Google unlocks the vault!!!!

Everything the Chinese government has blocked is now available via Google, including pictures of Tiananmen, articles on Free Tibet and the Dalai Lama and everything else.

According to Google's own stats, the most searched for terms in the past 24 hours were Tiananmen and the Chinese for it 天安门

And this picture here says it all:

"Google is a Badass!"

This comment here says:

Facebook的原罪是它能让人认识想认识的人，Twitter的原罪是它能让人说出想说的话，Google的原罪是它能让人找到想找到的东西，Youtube的原罪是它能让人看到想看到的东西……所以它们都被干掉了……

"Facebook lets you connect with your people, Twitter lets you talk with your people, Google lets you read what you want to read, Youtube lets you see what you want to see ... so they have been banned!!!"

Bet those hackers didn't see this coming.

Stick it to 'em Google!

Moses in the NYT

Dr. Russell Leigh, that is. My old Professor at the U of M was on CNN last year during the Olympics and now he has an Op-Ed in the NYT clearly and coldly explaining what is really going down.

Check it out.

In my last post i said that the Han arguments of "ingratitude" are laughably weak -- and they are -- but not the force that supports and enforces these arguments. In that same post, in the last paragraph, I share the sentiment that Moses clearly states in his Op Ed: Uighers and Tibetans are doomed.

Here, a relevant quote from Wendell Berry:

"A community, especially a rural community, is understood by its public servants as provincial, backward and benighted, unmodern, unprogressive, unlike 'us,' and therefore in need of whatever changes are proposed for it by outside interests (to the profit of the outside interests). Anyone who thinks of himself or herself as a member of such a community will sooner or later see that the community is under attack morally as well as economically. And this attack masquerades invariably as altruism: the community must be plundered, expropriated, or morally offended for its own good -- but its good is invariably defined by the interest of the invader. The community is not asked whether or not it wishes to be changed, or how it wishes to be changed, or what it wishes to change into. The community is deemed to be backward and provincial, it is taught to believe and to regret that it is backward and provincial, and it is thereby taught to welcome the purposes of its invaders."

Violence in Xinjiang

Uighers in Urumqi rioted over the past 24 hours, destroying property, killing people and fighting the police. The immediate cause for the riots was a brawl in Shaoguan, Canton Province that began after some fool posted a note on QQ saying that 6 Uigher boys had raped 2 Han women. Han workers then rampaged through the Uigher worker dormitory and killed an unknown number of people.

Seems a lot like LA after the Rodney King verdict right? Well the similarities do not end there. The conflict between the Uigher minority and the Han majority is racial, cultural, economic and political. It spans the entire community. It is one community vs. another and the battle is very uneven. On one side is the state, and on the other is a minority incorporated into the state through force.

After the Communists liberated China in 1949, they went about pacifying and unifying the nation. That included invading and occupying Tibet and invading and occupying Xinjiang. Throughout history, "Uigherstan" and Tibet have been under the control of either local strongmen/religious leaders or split along local tribal/power lines or subjugated to erratic and temporary Imperial rule. Only after 1950, when the Uigher leadership -- on its way to Beijing for a conference with Mao -- all were killed in a "plane crash" and the Tibetan leadership escaped into exile in India, only after the leaders were disposed with did the regions of Tibet and Xinjiang come under Imperial/Communist rule.

This is nothing new in the history of these areas. The only thing different is that it is happening now, in front of our eyes, in a globalized world with the media there to project images and words.

Yes, the Han are absolutely oppressing both the Tibetans and the Uigher. In this old column here, I wrote about the Cultural Revolution-era techniques still being employed in Tibet and Xinjiang and the religious oppression that is a focal point of discontent.

There are other points of contention that add to the anger:

1) Han immigration: Han now represent the majority in both Xinjiang and Tibet. This is a recent development -- since 1950 -- and represents, for Tibetans and Uighers, the inevitable destruction of their identity and their way of life. There is nothing one can do when waves of "the Other" set up shop and start having kids. It is a peacful and highly effective tool of ethnic cleansing.

2) Han economic domination: Han Chinese dominate the government in both these regions. In both, the governor and/or spokesman is a native Tibetan or Uigher who is either completely brainwashed or completely venal. These "traitors" are in place to respond to crises such as these in the strongest manner, to give the rest of the nation and the world the idea that rioters and protesters are "inhuman", as opposed to demanding humanity.

Government domination by one ethnic group over another has another, more important effect: the unequal distribution of income and of justice. Funds reach Tibet and Xinjiang directly from Beijing and are then distributed "as needed" by the central authorities in Lhasa and Urumqi. No one needs to go into the corruption that hampers China's development as a modern nation. Now imagine that corruption in an area where domination and oppression of "troublesome" minorities is encouraged.

So in both Tibet and Xinjiang we have the following situation:

a leaderless, highly religious people ruled by a centralized, motivated non-religious people. The rulers have the economic and political power. The ruled find themselves with the choice: become Han in nature or die.

It is a soul crushing battle -- like between a boa and a small deer. Aimless dead-eyed young men watch their women choose stability and wealth over ethnicity and religion, watch their friends turn their backs on Uigher-ness in favor of a good job in some factory, watch their fathers retreat into the back room to pray and wait for death.

That is why they take to the streets, because making a Han face bleed, even for a moment and at great consequence, makes up for everything.

If you can feel the hate for the Han, then step back from this narrow view of life and feel the hatred and anguish of all the other peoples of the world that have faced this same dilemma and have already died, already forgotten their language, already retreated to the most remote outposts of what was once their home to slowly go through the motions.

When i traveled through Xinjiang I noticed that if the Han did not fear the Uigher as much, did not dread "splittists" as much as they do, there wouldn't be any.

It is the need to dominate that creates these conflicts, not the need to be Uigher, or be Black or be Palestinian.

Tell it like it is

Losar is underway and the NYT and Atimes marked the Tibetan New Year with stories about the seething people of Tibet, pinned down by the boot of Communist China.

Kent Ewing in the Atimes wants to know when the policy will change. He hits on the real deal in Tibet briefly, way down in his article:

"... Unless, of course, Beijing succeeds in virtually wiping out its cultural and religious heritage - and that would be a far greater tragedy."

That is exactly what is going down. The Chinese are learning from the Americans. What did the US do to the natives:

Your god? a wimp, worship ours or die!
Your language? primitive, speak ours or die!
Your way of life? laughable, become us or die!

And this is exactly what China wants to have happen in Tibet. They don't give two shits about the cultural legacy of 6 million nomads the West seems to love so much. Shit there are more people in Chengdu then in all of Tibet. China want them all to become Han or die. Period. The only thing that will change this inevitable death by "boa constrictor" would be a Holocaust, eliciting enough guilt that the international community steps in and makes another Israel-Gaza-West Bank strip of death. But Chinese aren't Palestinians and the Tibetan diaspora has a long way to go before they can match the Jewish Lobby.

The best Tibetans can hope for is the cultural circus that surrounds their most beautiful spots and the dirty money that comes with it. The US is indeed the template for all things these days.

The Himalayas are forbidding. Perhaps the Tibetan legacy will live on in the deepest most hidden valleys and when the world collapses a few years from now, Tibetans will finally be free.

Moral Authority?

Its not hard to imagine how China manages to get away with being one of the more brazenly oppressive nations to hold the Olympics in recent times. The USSR was able to do so, but only with half the world boycotting and in 1936, Nazi Germany's Olympics were held before boycotts were widely used as a means of protest.

Boycotting China does not seem to be in the cards, although a postponement or outright cancellation of some events might be.

In the end, money talks. Rogge and the IOC most likely got paid. And when the heads of state consider boycotting the Opening Ceremonies, I am sure companies like the sports and media giant IMG and British mining concern CMG will take the politicians aside and whisper a few words ...

To Big Business, the will of the people is naught but an annoying buzzing, augmented only slightly by media blitzes and peep-voiced blogs like this one. China pays off the parents of children killed by the quake and corrupt construction firms and compensates Hakka farmers forcibly removed from their home because they know it works. Same goes for "the moral authority" of the West. Free Tibet indeed ...

caterpillar fever

Oh, about 5-6 years ago i saw my first pile of cordyceps in Kangding, Tagong and throughout the Kham area of western Sichuan. Tibetans were slanging the dried worms on the ground for several RMB (like 10 - 20) for a pile of about 250 grams. I didn't buy any, because at the time I had no idea what cordyceps were.

Then I slowly learned about the unique symbiotic relationship between worm and fungus that creates a chemical compound revered by basically all ethnicities living around the Himalayan Mountains. By the time I realized how cool they were, a Sichuanese businessman, surnamed Li, had already turned the market onto its head.

When once a pile of these worms would cost a few RMB, now they jumped to 30rmb a piece or more for the fat ones. Sneaky Li and others like him went to Kangding, Danba and beyond and bought truckloads off the worms off of the Tibetan nomads that had been collecting them for years. Whoa! thought the nomads, this crazy Han is coming up here and paying fifty RMB per 250g!

The kids jumped out of their classrooms and headed up the slopes of the mountains where these worms can be found, old men and women whispered the location of secret worm-collecting spots into the ears of their trusted sons and daughters, tribes vied with each other to get the most worms to the Han as possible.

Kinda reminds me of that part in O Brother Where Art Thou when the Soggy Bottom Boys come running out of the "studio" and say:

"I dont mean to be tellin tales outside o school, but there's a man in there give ya 10 dollers to sing into his can!'

hahaha

yeah and Pappy's response:

"Ya dumb cracker! I aint makin records, we're mass communicatin!

Here is a story in Asia Times which is interesting, because it is about the worm business on the Nepali and Indian side of the mountains ...

Nomads and crackers makin what they can while the Lis and Pappys of the world ball out of control mass communicatin to the ultimate consumers: the mighty middle class ...

We felt it comin ...

My friend Rachel wrote the day before the quake: "I feel like the world is shifting"

if ya'll check the first few lines of my post "The Illusion of Coincidence" you'll see that there was something in the air ...

just to embellish a bit: yesterday was Buddha's birthday.

The plates that caused this earthquake are the Tibetan plate rubbing againt the Sichuan basin (Tibet and Han rubbing against each other).

Earlier this year this area was hit with snowstorms.

Aba Prefecture, where the earthquake was centered, was the site of Tibetan protests in March.

China has invited the Dalai Lama to attend the Games.

The world is indeed shifting. How can one not be spiritual at a time like this?

A tremor, again, as I write.

the sad truth for tibetans and uighers

is that unless China falls apart, freedom will be a dream fulfilled only far from home.

we Westerners should consider what exactly drives our support for Tibetan/Uigher/Burmese freedom. The San Francisco authorities did their best to maintain free speech for all while respecting the integrity of the Olympic Flame. This show of strength by a free society is necessary and powerful when confronting oppression in a foreign country. Remember that the American dream began as a beacon in the dark.

Kun Shan

The western media feels guilty for spearing the Chinese. At least some of them do. After jumping all over the Tibet story from the Tibetan perspective -- lambasting Chinese state media along the way -- reporters are starting to look for Han Chinese living and working in Lhasa to tell the story from their perspective.

It will be interesting for them to compare the statistics and see if there truly is a government sanctioned immigration program afoot, in that the state gives incentives to the Han settlers large enough to equal or outweigh the incentives given to Tibetans as a registered minority. I don't know about that ... I will try and look for something.

It is unlikely that the western media will let off the heat, though. Especially when they feel the need to counter stuff like this in the Shanghai Daily:

"It's the heart of the matter ... Jin Jing, a disabled Chinese fencer and torchbearer, closes her eyes and holds tightly to the torch after an assault by a Western man who tried to snatch away her pride and joy."

It's getting emotional. The Chinese make themselves a target with their antiquidated PR campaign -- a campaign that is just a step above North Korea's government mouthpiece. But as my friend Jarret Wrisley says:

"As the Olympic torch flickers its way across continents, protestors have taken to the streets to condemn the treatment of Tibetans and other human rights violations. But what they fail to realize, beyond the sheer implausibility of a free, independent Tibet, is that most people here don’t really care what the rest of the world thinks. Dissent within has been crushed, and foreign media reports are dismissed as so much propaganda. It’s China’s moment, and no one can spoil it."

Zobel

As told by Markus Tong:

"I was guiding a group of people through the Tibetan highlands near Lhasa. we stopped at a village and walked around. We met a young boy, who was selling a piece of paper with Buddhist script and paintings on it. He asked for Y20, I got him down to Y14. We gave him the only bill we had, a Y100. He said he had to roll out to get change. We said ok, and hung out in the village. Half an hour later, we figured he had ditched us, so we got in the bus and prepared to leave. As we were about to pull away, another young boy ran up and stopped us. He gave us Y86. Then he said his friend had been hit by a car crossing the road and had begged him to take the money back us."

Markus got emotional toward the end and almost broke down and cried. The group of German tour operators he had been guiding through Chengdu were moved. All but two, who basically ignored the story, their minds on the logistics of the next day. In case you're wondering, Markus is as Han Chinese as they get.

Who knows?

Earlier, Tibetans from Kham and Aba were trading golden Buddhas and daggers for cash-money and other needful things in the antique market. Their customers are gringos and chinese. All was good. In the Tibetan district there are still popo on the block, but monks stroll by in red robes, fingerin beads, checkin out monk gear. On the ride home tonight, the cabbie went off on the government. Diggin into his pocket, pissin him off. Wants a multiparty system. The tv spits out lies all day.

*****************************************************************************

Finally headed home after eight days of "power tourism." Yeah i had dreams of leading people through the wilds for a second there, but the experience singed me. I am down to take my peoples, don't get me wrong. And even absolute strangers if they exhibit hobo sensibilities, craftsmanship, ingenuity or any other sort of clever behavior. Radiant behaviour. Warming and above all a curious nature. all comedians are allowed. Bards get a free pass, as do those with bottomless pouches.

But failing to display characteristics of the above persuasions or failing to introduce to me new and exciting ones ... and ... you know, sorry. naw. can't do it. Not long term anyway.


Its just draining. But it is interesting how close people get when they travel together for a while, even if they come from very different parts of the social web. I made good friends on this trip. At least when we left each other at the airport, the feelings and emotions were sincere. We had "did it together." I felt the same thing when i left the cannery, football team and those brothers who shivered with me in Thailand ... my main men, johnny and ryan ... aka blacktoe and the doc. Repeatedly burning at the stake with people ... burn once yer connected, burn twice your bound, burn thrice your brothers, burn again your immortal.

the young tibetan diaspora

like i be sayin:

you can't stop the youth

faded

I am just a few short miles from Aba, where the Tibetans burned down a police station last week. Since that incident it has been mostly quiet. This is a big tourist area and the troubles do not seem to have affected business much. Busloads of Cantonese rumble through daily, honking, yapping and taking funny pictures. The Tibetans in this region -- Jiarong Tibetans, supposedly the oldest of the many groups --are considered a rather passive lot compared with their cousins in Kham and Amdo. Many of them are more Sinofied then their cousins as well -- they may or may not speak Tibetan, but they sure as hell speak Chinese.

Aba is a bit more accessible then Kham and has Jiu Zhai Gou, a World Heritage Site that brings in 3 million tourists a year. Hard to remain warlike and pissed when the tourism money flows in.

Ironically, the police rounded up hundreds of poor Han Chinese peasant-laborers here without ID cards and sent them back to wherever they came from. The Tibetans treat the laborers with disdain and there is a clear racial issue between them.

A large group of journalists tried to sneak into Tibet proper here recently but were caught at the border and sent back to Beijing after heavy questioning. As with the Tibetan District in Chengdu, there is a large police presence on many of the roads in Aba and they routinely pull over foreigners and hassle them. They take pictures of rowdy Tibetans and spread the Party message of anti-splittism and solidarity with the Motherland. The police rely on a heavy hand and constant barrage of propaganda to keep the peace.

My gong fu master has been hired as security for the torch relay, so it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about the Tibet issue. He is a very open-minded and thoughtful man with no racist tendencies and a strong sense of honor. I think he is one of the best choices for security. He is able to talk with Tibetans. I just hope he gets the chance to talk before they start lobbing stones at him for being a member of the "oppressing race of Han."

I am really tired and this past week I have been dealing with crafty, maneuvering Chinese and battered, stressed out, shell-shocked Germans. I stand in the middle and because of that I am considered to have a more important position than I actually do have. The Germans look to me for solutions and the Chinese are trying to suss me out and get an advantage.

I just wanna head back to my crib, smell flowers, drink tea and think up cool stuff to write about.

Peace to Big Daddy Jake.

Hi Mom!

Aint nothin special bout me

i walked back to my house tonight around 2am and i live near the Tibetan district of town. there were police cars on every block with running motors and flashing lights. the entire neighborhood is surrounded and infiltrated. the only things moving were the cops fingers typing out a lazy message to his girl and the swirl of red and blue bulbs.

thanks to all my people asking about Tibet and sending me news and messages ... it is on everyone's lips here in China as well and i am finding that discussions are not as demented as they could be.

There is an understanding that something must be wrong in Tibet. locals themselves are under no illusions about their government. prices are rising all the time -- for meat, school and gas -- and the brazen bosses toss money, women and fat cars around like rice at a wedding. They know they are being lied to. Every time a campaign like this comes around from the gov, bullshit piles up and the stank carries far and wide. People here know this. But its never easy to hear a foreigner talk smack ... in a single conversation it can go from dirty stinkin tibetans to the lying, thieving Party to loudmouthed, hypocritical long-noses (Westerners). Life is tough for everybody out here -- we're all Lao Bai Xing just trying to get by

"Just keep your hands offa my stack"

Beijing is much more worried about what goes on in the minds and hearts of its own people than anything else. the chinese gov has no choice but to crack down hard on the tibetans to show the rest of the populace -- taxi drivers, turks, mafiosos, farmers -- that ass can be kicked at any time, anywhere. the Party wants to remain in control of this good thing they are building and reap the benefits of chinese capitalists unleashed in perpetuity.

(Beijing-gov-Party ...)

Cuz even if Sarkozy does boycott the opening ceremonies of the olympics, french businessmen will still go to beijing on their knees offering to build nuclear plants and begging for more containers, more tourists, more consumers to feed. the chinese will be the real indispensable nation and as such, jealous haters who refuse to come to the party now, will grovel for a chance to press noses to glass later.

I consider my motives for supporting Tibet:
I admire and love Tibetans and their Tibetanish ways. They're cool. Han Chinese not so much. They're religious ... and their religion is cooler than islam or christianity. i naturally tend to side with the underdog. Political oppression, cultural dilution and fast paced, ruthless economic development are not my bag.

two views on the issue, here at Antiwar.com and here at LewRockwell.com

Consider the history of the West and ask if we have the right to raise our voices anywhere -- Yugolsavia burned in Europe's backyard.

Consider the onus of guilt placed on a newborn for the crimes of his grandfather and ask if we have the duty to raise our voices everywhere -- so our grandchildren may enter the world unstained.

you've lost your smile

well it seems the media blockade is working or I just have not been keeping my ears open. Here a response to my last blog from Big Daddy Villar:

"I'm in a bit of a rush and really only had time to look at about two paragraphs of your blog. But from what I've read it goes to show that an informative guy like yourself has had the blinds put on him. On NPR they are constantly, at least two days ago, talking about the fact that the DL has threatened to step down if people in India don't stop doing things like burning Chinese flags in protest.

From what I've gathered the DL has also told, when in face to face talks with major leaders of the world, that he believes that Tibet and China need to be as one, yet that the Chinese must allow the people of Tibet certain born with rights.

I also listened to an interview with a chinese man on the street. He was very pro chinese and what they were doing in the situation dealing with Tibet. Once the reporter told him the numbers of dead Tibetens Tibet had been reporting his tone, still strong Chinese, changed in his voice. The talk of the waves nw is how will the corporate sponsers of the Olympic games be viewed. The long distance champion of the world in running refuses to run in the games because of the polution. Reports are already coming out of how the government is shuting down companies just so that they pass certain environmental regulations. It's interesting."

gettin paid

i should be putting this down for an article for Antiwar.com or somebody else, but events move to fast and I enjoy the freedom of this blog. But hell, ninja needs to get paid.

Last night I was interviewd by KBOO in P-Town about the Tibet protests. I was caught a little off guard by the questions and so I was not able to say all of the wonderful insights I have gathered over the years and days. When the interviewer asked if I had anything to say, I was like ... naw .. a little shook and I didn't want to mess anything up further with more random statements.

I was asked about Western nations advocating boycotts, which I haven't read anywhere. Mentioning them yes, advocating them no. I read a blog entry that suggested using yellow armbands and scarfs in the Opening ceremony to send a message of solidarity with struggles worldwide. What has a greater impact? A black fist in the sky atop the golden podium, or the grumbling of the nation that didn't come to play?

I was asked about the Dalai Lama declaring to step down. This is also news to me and actually, I don't have to look to hard to know its utter nonsense that he is considering stepping down. The interviewer was probably referring to the DL's declaration that he can reincarnate anywhere he wants. This is a very important political and spiritual statement. Normally, the monasteries get together and through arcane methods divine the whereabouts of the next DL. Usually in Tibet proper. Given the Chinese stranglehold on the Himalayas and willingness to brazenly corrupt the selection process, the DL's statement secures his successor a place to grow.

I was also asked about the possibility for sustained protests in Tibet and China. I said impossible, given the wrath of the army, police and populace. Imagine a popular uprising by the KKK in the south. How long would they be able to sustain it these days? Such is the image of the DL and his followers in the minds of Chinese.

Nancy Pelosi gave the Tibetan movement a boost and probably scared the shit out of Beijing with her visit to Dharamsala. That visit was planned before, but lord did it come at the right time. Makes one wonder what was planned and what wasn't ...

Here in China, the media have been taking advantage of years and years of brainwashing in the school system to ratchet up the anger against Tibet and also Taiwan. There were threats of war if Taiwan did anything, declarations of international support for the suppression of criminal Tibetan rioters and various stories detailing the burning and pillaging of innocents by the rampaging rioters. What is truth?

A billion plus people believe what Xinhua and the China Daily tells them ... I suppose in a metaphysical sense there is no real argument for the truth of either side -- ours or theirs.

Ours or theirs ...

Bill Richardson will endorse Obama in the next few days and it seems as if the collective breath we all held in while the storm of race broke over the campaign is being slowly let out. It was the Battle of the Bulge for Clinton ... and the cavalry held the flanks.

The jazz band just packed up and I am gonna end this and head to a safe house to get some R&R.

Peace.

China censors

It might be hard for an American to imagine what life would be like under a dictatorship of the proletariat. What happens, among many other things, is that news is completely censored as are your modes of communication.

My gmail account is spotty and has been for weeks. But since the protests I can barely be online for more than 10 minutes without the bastards shutting me down. I can access most sites through a proxy, but my communication is hampered slightly. And I am annoyed, growing furious actually. I am so proud to be an American, because fury at the suppression of my freedom is natural and accepted and encouraged. My response to censorship is in-born, as I am human, yet also cultivated by the values of the society I spent the most time in.

I think with this thing in Tibet going down, we should direct our attentions to the things at home that we can alter, improve or at the very least think about.

The candidate I support is currently experiencing a backlash by people in the US that frustrates me as much as the young girl who fails to empathize with Tibetans. There will be no solution in Tibet until girls like the one I described begin to diversify their viewpoints on life.

In America, a grand nation with every creed and color, still suffers from the exact same sickness as this girl. Obama, who tries to walk a path of mediation and unity in a nation fractured, is pulled back into the mud of racial politics by his enemies, who see him as an empty suit harboring secret anti-American Black Nationalist views.

Typically, the establishment cannot fathom a black man with rounded views: he has to be Cosby or Malcolm. In fact, the issues Obama rides on are change and hope and a new century for America, whereas his critics hope to paint him black into a corner, scaring the shit out of white people and opening the door for the status quo to return to business as normal.

We as a nation are big economic problems as well as the militarization of our foreign policy. Historically, this situation has been seen before with falling Empires. They often resort to violence and suppression to maintain what they have built. The Establishment invariably fils to understand that change, in the form of a new president for example, will not only reviatalize the nation, but give the people hope and energy.

The status quo does not change, actually, if Obama wins. All that changes is the attitudes of their charges (us) and the focus of our energies. We need a kick in the ass, not another old white man with Imperialist tendencies or a bitter, power-hungry woman with an interfering, interventionist, lying-ass husband.

The diaspora

yesterday i got a message from a young girl -- 21 yrs old -- and a reporter for the Chengdu Economic Daily. In our society, a young girl will be the bleedingest heart you'll find. and if she's smart enough to be a crack reporter, she will most likely be passionate and serious about her causes. Not in China people. She tolerates my support of Tibet with the patient understanding of an old woman with her grandchild. funnily enough, she fits the old Churchill quote:

"if you are young and conservative you are heartless, if you are old and liberal you are foolish"

Well China has skipped and altered many things on her path toward riches and this particular sentiment is one of them. The young Chinese are as hardline on Tibet as any cadre. Here is what she sent me, in response to me equating blacks (whom she supports at every turn in their struggle against .. well, me) with Tibetans.

"The Tibetan killed an immaculate citizen near the Huaxi Hospital"

This is of course doublespeak emanating from the boardrooms of her paper, where the Party sets the agenda. Seems to be over her head, this small fact.

Anyway. There was supposedly a bombing of the 78 bus line yesterday which passes the Southwest Minority University, but the circumstances are unclear and it doesn't make much sense. If a rebellion is reported i the news as isolated seemingly unconnected acts of random violence, my first reaction is to think "staged for effect" by the government. For this 21 yr old little girl, she sees clear and concise evidence of the Dalai's corrupting influence over the naiive Tibetan youth.

But the point of this blog is to declare that any protests and violence in China is doomed and the Dalai appears ineffectual. It will be up to the young to carry on the fight and make Tibet a burning flame in their hearts. Like Cubans, Afghanis and Palestinians. Burmans and Haitians ... etc ...

Communism, in its worldly manifestation outside of the books and theories of old men, is the most horrible system of governance the world has ever thought up ... well ok theocracies and slave states suck worse ...

Qiangba Puncog must hang

The day after the deadline and people here in China are talking about the protests, both my Laowai homies and my Chinese homies. It is safe to say that foreigners and Chinese disagree 100% on the Tibet issue.

An article in the NYT today talks about the long simmering hatred that has finally boiled over. This is something the Chinese have no understanding of. No toleration of any such criticism. I would say it is just intellectual and could be dealt with in a discussion, but Chinese are very passionate about the issue and refuse to believe that the same government they routinely harangue for being overtly, arrogantly corrupt could possibly be oppressing dirty stinking backward half-barbarians in the mountains.

It is also difficult for Chinese to believe that racism or a deep condescending sense of superiority might have something to do with it, but for Tibetans, it is a matter of course. When they speak with Chinese, they get complimented on their excellent language skills, when they achieve, they are a "particularly clever little Tibetan" and their religion -- the cornerstone of life in a nation still spiritual after all these years -- is co-opted and corrupted by the Chinese, who themselves are still searching for a God to replace the Emperor, Communism and now Cash-Money.

For the Chinese, the Tibetans are rowdy, ungrateful splittists, led by a devious and sinister fake monk with a strong case of megalomania. A couple articles in the Asia Times -- although not as visceral as these Xinhua stories -- hint that the Dalai Lama is a scallywag at heart. Their history books teach that Tibet was always part of China and loved it. The arrival of this monk and his political brand of Buddhism spoiled centuries of brotherhood and ruined the efforts of the Communist Party to develop and liberate the Tibetan people.

Chinese believe as strongly as we do in their convictions. There is no discussion. Naturally, there exists a counter-culture here that disagrees with the mainstream views on Tibet, but the counter-culture will never betray China for the sake of Tibetans. They might criticize from a safe distance or take trips to the affected areas to do documentary film work and such, but there is no movement for Tibet in China that crosses ethnic boundaries. And there is a knee jerk reaction to a foreigner saying anything about China.

The Tibetans are alone on this one. All they got here are some Laowai like me, writing perhaps, maybe arguing passionately in a bar. We endanger the movement as much as we give it life and hope. If I am seen with a Tibetan in the next few days, publicly, that guy might just be hauled in for questioning, or worse. At the same time, the questions he may have answered could lead to a story that will reach a few thousand people.

The deadline has come and gone and Chengdu is quiet. Soldiers came to patrol the underground bars last night to see if we was up to no good. I scowled at em and thought up lines to write.

When i fight for my freedom one day, will there be cameras? Will I yell to them to pick up a gun, or stop to give an interview?

Hold a Fist Up for Tibet

Yesterday I talked with my editor Katherine about Tibet and she asked what was going on. I said well, if people in Kham and Amdo rise up too, then things will get real serious. And today my girl Nicole sends me an Ap story describing protests in Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces. So perhaps things are serious.

Sichuan is home to mostly Khampa Tibetans in the prefectures of Aba and Kham. Qinghai and Gansu are home to Amdo Tibetans, for the most part, in Xiahe and around Labrang Monastery.

Back in the 1950s when the rebellion first began, the Dalai Lama decided to leave Lhasa for exile in Northern India. The Tibetans in and around Lhasa did not offer up too much resistance. The rebels retreated to India where they staged hit and run tactics over the border. The Dalai Lama is a strict Buddhist and is opposed to violence. And exile allowed him to survive free and able to continue the rebellion as best he can. Staying would have meant death, in one form or another.

So the center of the resistance shifted to Kham, in what is now Sichuan Province. The towns of Kangding, Litang, Ganzi and Dege and the valleys that connected them on the steppes became the battleground in Tibet's fight for independence. There are stories of heroes, like Rara Gyata, who were trained in Colorado by the US and parachuted back into Tibet with radios, maps, some guns and big brass balls to carry on the fight. They moved in large caravans of yaks and tents and jangling brass bells. They fought behind the crumbling walls of old monasteries. They ambushed trucks from unassailable heights. But in the end, as my man 10z once told me

"There are only a few million Tibetans."

The rebellion has never really ended in Kham or Amdo. Chinese police get beaten up every now and then. Shots are fired and homes burnt. Monks are imprisoned routinely for going to India, brash men are pummeled into idiocy. They stop me in the streets, pull out a medallion with the Dalai's picture on it and say: I am Tibetan, we love the Dalai Lama.

Khampas will break your face, my man. They roll through town with long manes and gold teeth, cowboy hats with feathers and big daddy shades. They got rings and chains and all manner of Buddha bling, coral and silver, ivory and gold. They carry daggers with gilded hilts in the folds of a chupa -- the pimp cloak of the Himalayas. These ninjas aint gonna have anybody say anything to them.

A scuffle in some town in Aba is not a revolution. But I cannot imagine that the Khampas that fought when Lhasa had already capitulated and the Dalai was on the run would sit and watch this time around.

The role of the Dalai is crucial. He used the phrase "cultural genocide" to describe the situation in Tibet. The Dalai won't live much longer and he knows that Beijing has already been preparing for his eventual death. His successor would command the loyalty of all Tibetans, if he manages to be found, spirited away to a safe place and allowed to grow. He is the spirit of the Dalai in a new body. What better chance to prove that reincarnation exists than to have the soul change bodies in the middle of a crisis. Tibet will need such a miracle, as the DL himself admitted to the press.

Because the rumors are true: the Chinese are going to breed the Tibetans out. Every day more Chinese migrants show up, with little or no concern for whom they are displacing. They themselves are uprooted and surviving. China has a Manifest Destiny with its own countless Trails of Tears, but today in 2008, with a billion people on the move. The DL has had several talks with the authorities that have led to nothing. The Chinese do not have any incentive to negotiate. When the DL dies, thats it, the problem will fizzle, so they think. With money, power, leisure and lust the new order replaces Tibetans with a new Underclass.

So the crucial question for Tibetans would be is this part of a sustained effort according to a premeditated plan or an unorganized outburst of anger?

In the NYT i read an account in which the Dalai Lama appeared powerless. When asked how he felt, he described being anxious and sad because he could do nothing. He rejected independence and called for the Chinese to show restraint and respect the Tibetans right to protests peacefully. But he stopped short of taking a stand and throwing up a fist -- in his own way as a devout Buddhist.

Can this be true? If so then the rebellion will be crushed summarily, the news reports will trickle to a halt and the world will tune into to CCTV this August.

There have been no declarations, no announcements, no demands from the Tibetan side as of now that I have read about. That is an unfortunate sign as it leads one to believe this is just an outburst that will settle down once enough people have been shot or imprisoned.

The Chinese gave the people time to surrender. They did not name names, did not provide a list. Just asked for those responsible to turn them in my midnight tonight or else. Very smart. Imagine the sweat thats pouring now throughout Tibet.

I have heard people with long experience in Tibet lament the inevitable destruction of the Tibetan culture. Anyone who has traveled in Tibet knows what he is seeing to be cultural genocide, plain and simple. It starts from the outside, but then assumes control of its host, growing from the inside as well, accelerating the decay. The fact that the majority of Tibetans I have met have been absolutely sure of their identity as a Tibetan speaks to the strength of their society and culture.

And of course so do these protests against a determined and unwavering enemy. The only thing that can possibly aid Tibet now is international outcry. In Burma the world did nothing while monks marched in silence and were beaten down by police. Nothing was done. Nothing has changed. If anything the regime in Burma is stronger for having demonstrated its willingness to whip ass on protesters.

Will there be any difference with Tibet? That depends entirely on the plan the Tibetan leadership has come up with. Does it include the celebrities that are calling for China to re-think its relationship with the Sudan? Are there any heads of state that were notified of this before hand? What will they do? Condoleeza Rice is the one doing the talking for the US right now, calling for restraint and the release of prisoners.

Is there even a plan? The NYT interview with DL does not point to a plan. I have heard one NGO worker who tried to set up a yak milk dairy farm describe working with Tibetans as "like herding cats." They are notoriously independent minded. Strong willed and stubborn. And many other things as well .. being an ancient people.


Before the Americans would contribute troops to help fight the Japanese in China, Chiang Kai Shek had to convince them that it was worth it. He defended Shanghai for two months against the Japanese. When he finally withdrew, the Americans agreed to send Stillwell over to help fight. The Chinese army, finally broken after all that fighting, fled in a rout, passing Nanjing along the way. When the Japanese entered Nanjing, they raped and murdered.


Before the Americans decide to help the Tibetans fight the Chinese, the Tibetans have to prove that it is worth it. They have to bleed all over the streets and have their women dragged away in front of cameras. They have to wail to the heavens and carry their dead children up to journalists and beg for an answer. The Dalai Lama has to become the last king of a dying nation and charge into the fray. They have to make the last stand and lie bleeding in piles before the West will show up and help sort the bodies.

In Linda Polman's book, We Did Nothing, the UN and US efforts to keep the peace all over the world are revealed to be empty and ineffectual at best, ridiculous and incredibly tragic at worst. Carpetbaggers follow Special Forces legends around and sell steaks and beer, rent out living space and showers. Refugees are slaughtered, nations pillaged and the UN acts as a witness more than an actor. Picking up the pieces, filing reports. In Norway, I believe or Sweden, they have a project to collect a sample of all the world's plants and create a seed bank for the future.

If the international community, with a bad track record of witnessing genocides more often than stopping them, can do little to help Tibet, then what is to be done when a people stand up and call for release from oppression? I don't believe one can argue that the Tibetans and Burmese are not being oppressed. I suppose as a white man described the Native kid at church with his hair slicked back, so can the Chinese also defend their Tibet policy.

Individual and small group action can help keep the spirit alive for as long as possible. The diaspora, young strong and vigorous, can always keep the homeland in their hearts. This is truly the only way for Tibet if the DL does not lead his people toward head-on conflict now. Tibetan culture is as strong as any in the world, and stronger than many. There is no reason Tibet cannot live on in the young as tales and memories and dreams that become lyrics and books -- and with them the will to not only survive, but flourish.

The Jews did it for generations. It is true that the Chinese in San Francisco are more traditional than the Chinese in Chengdu. Quebecois speak French like they used to before the English won the war. The DL, if unwilling to go toe to toe right now, must be thinking about his legacy about now. He is 72. Who will be next? How long will the child live before Chinese spies get a hold of him? How will the monks find him in Occupied Tibet. Will he be a great leader or will he be the Last Emperor, oblivious as Tibet falls around him, dying in dissolution, unsure of who he is till the very end?

We who can see the future of Tibet in the eyes of the Sioux should already know what to do. But sadly we don't. It seems a law of history that if a nation wants something it has to take it, or suffer a Holocaust before it will be given.