programs they can control, content that is non-threatening - hence musicals. And it is part and parcel of the whole school district's emphasis on traditional, Euro-centric curriculum. The approved reading list for English looks like it was drawn up in the early 50s. You could go through high school and read nothing but Dickens. Its all part and parcel of high school, and the struggle to control curriculum, and theatre is seen as being nothing more that the production of harmless pablum. The problem is that for students who are interested in theatre, or acting and directing, that such a programs does little to nothing to prepare them for undergraduate theatre, or professional theater, unless they just want to do musicals. Which would be like wanting to become a lawyer, but only if you could handle lawsuits only involving ice cream trucks.
More later ... time to eat
I was teaching in a school district in the East Bay, in a large city just south of where the Raiders live, at a high school that had rampant discipline problems, every year failed to make adequate test progress, and has an ineffective principal and a librarian who made the bulk of personnel decisions. Why, I don't know - evidently it has been this way for a while, and I was only there for two years. There was this immense pressure from certain influential members in the community to do nothing but musicals, oddly enough just like when I taught in Hollister for one year at their high school. And, oddly enough, in both cities the groups pressing for musicals were dominated by members of a certain quasi-Christian cult, the same cabal that a certain Republican presidential candidate associates with. Lets just call them Mermen, a "religion" that, in itself, eschews dancing, music, alcohol, smoking, anything that may be deemed to be part of the Devil's workshop. So what, you might ask, as I did, does a group that denigrates music and dancing have to do with pushing musical theatre down the audience's throat? The leading member of the pro-musical cabal in that city south of the East Bay's largest city was pushing for a Musical Academy. Let me digress by explaining - the high school had a couple of academies - Social Justice, Media Arts - to give students an opportunity to specialize, and have all of their general education classes in that academy rather than mixing in with the general student population. I had let it be known that I thought that a musical academy was not a great idea - I think I equated it to trying to have a balanced diet by eating only white bread, marzipan and drinking just cream soda. And I related a similar situation, when I was at UCLA, where a prominent Hollywood and musical theatre star had passed away, and left a good chunk ( a couple million) of his estate as an endowment to the UCLA School of Theatre to be used only to start a musical theatre program. And there was an immense amount of hand wringing on whether to accept the money, as the faculty was havinga difficult time coming up with a program rigorous enough to be accredited, and approved by the UC. Eventually they did. But that was my concern at this high school.
Now, to get back to why the Mermen like musicals, and want to swamp high school theatre programs with it. Because really, they don't like theatre, or they don't trust it, and want theatre programs they can control, content that is non-threatening - hence musicals. And it is part and parcel of the whole school district's emphasis on traditional, Euro-centric curriculum. The approved reading list for English looks like it was drawn up in the early 50s. You could go through high school and read nothing but Dickens. Its all part and parcel of high school, and the struggle to control curriculum, and theatre is seen as being nothing more that the production of harmless pablum. The problem is that for students who are interested in theatre, or acting and directing, that such a programs does little to nothing to prepare them for undergraduate theatre, or professional theater, unless they just want to do musicals. Which would be like wanting to become a lawyer, but only if you could handle lawsuits only involving ice cream trucks.
More later ... time to eat
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
More Tibetan suicides -
Two more Tibetans monks have set themselves on fire, in protest over the Chinese Government's interference in choosing the Dalai Lama's successor. The Chinese Government states that they will choose the successor, that it is their right as they control Tibet, or rather as Xinhua News, the official organ of the Chinese Government would put it, there has never been a Tibet, it has always been China. The Chinese claim they will choose the Dalai Lama's successor - his reincarnation. This has always been done in the past by a select group of abbots and monks, who interpret various astrological signs, portents and natural phenomenon before and after the Dalai Lama's death, in particular during the 49 day period following his death called the bardo. It is a process that can only be done by the most experienced and trained religious figures, experts in divination. These signs lead them to an area where the next Dalai Lama will be born. They can only find the reincarnation after he (or potentially she I guess, though this has never happened) has been born, and has attained a suitable age where the suitable candidates can be tested by choosing between objects that belonged to the former Dalai Lama, and exact replicas.
Now how the Chinese Government, which as a Maoist Democracy (one of my least favorite oxymorons) which has historically denied and denigrated religion, in particular Tibetan Buddhism, can now position itself as a body which is suitable to choose the next leader of Tibetan Buddhism is beyond me. It is the height of hypocracy, akin to the Italian Communist Party declaring that is is the sole body capable of choosing the next Pope. It is infuriating, and just the latest step in China attempting to eradicate Tibetan Buddhism and turn it into a shell of itself, a false religion, and a puppet of the Chinese Government. Tibetans won't stand for it, and it won't work. Read the article to find out more ...
http://savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/two-more-tibetan-monks-kirti-monastery-set-themselves-fire-calling-religious-freedom
Now how the Chinese Government, which as a Maoist Democracy (one of my least favorite oxymorons) which has historically denied and denigrated religion, in particular Tibetan Buddhism, can now position itself as a body which is suitable to choose the next leader of Tibetan Buddhism is beyond me. It is the height of hypocracy, akin to the Italian Communist Party declaring that is is the sole body capable of choosing the next Pope. It is infuriating, and just the latest step in China attempting to eradicate Tibetan Buddhism and turn it into a shell of itself, a false religion, and a puppet of the Chinese Government. Tibetans won't stand for it, and it won't work. Read the article to find out more ...
http://savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/two-more-tibetan-monks-kirti-monastery-set-themselves-fire-calling-religious-freedom
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Some more articles
Here an article I wrote, on Orientalism and French 17th- and 18th-century theatre and the representation of Islam. I'm sure you've been dying to read it, now, finally, here's you're chance.
http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/agora/Articles.cfm@ArticleNo=154.html
And on article on the article and many other sources concerning Voltaire, his views on Islam, and the play Mahomet. As for the author of the article, Mr. Morgan, that Voltaire's depiction of the life of the prophet Mohammed is accurate, from my research, I would have to disagree, and state that many of the incidents of the play are simply recycled Western myths about him, designed to paint the prophet as Machiavellian and a lecherous sybarite.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7224/pub_detail.asp
http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/agora/Articles.cfm@ArticleNo=154.html
And on article on the article and many other sources concerning Voltaire, his views on Islam, and the play Mahomet. As for the author of the article, Mr. Morgan, that Voltaire's depiction of the life of the prophet Mohammed is accurate, from my research, I would have to disagree, and state that many of the incidents of the play are simply recycled Western myths about him, designed to paint the prophet as Machiavellian and a lecherous sybarite.
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7224/pub_detail.asp
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Moti Mahal
My wife made the most scrumptious butter chicken the other night - Mughal style, with the usual cardomam, spices, tomatoes, ginger, garlic - which got me to thinking about Moti Mahal. If you have never been to India, or Old Delhi, then you've missed out. Just a stone's throw away from the Jamma Masjid (the Red Mosque), near the Red Fort, and on the main avenue which leads back south to Connaught Circus, Moti Mahal is an old restaurant in Old Delhi. Reputedly opended just after Partition, the restaurant sits back from the street, with a turbaned door wallah there to meet and greet. The dish to go for is the butter chicken, which the restaurant claims to have invented. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the dish, this is boneless chicken, usually breast, which has been cooked Tandoori style. Then it is finished off with a cream/butter reduction sauce flavored with the above mentioned spices and more. Done well it is sublime, and Moti Mahal does it perfectly. Plus it is an Old Delhi must-see for other reasons. The old dining room is worn but elegant, a bit too large and cavernous, but a peaceful haven from the bustle outside. We went there on a hot June day, and it was a welcoming relief of shade from the pre-monsoon heat outside. Other dishes were fantastic. Our waiter may well have been at the restaurant since Partition. He was discreet, genteel, and perfect in anticipating needs. In short, it was Indian dining at its best - wonderful food, great service, in a locale that while a little worn, reeks of history. When in Delhi, you must go ...
Uhmm, I'll opt for the painful, non-mandatory surgery ...
The Death of the High School Musical
“Hell is full of musical amateurs.”
George Bernard Shaw
Maybe I’m in the minority on this one, and if I am, it is something I can live with. Easily. I can’t stand musicals. I wouldn’t waste 150$ to buy a ticket to see one on Broadway, or at the local theatre hosting touring productions. I’ve had to direct a couple – its like being force fed cotton candy for two months, and having to grin and pretend its salmon (sorry, I don’t eat beef). Maybe its all because when I was in the second grade, and in choir at church, the choir leader let it be known, in no uncertain terms, that my voice should never be heard.
I’ve been involved in theatre all of my adult life. I’ve taught it at college and high school levels, directed at these levels and professionally, and acted professionally. Musicals, unfortunately, are a necessity at high school, primarily as cash cows and as ways to involve parents who normally could give a rats ass about theatre. And most of them still, after watching their wretched offspring trip across stage or mangle another song in the chorus, will not develop a deep love of theatre. Rather they will equate their yearly trip to the theatre to a root canal.
Ripping sub-par art forms is no great art itself, And I’m not interested in prolonging my screed against this most mediocre form of entertainment – well, tap dancing gives it a run – but I do have concerns about education and the arts in the US,
To be continued …
“Hell is full of musical amateurs.”
George Bernard Shaw
Maybe I’m in the minority on this one, and if I am, it is something I can live with. Easily. I can’t stand musicals. I wouldn’t waste 150$ to buy a ticket to see one on Broadway, or at the local theatre hosting touring productions. I’ve had to direct a couple – its like being force fed cotton candy for two months, and having to grin and pretend its salmon (sorry, I don’t eat beef). Maybe its all because when I was in the second grade, and in choir at church, the choir leader let it be known, in no uncertain terms, that my voice should never be heard.
I’ve been involved in theatre all of my adult life. I’ve taught it at college and high school levels, directed at these levels and professionally, and acted professionally. Musicals, unfortunately, are a necessity at high school, primarily as cash cows and as ways to involve parents who normally could give a rats ass about theatre. And most of them still, after watching their wretched offspring trip across stage or mangle another song in the chorus, will not develop a deep love of theatre. Rather they will equate their yearly trip to the theatre to a root canal.
Ripping sub-par art forms is no great art itself, And I’m not interested in prolonging my screed against this most mediocre form of entertainment – well, tap dancing gives it a run – but I do have concerns about education and the arts in the US,
To be continued …
Monday, August 1, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Miserable Sunday
Actually everythings fine, except for this whole national debt ceiling fiasco. So intelligent of the Republicans to risk sinking the national economy, and hobbling the world economy, to serve their own political agenda, i.e. disabling the Obama administration, causing a deepening of the recession (and blaming it on him), all while kowtowing to their sacred mantras of no taxes on the rich, no federal programs of any kind, no cuts to defense spending, no increased taxation on corporations (despite the fact that, for example, while we were in recession BofA posted something close to 80 billions in profits for the last year - or less), the right to bear guns anywhere at anytime for anyreason, and access to pornography and prostitutes illegal except for congressman and Christian ministry...
Monday, July 25, 2011
Dead at 27
Brief slide show of eight music greats of this century who all died at the age of 27, the latest being Amy Winehouse. From SF Gate'
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2011/07/24/TwentySevens.DTL&object=%2Fc%2Fpictures%2F2009%2F11%2F13%2Fdd-2782164_421990791.jpg
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
http://www.economist.com/node/18928416?story_id=18928416&CFID=167205861&CFTOKEN=11818269
I like the article, but the cartoon is the best ... "Wilt thou be my Visagebook friend?" What about "Hast thou perused my most recent electronic missive?"
http://www.economist.com/node/18928416?story_id=18928416&CFID=167205861&CFTOKEN=11818269
http://www.economist.com/node/18928416?story_id=18928416&CFID=167205861&CFTOKEN=11818269
Friday, February 18, 2011
The Economist keeps at China
The Economist loves nothing more than keeping China's feet over the fire. Banyan's article points out the similarities between China's repressive "democracy" (one party democracy because that one party is unanimously popular?!?) and the Muslim-world autocracies Tunisia and Egypt that have fallen, and the others that could be lined up like dominos. The only area I would not agree with him is that since China doesn't a single, central polarizing figure like Hosni, this defuses some resentment. They don't need one - all Chinese know who their target is - their government - and whether it has a face or not its policies and lack of freedom is still as equally stultifying.
http://www.economist.com/node/18178177
http://www.economist.com/node/18178177
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The Bitter Recriminations of a sometime teacher ...
To think I gave up the verdant slopes of the Maoist infested Himalaya for this, a year and a half venture (so far) in lower education in the armpit of the Bay Area, the East Bay (and it is an unshaven armpit), somewhere south of Oakland and north of Hindustan, er, Fremont. There's few things more rampantly mediocre than public education in the US, and this is manifest in a myriad of ways in the schools ... the school administration, the district honchos, the school board (how is it that in a city where about 30% of the population, at best, is white, the school board is about 80% white ... and old ... and unhappy about all of these non-white types parading around the streets), the tenured teachers, the text books ... and the kids? They run rampant in the school - a brand new campus that is aging daily, sagging under the weight of teen age hysterics, criminal activities, sex in the bathrooms, gang activities, sex in the classrooms (blowjobs in math class), drugs in their backpacks, and more. In the past month I've developed a constant tension headache, and before that, last summer, sciatica ... all in the effort of educating the masses ...
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Why deranged male loners love Nietzsche
Because when he's take out of context he mirrors their own narcissistic confusion ... read this from Slate ...
Angry Nerds
How Nietzsche gets misunderstood by Jared Loughner types.
By Matt FeeneyPosted Friday, Jan. 14, 2011, at 11:22 AM ET
Friedrich Nietzsche - If we never discovered that Jared Lee Loughner honed his murderous outlook while sitting alone in his bedroom, reading Nietzsche and thinking about nihilism, that would have been real news. Instead of real news, though, we've gotten a dreary iteration of a cultural cliché. The New York Times and other media are saying the addled and alienated young man arrested for trying to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, and for the murders of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green and five other people, took himself to be a Nietzschean. Of course he did.
I suppose we could start plucking out incendiary quotations from Nietzsche's works and assess how much blame to lay on his head for Loughner's alleged crimes and the crimes of other young men with similar philosophical interests, but such a project would tend toward philistinism or obscurity. Better, I think, to leave aside the indictment and treat the nexus of Nietzsche and troubled young manhood as Nietzsche himself would have—that is, anthropologically.
The attraction of Nietzsche to socially maladjusted young men is obvious, but it isn't exactly simple. It is built from several interlocking pieces. Nietzsche mocks convention and propriety (and mocks difficult writers you'd prefer not to bother with anyway). He's funny and (deceptively) easy to read, especially compared to his antecedents in German philosophy, who are also his flabby and lumbering targets: Schopenhauer, Hegel, and, especially, Kant. If your social world fails to appreciate your singularity and tells you that you're a loser, reading Nietzsche can steel you in your secret conviction that, no, I'm a genius, or at least very special, and everyone else is the loser. Like you, Nietzsche was misunderstood in his day, ignored or derided by other scholars. Like you, Nietzsche seems to find everything around him lame, either stodgy and moralistic or sick with democratic vulgarity. Nietzsche seems to believe in aristocracy, which is taboo these days, which might be why no one recognizes you as the higher sort of guy you suspect yourself to be. And crucially, if you're a horny and poetic young man whose dream girl is ever present before your eyes but just out of reach, Nietzsche frames his project of resistance and overcoming as not just romantic but erotic.
If you're a thoughtful and unhappy young man, in other words, why wouldn't you want to read someone who seems to reflect both your alienation and your uncontainable desire back to you as masculine bravery and strength? Indeed, there's something in every book you're likely to pick up—some enticement of form or content or both—that addresses your horniness/alienation and flatters you in the pretense that, though you have no formal training and are actually kind of a crappy and distracted reader, you are doing philosophy.
In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche's first work, it's the celebration of anarchic and sexually with-it Dionysus over boring Apollo, who's like the Greek god of algebra or something. In Zarathustra, it's the beckoning first-person narration, a crazy novel or memoir kind of thing, a heroic story of Zarathustra "going under," gathering spiritual strength in hermetic solitude that reminds you of your own bedroom, and then "rising" to "shine" upon a people who don't even understand or deserve him. In The Genealogy of Morals it's Nietzsche examining the real history of that Bible stuff your lame pastor barks at you in church (which you understand as saying two main things: no sex, no touching yourself) and proving that morality originates not in God but in the will to power—ancient priests seizing power over ancient masters by guilt-tripping them about the suffering of slaves. (Christianity is just "slave morality." So much for that dilemma.) In Ecce Homo it's those excellent chapter headings ("Why I Am So Clever," "Why I Write Such Good Books"). And in Beyond Good and Evil it is, well, the awesome title of the book itself, and that hilarious opening line ("Supposing truth is a woman—what then?"), and that first chapter where he mocks all those philosophers you don't have to read anymore, now that Nietzsche has told you how lame they are.
And, also in Beyond Good and Evil, it's the aphorisms—a section entitled "Epigrams and Interludes" comprising over a hundred one- and two-sentence masterworks of moral paradox and counterintuition, calculated outrage and elegant eye-poking. Nietzsche is aphoristic even when he's being systematic, and when he's being aphoristic, his writing is simply unmatched in its beauty and mayhem, its uncanny mix of compression and infinite suggestion. And for a young guy who's intellectually hungry but doesn't much enjoy reading, finding this section of philosophy-bits in the middle of this famous book is like a homecoming. You don't even have to know what these epigrams mean to enjoy them. You just feel manly and brave in entertaining them at all, not flinching but laughing when Nietzsche says: "One is best punished for ones virtues." (You even get to work out some of your girl-troubles by lingering over Nietzsche's several jabs at women.)
Of course, Nietzsche scholars will tell you not to run too far with these little wisecracks. You need to understand them in the context of his larger body of work, in which he often circles back to themes, again and again, revising and even contradicting his earlier writings. You have to understand the aphorisms as part of a vast poetic project of self-creation or becoming in which nothing is truly settled. Nietzsche himself predicted he would be misread, acquire misguided disciples, and so he has.
Loughner's favorite book, according to news reports, fits with these troubled-guy tendencies and their associated pitfalls. It's not Beyond Good and Evil, but rather The Will to Power, the notorious compilation of Nietzsche's working notes (which Nietzsche's sister peddled, wrongly, as his great systematic work). The observations are longer-form in The Will to Power, but, like the "Epigrams and Interludes," they are too-easily separated from Nietzsche's other work. They have a tidy thematic organization that is largely his sister's. This scheme is helpful to the scholar who knows his other books. It's also helpful to the troubled young man obsessed with one thing in particular. In Loughner's case, this one thing was apparently nihilism, which happens to be the first topic in The Will to Power.
That Loughner was reading Nietzsche on nihilism fits so perfectly into a template for such tragedies that it's easy to miss the gaping confusion in news stories about the shooting. These stories echo claims by some acquaintances that Loughner was a nihilist, and by others that he was "obsessed with nihilism," as if these are the same thing. But Loughner didn't see himself as a nihilist. He saw himself as fighting nihilism. This is evident in his fixation in his YouTube videos on the idea that words have no meaning, or have somehow lost their meaning in a process of nihilistic decline—a fixation that seems to lie at the basis of his tragic grudge against Gabrielle Giffords.
Nietzsche, oddly, has suffered a similar fate. Because of his assault on religion and rationalist metaphysics, and because of the hints of anarchy in his assorted visions of the future (e.g., "the transvaluation of all values"), he's taken as the West's über-nihilist. But he saw himself as the scourge of European nihilism, and possibly also its remedy. Nietzsche saw nihilism as a disease, which grows from, in Alexander Nehamas' words, "the assumption that if some single standard is not good for everyone and all time, then no standard is good for anyone at any time." It presents itself as mindless hedonism and flaccid spirit, but also as fanaticism.
So does that make Nietzsche and Jared Lee Loughner philosophical brethren after all, joined in the same fanatical fight against nihilism? In a word, no, and Loughner's pathological fixation on the meaning of words is the giveaway. One way of looking at Nietzsche's project is that he set out to teach himself and his readers to love the world in its imperfection and multiplicity, for itself. This is behind his assaults on religion, liberal idealism, and utilitarian systems of social organization. He saw these as different ways of effacing or annihilating the world as it is. It is behind his infamous doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence—in which he embraces the "most abysmal thought," that the given world, and not the idealizing stories we tell of it, is all there is, and he will affirm this reality even if it recurs eternally.
Jared Loughner's despair that everything is unreal and words have no meaning amounts to hatred of the world (a mania of moralism and narcissism) for its failure to resemble the words we apply to it. Faced with a choice between real people and some stupid abstraction about words, themselves mere abstractions, Loughner killed the people to defend the abstraction. This, then, really is a kind of nihilism, only not the kind that people think Nietzsche was guilty of. It's the kind of nihilism that Nietzsche was trying to warn us about, and help us overcome.
Thanks to Cris Campbell of the University of Colorado for some key insights and background on Nietzsche and nihilism.
Because when he's take out of context he mirrors their own narcissistic confusion ... read this from Slate ...
Angry Nerds
How Nietzsche gets misunderstood by Jared Loughner types.
By Matt FeeneyPosted Friday, Jan. 14, 2011, at 11:22 AM ET
Friedrich Nietzsche - If we never discovered that Jared Lee Loughner honed his murderous outlook while sitting alone in his bedroom, reading Nietzsche and thinking about nihilism, that would have been real news. Instead of real news, though, we've gotten a dreary iteration of a cultural cliché. The New York Times and other media are saying the addled and alienated young man arrested for trying to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords, and for the murders of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green and five other people, took himself to be a Nietzschean. Of course he did.
I suppose we could start plucking out incendiary quotations from Nietzsche's works and assess how much blame to lay on his head for Loughner's alleged crimes and the crimes of other young men with similar philosophical interests, but such a project would tend toward philistinism or obscurity. Better, I think, to leave aside the indictment and treat the nexus of Nietzsche and troubled young manhood as Nietzsche himself would have—that is, anthropologically.
The attraction of Nietzsche to socially maladjusted young men is obvious, but it isn't exactly simple. It is built from several interlocking pieces. Nietzsche mocks convention and propriety (and mocks difficult writers you'd prefer not to bother with anyway). He's funny and (deceptively) easy to read, especially compared to his antecedents in German philosophy, who are also his flabby and lumbering targets: Schopenhauer, Hegel, and, especially, Kant. If your social world fails to appreciate your singularity and tells you that you're a loser, reading Nietzsche can steel you in your secret conviction that, no, I'm a genius, or at least very special, and everyone else is the loser. Like you, Nietzsche was misunderstood in his day, ignored or derided by other scholars. Like you, Nietzsche seems to find everything around him lame, either stodgy and moralistic or sick with democratic vulgarity. Nietzsche seems to believe in aristocracy, which is taboo these days, which might be why no one recognizes you as the higher sort of guy you suspect yourself to be. And crucially, if you're a horny and poetic young man whose dream girl is ever present before your eyes but just out of reach, Nietzsche frames his project of resistance and overcoming as not just romantic but erotic.
If you're a thoughtful and unhappy young man, in other words, why wouldn't you want to read someone who seems to reflect both your alienation and your uncontainable desire back to you as masculine bravery and strength? Indeed, there's something in every book you're likely to pick up—some enticement of form or content or both—that addresses your horniness/alienation and flatters you in the pretense that, though you have no formal training and are actually kind of a crappy and distracted reader, you are doing philosophy.
In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche's first work, it's the celebration of anarchic and sexually with-it Dionysus over boring Apollo, who's like the Greek god of algebra or something. In Zarathustra, it's the beckoning first-person narration, a crazy novel or memoir kind of thing, a heroic story of Zarathustra "going under," gathering spiritual strength in hermetic solitude that reminds you of your own bedroom, and then "rising" to "shine" upon a people who don't even understand or deserve him. In The Genealogy of Morals it's Nietzsche examining the real history of that Bible stuff your lame pastor barks at you in church (which you understand as saying two main things: no sex, no touching yourself) and proving that morality originates not in God but in the will to power—ancient priests seizing power over ancient masters by guilt-tripping them about the suffering of slaves. (Christianity is just "slave morality." So much for that dilemma.) In Ecce Homo it's those excellent chapter headings ("Why I Am So Clever," "Why I Write Such Good Books"). And in Beyond Good and Evil it is, well, the awesome title of the book itself, and that hilarious opening line ("Supposing truth is a woman—what then?"), and that first chapter where he mocks all those philosophers you don't have to read anymore, now that Nietzsche has told you how lame they are.
And, also in Beyond Good and Evil, it's the aphorisms—a section entitled "Epigrams and Interludes" comprising over a hundred one- and two-sentence masterworks of moral paradox and counterintuition, calculated outrage and elegant eye-poking. Nietzsche is aphoristic even when he's being systematic, and when he's being aphoristic, his writing is simply unmatched in its beauty and mayhem, its uncanny mix of compression and infinite suggestion. And for a young guy who's intellectually hungry but doesn't much enjoy reading, finding this section of philosophy-bits in the middle of this famous book is like a homecoming. You don't even have to know what these epigrams mean to enjoy them. You just feel manly and brave in entertaining them at all, not flinching but laughing when Nietzsche says: "One is best punished for ones virtues." (You even get to work out some of your girl-troubles by lingering over Nietzsche's several jabs at women.)
Of course, Nietzsche scholars will tell you not to run too far with these little wisecracks. You need to understand them in the context of his larger body of work, in which he often circles back to themes, again and again, revising and even contradicting his earlier writings. You have to understand the aphorisms as part of a vast poetic project of self-creation or becoming in which nothing is truly settled. Nietzsche himself predicted he would be misread, acquire misguided disciples, and so he has.
Loughner's favorite book, according to news reports, fits with these troubled-guy tendencies and their associated pitfalls. It's not Beyond Good and Evil, but rather The Will to Power, the notorious compilation of Nietzsche's working notes (which Nietzsche's sister peddled, wrongly, as his great systematic work). The observations are longer-form in The Will to Power, but, like the "Epigrams and Interludes," they are too-easily separated from Nietzsche's other work. They have a tidy thematic organization that is largely his sister's. This scheme is helpful to the scholar who knows his other books. It's also helpful to the troubled young man obsessed with one thing in particular. In Loughner's case, this one thing was apparently nihilism, which happens to be the first topic in The Will to Power.
That Loughner was reading Nietzsche on nihilism fits so perfectly into a template for such tragedies that it's easy to miss the gaping confusion in news stories about the shooting. These stories echo claims by some acquaintances that Loughner was a nihilist, and by others that he was "obsessed with nihilism," as if these are the same thing. But Loughner didn't see himself as a nihilist. He saw himself as fighting nihilism. This is evident in his fixation in his YouTube videos on the idea that words have no meaning, or have somehow lost their meaning in a process of nihilistic decline—a fixation that seems to lie at the basis of his tragic grudge against Gabrielle Giffords.
Nietzsche, oddly, has suffered a similar fate. Because of his assault on religion and rationalist metaphysics, and because of the hints of anarchy in his assorted visions of the future (e.g., "the transvaluation of all values"), he's taken as the West's über-nihilist. But he saw himself as the scourge of European nihilism, and possibly also its remedy. Nietzsche saw nihilism as a disease, which grows from, in Alexander Nehamas' words, "the assumption that if some single standard is not good for everyone and all time, then no standard is good for anyone at any time." It presents itself as mindless hedonism and flaccid spirit, but also as fanaticism.
So does that make Nietzsche and Jared Lee Loughner philosophical brethren after all, joined in the same fanatical fight against nihilism? In a word, no, and Loughner's pathological fixation on the meaning of words is the giveaway. One way of looking at Nietzsche's project is that he set out to teach himself and his readers to love the world in its imperfection and multiplicity, for itself. This is behind his assaults on religion, liberal idealism, and utilitarian systems of social organization. He saw these as different ways of effacing or annihilating the world as it is. It is behind his infamous doctrine of the Eternal Recurrence—in which he embraces the "most abysmal thought," that the given world, and not the idealizing stories we tell of it, is all there is, and he will affirm this reality even if it recurs eternally.
Jared Loughner's despair that everything is unreal and words have no meaning amounts to hatred of the world (a mania of moralism and narcissism) for its failure to resemble the words we apply to it. Faced with a choice between real people and some stupid abstraction about words, themselves mere abstractions, Loughner killed the people to defend the abstraction. This, then, really is a kind of nihilism, only not the kind that people think Nietzsche was guilty of. It's the kind of nihilism that Nietzsche was trying to warn us about, and help us overcome.
Thanks to Cris Campbell of the University of Colorado for some key insights and background on Nietzsche and nihilism.
Home of the ... racist, intolerant and unhinged?
Thats the view I get this morning, considering the Giffords assassination attempt, the bomb found in Spokane on the route of a MLK Jr. Day parade route, and the new governor of Alabama turning his inaugural bully pulpit into just that - a pulpit for bullying and threatening non-Christians. I think that it should be clear to most Americans, regardless of their political beliefs, that the current atmosphere will see sectarianism only grow. The right in particular feels emboldened, and the Tuscon shootings, far from making them rethink their strategies, will only help those who feel threatened by plurality, non-whites and non-regressive thinkers to use violent means. And the timing couldn't be worse: right at a moment in world history when other countries (China and India the leaders, but many others also) are readjusting to take advantage of a new era in global economics and power, the most conservative and repressive elements of American society are attempting to dominate with individual acts of cruelty and idiocy - ecce homo, ergo Palin.
Thats the view I get this morning, considering the Giffords assassination attempt, the bomb found in Spokane on the route of a MLK Jr. Day parade route, and the new governor of Alabama turning his inaugural bully pulpit into just that - a pulpit for bullying and threatening non-Christians. I think that it should be clear to most Americans, regardless of their political beliefs, that the current atmosphere will see sectarianism only grow. The right in particular feels emboldened, and the Tuscon shootings, far from making them rethink their strategies, will only help those who feel threatened by plurality, non-whites and non-regressive thinkers to use violent means. And the timing couldn't be worse: right at a moment in world history when other countries (China and India the leaders, but many others also) are readjusting to take advantage of a new era in global economics and power, the most conservative and repressive elements of American society are attempting to dominate with individual acts of cruelty and idiocy - ecce homo, ergo Palin.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Recipe for Disaster
Here's something that could end up very badly - lots of novices, tourists and the curious heading to the South Pole to commemorate the centenary of Admunsen's ski trip to the pole. Of course Scott and party perished after reaching the same spot just weeks later. Apparently people are ponying up to pay tens of thousands of dollars to live the experience, some skiing (or attempting to) all, or part, of the way, like this one Briton in the NYTimes article who has never x-country skied before and doesn't like cold weather! Are you serious? This is like Everest - one bad stretch of weather, and at the South Pole this is the norm, like on Everest - and there will be dead and/or missing peoplel all over, I'm afraid. The Times does specialize in the adventures of the effete and underinformed, so we will have to see how it turns out .... Read at your own peril.
Tourists Mimic Polar Pioneers, Except With Planes and Blogs
Extreme World Races
Participants in a previous race sponsored by Extreme World Races.
By JENNIFER A. KINGSON
Published: January 15, 2011
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CloseLinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink When the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrived at the South Pole only to find that he had been beaten there by Roald Amundsen and his team of Norwegians, he was despondent. “Great God! This is an awful place,” he lamented in his diary.
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Associated Press
Robert F. Scott, standing center, with his 1912 polar expedition. A Norwegian team arrived first, and Scott’s group perished.
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Amundsen Omega 3
The flags of the signers of the Antarctic Treaty are planted near the geographic pole.
Awful as it may be, it is about to get a lot of foot traffic. Hundreds of people — tourists, adventurers and history buffs — are lining up to visit the South Pole in honor of the 100th anniversaries of Amundsen’s arrival (on Dec. 14, 1911) and Scott’s (Jan. 17, 1912). The preparations are already speeding along.
Some people intend to ski the exact routes of Amundsen and Scott, reading the explorers’ diaries daily and blogging about the experience. Others will drive to the pole by truck. For those seeking less exertion, there will be catered flights to the pole, including several that will let passengers off a few miles away so they can ski the remaining stretch and feel the thrill of victory.
One of the many tour operators trying to cash in on the fervor is Polar Explorers, a company in suburban Chicago that is charging $40,500 for a flight to the pole on either anniversary (weather permitting). People who want to be dropped off a degree or two away so they can ski in will pay up to $57,500.
“We’re going to have lots of Champagne toasts and take a lot of pictures, and you can call home to your loved ones from the pole,” said Annie Aggens of Polar Explorers. “It’s super exciting just to walk in the footsteps of these early explorers.”
Needless to say, people will not want to replicate Scott’s entire expedition. He and his men died in a blizzard during the 800-mile trek back from the pole, huddled in a tent that was, famously, just 11 miles from a vital cache of supplies.
Instead, many people plan to ski to the pole, then fly back. One of them is Matt Elliott, a 28-year-old Briton, who will compete in a 440-mile ski race, pulling 200 pounds of gear the whole way. A resident of Windsor, he works for his family’s paper wholesaling business and calls himself “a complete polar novice.”
He has never tried cross-country skiing, and he is not a big fan of cold weather, but he has been practicing by dragging two car tires on a rope for several hours at a time.
“I want to know how far, physically, I can go,” said Mr. Elliott, who is paying about $95,000 to enter the competition, sponsored by a London-based company called Extreme World Races. “It would be great to get there first and run the Union Jack at the South Pole before the Norwegians get there,” he said.
Davis Nelsen, who is 52 and runs a steel manufacturing company in Chicago, will have a less stressful trip. He plans to be on one of the Amundsen flights run by Polar Explorers, in honor of his Norwegian heritage. This will be his second polar adventure: in 2009, he flew to the North Pole to mark the centenary of Robert Peary’s expedition.
In polar travel, “you have to be prepared to be uncomfortable,” said Mr. Nelsen, who plans to ski the last 30 or so miles.
The crowds going to the South Pole are not expected to amount to more than a blip in overall tourism numbers to Antarctica, which peaked at 46,000 in the 2007-8 season and have dropped off because of the global recession. But because most people who visit Antarctica go by cruise ship and do not venture beyond the coast, a spike in tourism to the pole itself is expected.
The National Science Foundation, which runs the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole, is not amused. It has a message for all these potential visitors: do not expect a warm welcome.
“Those people who do arrive, we don’t really have a process for them other than letting them know that they are at the pole, that this is a U.S. station, and we’re not able to provide them with any amenities,” said Peter West of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs.
Yes, there is a small gift shop — make that, “commissary” — where people can buy T-shirts and the like, and visitors can drop off letters that will get a South Pole postmark. But the research station is “really not set up for tourism,” said Evan Bloom of the State Department. “We want other governments to get the word out that people should not simply show up at the South Pole.”
Most of the time, visitors will be spread across Antarctica. The biggest ski race, the one set up by Extreme World Races, will take place far away from the routes taken by Scott and Amundsen, approaching from the opposite side of the continent. Fifty-one competitors, in teams of three, will ski to the pole, said Tony Martin, founder of the company. Training for the race, which includes jumping into ice holes and learning to negotiate crevasses, will take place at a camp in Norway; space is still available.
“We don’t give cash prizes or cars,” said Mr. Martin, in an interview by satellite phone from Antarctica, where he was in a truck setting a course for the race. He described his clients as “just ordinary people” who wanted to “push themselves psychologically and physically.” Each will wear a GPS device, and airplanes will be on call in case someone needs to be evacuated.
Among other adventure travelers, Henry Worsley, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, may have the best historical pedigree. He is distantly related to Frank Worsley, the captain of Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance. He is staging his own race to the pole in two teams of three men.
“The intention is to rerun the Scott-Amundsen race from the two start points,” he said. “I’m leading the Norwegian route up the Axel Heiberg glacier from the Bay of Whales, and a friend of mine is going to do the Scott route, which I did a few years ago.”
Some people are trying to play down the competitive angle and play up the historical one. Jan-Gunnar Winther, director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, plans to be at the pole the day Amundsen reached it, part of a four-man team that will re-enact Amundsen’s journey then fly home in time for Christmas. On the British side, Ben Saunders, a 33-year-old London resident, who is a long-distance skier and motivational speaker, plans to follow in the footsteps of Scott — and to complete the return trip that Scott could not finish.
David Wilson, a great-nephew of Edward Wilson, the naturalist and sketch artist who marched to the pole with Scott and died beside him, will join other descendants of Scott’s polar party in Antarctica next Jan. 17 in the vicinity of the tent, where they will hold a memorial service.
He echoes the Scott party line: that the British expedition went to Antarctica to do science, not to race to the pole. The people planning competitions are “completely misunderstanding what happened 100 years ago,” Dr. Wilson said.
Despite the potential circus atmosphere, some veterans insist that Antarctica is not for novices.
“It’s a place that wants you dead,” said Robert Swan, an environmentalist who walked Scott’s route to the South Pole in 1985. “Scott found that out 100 years ago.”
A version of this article appeared in print on January 16, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition.
Here's something that could end up very badly - lots of novices, tourists and the curious heading to the South Pole to commemorate the centenary of Admunsen's ski trip to the pole. Of course Scott and party perished after reaching the same spot just weeks later. Apparently people are ponying up to pay tens of thousands of dollars to live the experience, some skiing (or attempting to) all, or part, of the way, like this one Briton in the NYTimes article who has never x-country skied before and doesn't like cold weather! Are you serious? This is like Everest - one bad stretch of weather, and at the South Pole this is the norm, like on Everest - and there will be dead and/or missing peoplel all over, I'm afraid. The Times does specialize in the adventures of the effete and underinformed, so we will have to see how it turns out .... Read at your own peril.
Tourists Mimic Polar Pioneers, Except With Planes and Blogs
Extreme World Races
Participants in a previous race sponsored by Extreme World Races.
By JENNIFER A. KINGSON
Published: January 15, 2011
Recommend
Send To Phone
Reprints
Share
CloseLinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink When the British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrived at the South Pole only to find that he had been beaten there by Roald Amundsen and his team of Norwegians, he was despondent. “Great God! This is an awful place,” he lamented in his diary.
Enlarge This Image
Associated Press
Robert F. Scott, standing center, with his 1912 polar expedition. A Norwegian team arrived first, and Scott’s group perished.
Enlarge This Image
Amundsen Omega 3
The flags of the signers of the Antarctic Treaty are planted near the geographic pole.
Awful as it may be, it is about to get a lot of foot traffic. Hundreds of people — tourists, adventurers and history buffs — are lining up to visit the South Pole in honor of the 100th anniversaries of Amundsen’s arrival (on Dec. 14, 1911) and Scott’s (Jan. 17, 1912). The preparations are already speeding along.
Some people intend to ski the exact routes of Amundsen and Scott, reading the explorers’ diaries daily and blogging about the experience. Others will drive to the pole by truck. For those seeking less exertion, there will be catered flights to the pole, including several that will let passengers off a few miles away so they can ski the remaining stretch and feel the thrill of victory.
One of the many tour operators trying to cash in on the fervor is Polar Explorers, a company in suburban Chicago that is charging $40,500 for a flight to the pole on either anniversary (weather permitting). People who want to be dropped off a degree or two away so they can ski in will pay up to $57,500.
“We’re going to have lots of Champagne toasts and take a lot of pictures, and you can call home to your loved ones from the pole,” said Annie Aggens of Polar Explorers. “It’s super exciting just to walk in the footsteps of these early explorers.”
Needless to say, people will not want to replicate Scott’s entire expedition. He and his men died in a blizzard during the 800-mile trek back from the pole, huddled in a tent that was, famously, just 11 miles from a vital cache of supplies.
Instead, many people plan to ski to the pole, then fly back. One of them is Matt Elliott, a 28-year-old Briton, who will compete in a 440-mile ski race, pulling 200 pounds of gear the whole way. A resident of Windsor, he works for his family’s paper wholesaling business and calls himself “a complete polar novice.”
He has never tried cross-country skiing, and he is not a big fan of cold weather, but he has been practicing by dragging two car tires on a rope for several hours at a time.
“I want to know how far, physically, I can go,” said Mr. Elliott, who is paying about $95,000 to enter the competition, sponsored by a London-based company called Extreme World Races. “It would be great to get there first and run the Union Jack at the South Pole before the Norwegians get there,” he said.
Davis Nelsen, who is 52 and runs a steel manufacturing company in Chicago, will have a less stressful trip. He plans to be on one of the Amundsen flights run by Polar Explorers, in honor of his Norwegian heritage. This will be his second polar adventure: in 2009, he flew to the North Pole to mark the centenary of Robert Peary’s expedition.
In polar travel, “you have to be prepared to be uncomfortable,” said Mr. Nelsen, who plans to ski the last 30 or so miles.
The crowds going to the South Pole are not expected to amount to more than a blip in overall tourism numbers to Antarctica, which peaked at 46,000 in the 2007-8 season and have dropped off because of the global recession. But because most people who visit Antarctica go by cruise ship and do not venture beyond the coast, a spike in tourism to the pole itself is expected.
The National Science Foundation, which runs the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole, is not amused. It has a message for all these potential visitors: do not expect a warm welcome.
“Those people who do arrive, we don’t really have a process for them other than letting them know that they are at the pole, that this is a U.S. station, and we’re not able to provide them with any amenities,” said Peter West of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs.
Yes, there is a small gift shop — make that, “commissary” — where people can buy T-shirts and the like, and visitors can drop off letters that will get a South Pole postmark. But the research station is “really not set up for tourism,” said Evan Bloom of the State Department. “We want other governments to get the word out that people should not simply show up at the South Pole.”
Most of the time, visitors will be spread across Antarctica. The biggest ski race, the one set up by Extreme World Races, will take place far away from the routes taken by Scott and Amundsen, approaching from the opposite side of the continent. Fifty-one competitors, in teams of three, will ski to the pole, said Tony Martin, founder of the company. Training for the race, which includes jumping into ice holes and learning to negotiate crevasses, will take place at a camp in Norway; space is still available.
“We don’t give cash prizes or cars,” said Mr. Martin, in an interview by satellite phone from Antarctica, where he was in a truck setting a course for the race. He described his clients as “just ordinary people” who wanted to “push themselves psychologically and physically.” Each will wear a GPS device, and airplanes will be on call in case someone needs to be evacuated.
Among other adventure travelers, Henry Worsley, a lieutenant colonel in the British Army, may have the best historical pedigree. He is distantly related to Frank Worsley, the captain of Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance. He is staging his own race to the pole in two teams of three men.
“The intention is to rerun the Scott-Amundsen race from the two start points,” he said. “I’m leading the Norwegian route up the Axel Heiberg glacier from the Bay of Whales, and a friend of mine is going to do the Scott route, which I did a few years ago.”
Some people are trying to play down the competitive angle and play up the historical one. Jan-Gunnar Winther, director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, plans to be at the pole the day Amundsen reached it, part of a four-man team that will re-enact Amundsen’s journey then fly home in time for Christmas. On the British side, Ben Saunders, a 33-year-old London resident, who is a long-distance skier and motivational speaker, plans to follow in the footsteps of Scott — and to complete the return trip that Scott could not finish.
David Wilson, a great-nephew of Edward Wilson, the naturalist and sketch artist who marched to the pole with Scott and died beside him, will join other descendants of Scott’s polar party in Antarctica next Jan. 17 in the vicinity of the tent, where they will hold a memorial service.
He echoes the Scott party line: that the British expedition went to Antarctica to do science, not to race to the pole. The people planning competitions are “completely misunderstanding what happened 100 years ago,” Dr. Wilson said.
Despite the potential circus atmosphere, some veterans insist that Antarctica is not for novices.
“It’s a place that wants you dead,” said Robert Swan, an environmentalist who walked Scott’s route to the South Pole in 1985. “Scott found that out 100 years ago.”
A version of this article appeared in print on January 16, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Tibet after the Dalai Lama
Interesting read about the Dalai Lama in The Economist, and speculation - well a little - on what lies in store for the Tibetan cause with the 14th Dalai Lama now 76. The Karmapa Lama may come into play as the next Dalai Lama will be young, and there will be a regency for 15 - 20 years once he is located. Here's the link:
http://www.economist.com/node/17851411
Also posting a publication by Human Rights watch on the wide scale repression and abuse in Tibet since the 2008 Lhasa uprising. As usual it makes for grim, but necessary reading. The real extent of Chinese atrocities may never be known.
http://www.hrw.org/node/91850
http://www.economist.com/node/17851411
Also posting a publication by Human Rights watch on the wide scale repression and abuse in Tibet since the 2008 Lhasa uprising. As usual it makes for grim, but necessary reading. The real extent of Chinese atrocities may never be known.
http://www.hrw.org/node/91850
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