The recent news of the release from house arrest of Pakistan’s rogue nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan had, as usual, leaders and commentators in the free world blowing hot and cold. The release was universally condemned as “a blow to international security” but as always the behind-the-scenes role of China as the leading proliferator of nuclear weapons and delivery technology to rogue states, was studiously ignored.
A Not So Special Meeting
There’s no denying that I walked into the thing with my “eyes wide shut” – to borrow the title phrase of Stanley Kubrick’s last film.
Middle Way Metamorphosis
In the final analysis I think the proponents of the Middle Way are looking at developments in a glass half-empty and not in a glass half-full sort of way. They are making a big mistake by emphasizing only the “negotiation” and the “autonomy” component…
Rangzen: the Case for Independent Tibet (2008 Edition)
The military stranglehold on Lhasa by day is maintained with one chilling addition — snipers are installed on rooftops around the city’s most holy site, the Jokhang Temple, ready to train their guns on the hundreds of Tibetan pilgrims praying in Barkhor Square below.
Put Rangtsen Back on the agenda again
In the light of these pronouncements from China, the chance to reach at a negotiated settlement of the Tibet Issue has completely disappeared again. Given such developments, the Special Meeting of the Tibetans in the free world, where even some Tibetans from the occupied Tibet might be present, becomes really “historic”
Making The November Meeting Work
October has been a stressful month. First there was the news of His Holiness being taken to Ganga Ram hospital. I overheard it when my mother-in-law was listening to Radio Free Asia (RFA) in the kitchen.
Chinese oppression ‘uniting Tibetans’
I recently talked to a journalist in Beijing who wanted to know how Tibetans were reacting to China’s crackdown in Tibet and whether they were still defiant or were feeling dispirited because of the extreme …
Toasting The Olympics With Toxic Milk
A Tibetan friend in Switzerland passed on this bit of revelation to me. He had been watching the conclusion of the Beijing Games on German TV (ZDF) and noticed that when they sung the national anthem the lyrics didn’t quite seem to match the translation that appeared on the giant screen.
Remembering the First Rangzen Marcher
Taktser Rimpoche was convinced that Tibet needed independence not for some exalted ideological reason but as a fundamental condition, an essential requisite for the survival of the people, their language, their culture and even their religion.
The Fear in Lhasa (A poem by Woeser)
A hurried farewell to Lhasa,
Where the fear is in your breathing, in the beating of your heart,
In the silence when you want to speak but don’t,
In the catch in your throat.
