More Olympics

(I was going to put this image below with the other Olympic graphics... then I realized how well it went with my opening quote, so... here it sits...)


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“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”

~ Elie Wiesel
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Truly... this will be an interesting build-up to the Olympics. Protests continue to shadow the Torch as it makes it way towards China:

China will be watching (Australia's Herald-Sun)

Australian Federal Police chiefs have cancelled leave.

The cost of the security operation for the five-hour event is estimated to run close to $1 million.

The Chinese Government has insisted that several of its controversial paramilitary security guards will protect the torch, but federal police say they will take complete responsibility.

Overseas, the Chinese security officers have been labelled "thugs" for their aggressive behaviour.

Just three Chinese attendants will accompany the Olympic flame on Thursday.

And this line in particular caught my eye:

Some politicians have created headaches for police by declaring public's right to protest during the event.

I wasn't aware that politicians declared our right to protest. I always thought it one of those immovable, immutable universal laws of nature and reality. Huh... the things I learn...

Japanese Temple Refuses to Host Olympic Torch Relay

The Zenkoji Temple officials say monks at the temple are concerned about the way fellow Buddhist monks are being treated in China and about the safety of the temple and its worshippers. The temple is located in Japan's northern city of Nagano, and was originally to be the starting point of the relay in Japan.

Thailand prepares for troubled Olympic torch relay

The torch, whose worldwide journey before the Games in August has turned into a public relations debacle for China's leaders, made its way to the kingdom overnight from India, where many people were arrested.

Thai officials have warned they will deport foreigners who try to disrupt the relay but, unlike at several previous stops, Thailand has not made plans to shorten its leg of the flame's globe-trotting extravaganza.

-snip-

Jacques Rogge, head of the International Olympic Committee, has said the protests have thrown the Olympics into "crisis," and reminded China that it pledged to improve its rights record when it proposed to host the Games.
Beijing has told Rogge to stay out of "irrelevant" politics and insisted the demonstrations are not in keeping with the Olympic spirit.

A good read here from SF Gate: China-Tibet-Olympics: Medals for highest-pitched rhetoric?



Tibet protesters clash with Nepal police, 130 detained

KATHMANDU, April 18 (Reuters) - Maroon-robed monks and nuns with shaved heads scuffled with police at a pro-Tibet demonstration in Kathmandu on Friday, in the latest of a series of protests against China.

Authorities said they detained 96 men and 34 women.

"Resolve the crisis in Tibet through dialogue, not guns," a yellow-banner carried by demonstrators read. "China plays games with human rights," read another banner carried by some protesters wearing yellow sleeve-less jackets.

Others displayed a big portrait of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

"Stop killings in Tibet, we want peace," shouted a protester who gave his name as Karma. Four police later hauled him into a waiting van.

Nepal has seen almost daily anti-China protests, except for a short break during last week's national elections.

And in a story that gladdens my heart, Canada's indigenous population may be joining the ranks of Olympics protestors... at the 2010 Olympics (reminiscent of a line I remember -- I think from Gary Snyder -- "women, playing drums, flying over Tibet"):

Squamish band will likely protest at Games despite its support for Olympics

Squamish band members will likely protest at the 2010 Olympic Games despite the chief signing an agreement with the Vancouver Organizing Committee to support the event.

"There will be some level of protest, and I hope so, too," Squamish First Nation Chief Bill Williams said Thursday.

"We are going to be working with VANOC, but we have 3,500 members and not all want to be part of the Olympics. They want to talk about the children and the hardships in the community and they have the full right to do that."

Williams said natives across Canada have the highest ratings in all the worst quality-of-life scenarios.

"We have the highest rate of people incarcerated, the highest rate of children dropping out of schools, the highest rate of children in the child-care system and I could go on and on," Williams said.

"I myself as an aboriginal male have the shortest lifespan."

Williams was reacting to a warning in Ottawa yesterday from Phil Fontaine, Grand Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, that natives could protest at the 2010 Olympics to highlight their "desperate conditions."

In March 2007, three members of Vancouver's Native Warriors Society cut down the Olympic flag at Vancouver City Hall.

-snip-

Fontaine likened the lives of some native communities to those of Tibetans under Chinese rule.

"We find the Tibet situation compelling," he said. "The Tibetans are disenfranchised people. The situation here is similar, but it's different in this sense - the poverty we're talking about exists in Canada's own backyard.



Interesting, the graphics that come out of these movements. Here are a couple I ran across doing my search for pics for today's post:





What a strange, strange world in which we find ourselves today... truly the ends of the string of time have spiraled and now come so close to touching... the oldest of cultures and societies coming to face head-on the juggernauts of modern technocracy.

Which again, has to do with that Two-Row Wampum.

Oh yeah... before I forget... I've come up with what I can only describe as a Buddhist-based definition of the word "boycott"...

Boycott:

the sound of one hand not opening a wallet.

And you can quote me on that one.

Peace.
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“To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

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Boycott the Olympics...

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(image © 1996, Phil Borges, see his excellent Tibetan photos at his gallery)
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“I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe.”

~ Dalai Lama
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We interrupt my mental meanderings to bring you the following message:

I have watched the news about Tibet in recent weeks, wondering what the world's reaction would be to this latest "crackdown" by China. Well, with the start of the Olympic Torch Relay, the world's most adamant protestors are interrupting it at every city it is passing through. And China is of course, condemning these interruptions.

No surprise there.

What I find truly disturbing is that except for a few, the world has by and large ignored the plight of Tibetans and their oppression under the Chinese. And I include myself in that ignorance...

From my first political leanings, way back in the '70s in Santa Maria, I have accepted my participation in issues because the people affected by an issue have affected me and my thinking. I have been active with indigenous issues, migrant farmworkers, Iranian efforts to unseat the Shah (and that worked out real well...), protests against nuclear weapons proliferation, environmental issues (Opal Creek being the pinnacle of my environmental activism)...

But Tibet, until very recently, has flown below my radar. But in less than a year I have accepted their cause as mine, and another part of that movement that encompasses all issues I have involved myself with. I hate seeing people get screwed. And the Tibetans have shown me that they have been getting a bum deal for decades.

For those of you who are interested, please follow a movement that I predict will gain momentum as the spring wears on into summer and the Olympics approach. Politics and the Olympics are not strangers. But this time we are dealing with a very real holocaust and the perpetrators of this holocaust are the Chinese, the host country for this summer's Olympics.

Here is the link to GoogleNews stories with the keyword Tibet. In a shining "for instance," Australians are wanting action:

Majority want Rudd to intervene in Tibet

As you may or may not know, there have been new clashes in recent weeks by Tibetans against China's presence:



Uneasy, Normal Life Follows Tibet Riots

The history of China's occupation in Tibet, from the Government of Tibet in Exile.

"On 7 October 1950, 40,000 Chinese troops under Political Commissar, Wang Qiemi, attacked Eastern Tibet's provincial capital of Chamdo, from eight directions. The small Tibetan force, consisting of 8,000 troops and militia, were defeated. After two days, Chamdo was taken and Kalon (Minister) Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, the Regional Governor, was captured. Over 4,000 Tibetan fighters were killed."
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In November of 1950, Tibet sent a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations:

"Tibet recognises that it is in no position to resist the Chinese advance. It is thus that it agreed to negotiate on friendly terms with the Chinese Government. ...Though there is little hope that a nation dedicated to peace will be able to resist the brutal effort of men trained to war, we understand that the United Nations has decided to stop aggression wherever it takes place."
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Since then Tibetan deaths and disappearances at the hands of the Chinese are estimated to be over 1 million.

I have met Tibetan monks who now live in the US. Kind, gentle men, they all fled Tibet into India and all have tales of imprisonment, beatings and torture, the disappearance of friends and relatives and the experience of witnessing their country being overtaken by the Chinese. Many Tibetans have died working on the railroads being built in order to transport Chinese immigrants into Tibet.

Here is a video showing Tibetans fleeing over the Himalayas being shot by Chinese border guards.

More stories on Tibet:

Tibetan monks: A controlled life

Dharamsala alarmed at rate of Chinese migrants coming to Tibet

"We cannot but be alarmed at the rate of Chinese migrant workers coming to Tibet and China's mining of various minerals on the Tibetan Plateau" said Kalon Tempa Tsering of the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration.

"The pace of China's settlement of Tibet's urban centres with Chinese migrant workers and its exploitation of Tibet's mineral resources are undermining the ability of the Tibetan people to hold on to their distinct cultural heritage," Kalon Tempa Tsering said.
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And, reminding me of California's goldrush heyday (an occupation that decimated an estimated 90% of California's indigenous population in one decade), China is reportedly doing massive mineralogical surveys of Tibet in order to exploit that nation's natural resource wealth:

When the railway was first extended into Tibet in the 1980s, as far as the desert staging post of Gormo, the purpose was to extract Tibetan oil, which has gone, at rate of two million tons a year for the past 20 years. In addition China mines the salt lakes of the same area in the Tsaidam Basin on a large scale. Gas was discovered in huge amounts in the 1990s, also in the Tsaidam Basin, and a pipeline was built to supply China’s hungry energy demand for fuels for manufacturing and electric power generation. Tibetan gas is now piped right across China.

China is investing huge effort of geological exploration, mapping mineral deposits all over Tibet. Recently the China geological survey announced the discovery of more than 600 new mineral deposits after concluding a seven-year geological study on Tibetan plateau, which has nothing less than $128 billion dollars worth of various minerals potential for extraction.
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Chinese immigrant influx in Tibet is a serious threat: British MP

“The influx of Chinese settlers in Tibet is a serious threat and is making the Tibetans a minority in their own land. When we were in Lhasa (capital of Tibet) we saw Chinese everywhere and more were due to arrive and many will have come now because of the introduction of the railway line from China to Tibet,” said Mr. Hamilton, who was one of the members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons that visited Tibet in 2006 and reported their findings in a report.
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China: Dalai Lama Wants to Sour Olympics

The Dalai Lama, speaking in Dharmsala, India, the seat of his government-in-exile, urged nonviolence on both sides.
"I say to China and the Tibetans - don't commit violence," he told reporters. He suggested the Chinese themselves may have had a hand in it to discredit him.

"It's possible some Chinese agents are involved there," he said. "Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate."

He said that "if things become out of control," his "only option is to completely resign."

Later, one of his top aides clarified the Dalai Lama's comments.

"If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence, he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence," Tenzin Taklha said. "He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama."
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One of the things I DO know... the Dalai Lama, like Martin Luther King, like Mohatma Gandhi, is a man of peace who believes -- as do I -- that violence cannot be used to end violence. And while I understand the protests against China, their hosting of the Olympics and the intent to use the Olympic Torch Relay as a venue for expression and the drawing of attention to the issue of occupied Tibet, there is no way that violent demonstrations will achieve positive results. Further I also understand the nature of sabotage and cointelpro and believe the violence accompanying the Torch Relay protests may be fomented by agents of the Chinese.

So do me a favor... get educated. Boycott the Olympics. Boycott Chinese goods (no shopping at WalMart?) and let the silence of our wallets send the message of dissatisfaction with China's continued occupation of the independent nation of Tibet. And tell George Bush not to attend the Olympic Opening Ceremony.



Free Tibet...



Note: all images are linked from their online sources. No copyright infringement intended.

Note 2: as with all things here, even this post ties back to Pablo... some of Paul's ashes are now in place on the NE side of the Bodhi tree and main stupa in Bohdgaya, India.


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Dharamsala, India, is the Dalai Lama's city of residence while he remains in exile.
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“Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.”

~ Buddha