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Dalai Lama's Hypocrisy Exposed
turbovista 发表于 2008-04-21 02:37:32
Until now the Dalai Lama had been blowing smoke up the *** of people around the world. But hypocrisy can only survive that long.
Though I'm no champion of China either, yet I couldn't agree more with the recent statement of the Chinese ambassador to Canada that "the Dalai Lama has been lying to the world" being entirely responsible for the recent violence in his homeland.
The Tibetan spiritual leader has since long been projecting his values as a goodie-goodie, mild, humble and peace-loving 'package.' However, in the wake of the recent turmoil in Tibet, his carefully structured image of a peace-lover has gone into the ditch. Though the West supports him blindly, portraying him a "man of peace" and throwing the blame squarely on China, the incompatibility between the Dalai Lama's words and actions has been unveiled like a dirty piece of linen hidden in the closet all this while.
The West's persistent support for the Tibetan uprising and determination to define it as a "peaceful" move exposes their brazen double standards yet again .. a foregone conclusion, which they no longer desire to conceal. Despite their reporting being so partisan, it was enough to expose the Dalai Lama's deceptive stance. The Western media upholds that the Chinese law enforcement agencies cracked down on "peaceful Tibetan demonstrators." Again, despite such distortions, the truth was easy to perceive. The television images didn't show any peaceful Tibetan demonstrators. What we saw as large as life was the unprovoked Tibetan mob kicking and breaking shop-windows and doors with sticks, carrying knives somewhat like machetes and the Buddhist monks in possession of large collections of rocks which they were angrily hurling at the police. If this is supposed to be considered a "peaceful demo," I don't know what violence would mean according to Tibetan and Western values. Or, are we expected to think that dangerous hooliganism is not violence as long as the mob doesn't carry guns? If so, then these are truly unfair concessions made by the West for the Tibetans.
It's staggering to learn that after so much that has happened, the Dalai Lama still claims to be uninvolved in this uprising. He has even played that standard hackneyed stunt which all crafty leaders do.. that he would quit if his involvement were proven. Of course, this was an intentional statement as he was fully aware that such matters are impossible to prove. No one was able to prove his involvement and therefore, his calculated rhetoric conveniently continues to stand. If the Dalai Lama really wasn't involved (which not even a mug would believe) and yet his people went as far as this without his consent, would only indicate the Dalai Lama's non-entity status among his own folks. Otherwise, knowing China's zero-tolerance policy toward protests, it was awfully selfish of him not to caution and prevent his followers from staging such violent rallies while he, himself, sat comfortably indoors.
He is loud as ever about those "90" Tibetans killed by Chinese police. Even if one presumes that figure to be correct, this confrontation was two-sided. But most importantly, perhaps it's time for the Dalai Lama to get an idea of what suffering actually means. He has been an avid speaker from a distance for long enough. For a change, he ought to take a closer look at reality and how different that is from just words. Ninety innocent civilians die in places like Gaza, Iraq, Chechnya, Afghanistan etc. almost every week (if not everyday) while going to school, to work or to buy food from the stores. It's clear that the Dalai Lama always knew the importance of being down-to-earth but has never been candid enough to acknowledge it to the world. That's his biggest problem. He now seems to be in a fix as he realizes that there's no way out but to choose publicly between being a big leader or a big mouth. The practical world is very different from those wishful fantasies of turning the other cheek. If his people are genuinely dissatisfied being a part and parcel of China, any movements to secede in that kind of scenario is impossible without huge sacrifices of shedding blood and sweat.
As for the West's empty songs of praise for the Tibetans and their leader, I wouldn't expect anyone with an iota of truthful perception to get carried away by all that.
Very recently, the audacious Western media proudly highlighted China's failed attempt to portray the situation of Tibet under control before foreign journalists as "embarrassing," pointing a deeply critical finger at the manipulations of the Chinese authority for bringing only a handful of co-operative Tibetans before the camera to speak. I wouldn't debate that as false, but it goes without saying that China isn't the only country that practices such tactics. After all, numerous North American television viewers are sick of the media bias on their own soil, projecting only one side of the story. The artful culture of lies & propaganda by mainstream Western medias is rapidly becoming a seriously negative issue in the Western world in which they relentlessly demonize countries not in the 'good books' of the West by interacting only with hard-line dissidents of those countries. This is absolutely no secret. No wonder so many of us have to turn to alternative news sites to learn the facts.
Needless to say, the West has its own motives based on purely self-serving ideologies. Tibet isn't a land of any strategic political importance nor is it rich in oil or any other useful resources. The West's unconditional support for this region is basically an expression of rewarding it for its useless, non-entity global status. An insignificant corner of the globe like Tibet is neither concerned nor involved with the West's unjust imperialistic ambitions and flawed foreign policies in countries of strategic importance like the Middle-East, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan etc. The U.S. and the E.U. can starve and oppress these regions till eternity with sanctions, hunger and bombs, yet a reclusive person like the Dalai Lama supposedly donned in the garb of "peace" will have no inclination to utter a single word of criticism nor expression of concern, and neither does he have the potential to take any punitive measures to lessen such global injustice. Such discreetly conniving and insignificant personalities are the darlings of the West who are forever appreciated and glorified .. the type who travel around the world talking gentle, never implementing their much trumpeted sincerity in support of the larger world, yet grabbing Nobel Peace prizes and then retreating into their shells.
The Dalai Lama's sycophants claim that he isn't advocating a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. But apparently he is also not averse to advocating the same. If this person is truly a "man of peace" then he ought to make a public statement, telling his supporters to quit street violence. As yet he hasn't uttered a single word denouncing the violent and unruly behaviour of his people.
Accept it or not, the Dalai Lama has shown his true colors. He is no different from any other shrewd and selfish politician. Peace and compassion take the back seat in his policies by a long shot.
Dalai Lama's Links to CIA Still Stir Debate
turbovista 发表于 2008-04-10 06:56:23
Dalai Lama's Links to CIA Still Stir Debate
The Dalai Lama's hidden past
turbovista 发表于 2008-04-10 06:44:37
The Dalai Lama's hidden past
25 September 1996
Comment by Norm Dixon
Most solidarity and environmental groups supporting the Tibetan people's cause have not questioned the Dalai Lama's role in Tibetan history or addressed what it would mean for the Tibetan people if the Dalai Lama and his coterie returned to power.
A 1995 document distributed by the Dalai Lama's Office of Tibet aggressively states that ``China tries to justify its occupation and repressive rule of Tibet by pretending that it `liberated' Tibetan society from `medieval feudal serfdom' and `slavery'. Beijing trots out this myth to counter every international pressure to review its repressive policies in Tibet.'' It then coyly concedes: ``Traditional Tibetan society was by no means perfect ... However, it was not as bad as China would have us believe.''
Was this a myth? Tibet's Buddhist monastic nobility controlled all land on behalf of the ``gods''. They monopolised the country's wealth by exacting tribute and labour services from peasants and herders. This system was similar to how the medieval Catholic Church exploited peasants in feudal Europe.
Tibetan peasants and herders had little personal freedom. Without the permission of the priests, or lamas, they could not do anything. They were considered appendages to the monastery. The peasantry lived in dire poverty while enormous wealth accumulated in the monasteries and in the Dalai Lama's palace in Lhasa.
In 1956 the Dalai Lama, fearing that the Chinese government would soon move on Lhasa, issued an appeal for gold and jewels to construct another throne for himself. This, he argued, would help rid Tibet of ``bad omens''. One hundred and twenty tons were collected. When the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, he was preceded by more than 60 tons of treasure.
Romantic notions about the ``peaceful'' and ``harmonious'' nature of Tibetan Buddhist monastic life should be tested against reality. The Lithang Monastery in eastern Tibet was where a major rebellion against Chinese rule erupted in 1956. Beijing tried to levy taxes on its trade and wealth. The monastery housed 5000 monks and operated 113 ``satellite'' monasteries, all supported by the labour of the peasants.
Chris Mullin, writing in the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1975, described Lithang's monks as ``not monks in the Western sense ... many were involved in private trade; some carried guns and spent much of their time violently feuding with rival monasteries. One former citizen describes Lithang as `like the Wild West'.''
The Tibetan ``government'' in Lhasa was composed of lamas selected for their religious piety. At the head of this theocracy was the Dalai Lama. The concepts democracy, human rights or universal education were unknown.
The Dalai Lama and the majority of the elite agreed to give away Tibet's de facto independence in 1950 once they were assured by Beijing their exploitative system would be maintained. Nine years later, only when they felt their privileges were threatened, did they revolt. Suddenly the words ``democracy'' and ``human rights'' entered the vocabulary of the government-in-exile, operating out of Dharamsala in India ever since.
Dharamsala and the Dalai Lama's commitment to democracy seems weak. An Office of Tibet document claims ``soon after His Holiness the Dalai Lama's arrival in India, he re-established the Tibetan Government in exile, based on modern democratic principles''. Yet it took more than 30 years for an Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies to be directly elected from among the 130,000 exiles. Of 46 assembly members, only 30 are elected. The other 16 are appointed by religious authorities or directly by the Dalai Lama.
All assembly decisions must be approved by the Dalai Lama, whose sole claim to the status of head of state is that he has been selected by the gods. The separation of church and state is yet to be recognised by the Dalai Lama as a ``modern democratic principle''.
The right-wing nature of the Dalai Lama and the government-in-exile was further exposed by its relationship with the US CIA. The Dalai Lama concealed the CIA's role in the 1959 uprising until 1975.
Between 1956 and 1972 the CIA armed and trained Tibetan guerillas. The Dalai Lama's brothers acted as intermediaries. Before the 1959 uprising, the CIA parachuted arms and trained guerillas into eastern Tibet. The Dalai Lama maintained radio contact with the CIA during his 1959 escape to India.
Even the Dalai Lama's commitment to allowing the Tibetan people a genuine act of self-determination is debatable. Without consultation with the Tibetan people, the Dalai Lama openly abandoned his movement's demand for independence in 1987. This shift was first communicated to Beijing secretly in 1984. The Dalai Lama's proposals now amount to calling for negotiations with Beijing to allow him and his exiled government to resume administrative power in an ``autonomous'', albeit larger, Tibet. The Dalai Lama's call for international pressure on Beijing seeks only to achieve this.
There are indications that a younger generation of exiled Tibetans is now questioning the traditional leadership. In Dharamsala, the New Internationalist reported recently, young Tibetans have criticised the abandonment of the demand for independence and the Dalai Lama's rejection of armed struggle. They openly question the influence of religion, saying it holds back the struggle. Some have received death threats for challenging the old guard. Several recently-arrived refugees were elected to the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies.
The Tibetan people deserve the right to national self-determination. However, supporting their struggle should not mean that we uncritically support the self-proclaimed leadership of the Dalai Lama and his compromised ``government-in-exile''. Their commitment to human rights, democracy and support for genuine self-determination can only be judged from their actions and their willingness to tell the truth.
What's CIA up to with Dalai Lama?
turbovista 发表于 2008-04-10 06:34:41
What's CIA up to with Dalai Lama?
By Sara Flounders
On Aug. 14 the Dalai Lama--a religious figurehead of Tibetan Buddhism-was in New York's Central Park. While in the city he also appeared at three sold-out performances at the Beacon Theatre plus other events--where wealthy individuals could pay up to ,000 a ticket to hear him speak.
He had official cooperation, including prominent news articles in each of the three major dailies and subway posters with directions to the park, compliments of the New York City Transit Authority.
According to the New York Times, the Dalai Lama's every move was mapped out and scheduled by the U.S. State Department. New York City officials blocked off streets. Television crews from around the world followed him. And every news or feature story managed to push the issue of independence of Tibet from People's China.
Puerto Rico has about the same size population as Tibet. Puerto Rico has been a U.S. colony for over 100 years. It has had many great and dynamic leaders. Why aren't there similar movies, posters and concerts bankrolled for Puerto Rico's leaders, just to take one example?
Rock bands, movie stars and politicians all honor the Dalai Lama and raise the call for a "free Tibet." This State Department campaign has confused many people who are deeply interested in freedom for political prisoners or in environmental issues. But under a slick cover, this campaign hides an unrelenting attack on the People's Republic of China and the accomplishments of the Chinese Revolution.
The Dalai Lama, with considerable help from the major corporate media, has become a cult figure. Ask anyone who's tuned in to the media. Even if they hardly know anything about politics, they will tell you the Dalai Lama is a good, saintly person, a "holy man," a "spiritual force." His new book, "The Art of Happiness"--co-written with Howard C. Cutler--was promoted until it made the best-seller list for 29 weeks.
But is the Dalai Lama really apolitical? If so, why did this "holy man," who supposedly would not kill an insect, support NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia?
People concerned about social issues should know that, like Pope John Paul and other conservative religious leaders, the Dalai Lama denounces abortion, all forms of birth control and homosexuality.
U.S. imperialism has much experience in using the religious sentiment of millions of people. The CIA formed a bloc with the Pope, who has the allegiance of hundreds of millions of Roman Catholics, to overturn socialism in Poland. It should come as no surprise that the Dalai Lama is also utilized by the CIA.
On the other hand, religious figures who oppose U.S. policy are demonized or become targets of assassination--from Bishop Romero of El Salvador to religious Muslims in Lebanon and Palestine.
Last year Hollywood released two major movies about Tibet. The Hollywood studios love the Dalai Lama, who, we are told, embodies the spirit and aspirations of the Tibetan people. The rich conglomerates that now control Hollywood--Disney and TriStar--both support the organization Free Tibet.
Hollywood glorifies the tiny Tibetan ruling class and its presumed idyllic past in the same way the movie "Gone With the Wind" glorified slavery and the racist ruling class in the old South.
One of these movies, "Seven Years in Tibet," was based on a book written by an Austrian Nazi, Heinrich Harrer. He was involved in some of the most brutal crimes of the fascists in Austria. Harrer ended up in Tibet during World War II on a secret mission for German imperialism, which was trying to compete with British imperialism in Asia. He was accepted into the inner circle of the court life among the Tibetan nobility.
Imperialism vs.
Indigenous culture
All over the globe Indigenous societies of North America, Latin America, Africa and Australia have been decimated. The rich variety of their cultures, music and religious beliefs have been ripped up, stepped on and ridiculed. Native peoples have been crushed all over the world by the very forces who today seem to be so respectfully in awe of Tibetan culture.
Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism would have been of little interest to U.S. or British imperialism had it not been for the great Chinese Revolution, which swept away all the old, corrupt feudal society.
This was a revolution that involved mass movements of millions of poor peasants organizing to distribute the land and throw out the old landlords. This great social upheaval unleashed the creative energy and participation of a quarter of humanity. Yet the Western media instead glorifies the old Tibet.
Era of divide and rule in China
For over 100 years, the imperialist powers of Western Europe and Japan carved China into spheres of interest, just as Europe carved Africa into outright colonies. Washington opposed these special concession areas only because it wanted unrestricted access to all of China for U.S. business.
In the 19th century, Britain, the dominant power, fought two wars with the Manchu Dynasty for the right to impose the sale of opium on China. In 1904 Britain launched a full-scale military invasion of Tibet. In the Treaty of Lhasa, China was forced to grant two trading areas to Britain and to pay huge military reparations to cover the cost of the British war.
In 1949 the Red Army was close to finally defeating the U.S.-supported Kuomintang army led by General Chiang Kai-shek. Washington then plotted to let Tibet join the new United Nations as an independent country. The effort failed because Tibet had been considered a Chinese pro vince for over 700 years, and even the Kuomintang asserted that China had always included Tibet and the island of Taiwan.
Today as U.S. imperialism grows ever more aggressive, it is moving on several fronts to push for the separation of Tibet, Taiwan and the western province of Xinjiang from China.
Just as in the Balkans and in the republics of the former Soviet Union, U.S. corporate forces support and encourage separatist movements to break up and control whole areas of the globe that had earlier broken free of imperialist domination.
Life in old Tibet
Pre-revolution Tibet was a completely underdeveloped region. It had no road system at all. The only wheels were prayer wheels. It was an agricultural, feudal theocracy based on serfdom and slavery.
Over 90 percent of the population were landless serfs. They were tied to the land but owned nothing. Their children were registered on the landlord's property books.
There were no schools, except feudal monasteries where a handful of young boys studied chants. Total enrollment in the old-style private schools was 600 students. Education for women was of course absolutely unheard of. There was no health care. There was not one hospital in all of Tibet.
One hundred noble families and the abbots of 100 major monasteries--also from ruling families--owned everything. The Dalai Lama lived in the 1,000-room, 14-story Potala Palace. Traditionally he was chosen in his youth from outside the ruling circles. He remained a pawn under the control of contending advisers from the nobility.
For the average peasant, life was short and miserable. Tibet had one of the highest rates of tuberculosis and infant mortality in the world.
Today Tibet has 2,380 primary schools, along with several professional schools, where education is conducted in the Tibetan language. Tibet now has 2,623 doctors, 95 municipal hospitals and 770 medical clinics.
Class struggle in Tibet
In 1949 the Chinese Revolution first established Tibet as an Autonomous Region with far more rights than it had under any previous Chinese government. Chinese Communist Party policy was to wait until conditions developed within the oppressed classes of the Tibetan population to rise up and overthrow serfdom.
Serfdom was not outlawed until 1959, ten years after the Chinese Revolution. This hap pened after a mass movement had isolated the whole entourage of the Dalai Lama.
It's true, however, that Chinese Communists challenged age-old customs in Tibet.
First of all, the Chinese government paid wages to Tibetans who worked on a large national road-building program. This totally disrupted the custom of servitude. Before this, a serf could only survive by working for a landlord, not for wages but for food.
Even more revolutionary was the CCP policy of paying wages to children of serfs and former slaves to attend school and providing them with books, meals and housing. In desperately poor families even young children had had to work for the family to survive. This revolutionary policy gave economic leverage for the first time to the most oppressed layers of this stifling class society.
CIA mobilizes ruling-class
resistance
Starting in 1955 the CIA began to build a counter-revolutionary army in Tibet, much like the contras in Nicaragua and, more recently, the financing and training of the KLA in Kosovo.
In the Aug. 16 Newsweek magazine, an article entitled "A secret war on the roof of the world--spooks, monks and the CIA's covert gamble in Tibet" describes details of the CIA operation from 1957 to 1965.
Similarly, a major article in the Jan. 25, 1997, Chicago Tribune described the special training of Tibetan mercenaries at Camp Hale in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado throughout the 1950s.
These mercenaries were then parachuted into Tibet. According to the famous "Pentagon Papers," there were at least 700 of these flights in the 1950s. Air Force C-130s were used, as later in Vietnam, to drop ammunition and submachine guns. There were also special bases in Guam and Okinawa for training Tibetan soldiers.
Gyalo Thundup, the Dalai Lama's brother, ran the operation. This was hardly a secret. It was his claim to fame.
The Chicago Tribune article was titled, "The CIA Secret War in Tibet." As this article said so well, "Little about the CIA skullduggery in the Himalayas is a real secret except maybe to the U.S. taxpayers who bankrolled it."
The CIA gave a special retainer to the Dalai Lama throughout the 1960s of 0,000 a year--a small fortune in Nepal, where it had set up an army and virtual government in exile. Washington also set up special radio stations aimed at Tibet projecting the Dalai Lama as a god-king.
Ralph McGehee, who has written many exposés of CIA operations and maintains a web site, described in some detail how the "company" promoted the Dalai Lama. The CIA's National Endowment for Democracy provided money for the Tibet Fund, Tibet Voice and the International Campaign for Tibet.
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Videos
turbovista 发表于 2008-04-09 06:53:59
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsoc4-QnplY
(2)Unpleasant facts from within the Tibetan community, easily forgotten.
Unpleasant facts from within the Tibetan community, easily forgotten. A film documentation of historical importance:
For centuries the deity Dorje Shugden has been worshipped by the greatest and most important Buddhist masters, many of whom are among the most respected ones in the whole of Tibetan history. Also by the Dalai Lama's teacher Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang.
If the Dalai Lama thinks that all the great masters were mistaken, he also denies them their qualification. Then the others would not be great masters.
Question: All the great masters who have worshipped the deity for centuries, were they all wrong?
Dalai Lama: "Wrong! Yes, wrong!"
The Dalai Lamas criticism and defamation of his own Root Guru created the schism of the Gelug order of Tibetan Buddhism and conflicts within the Tibetan community.
Documentation from January 5th, 1998. Swiss Public TV.
Part1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5sOm-uQH9Y
Part2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP8ELPLESYI
Part3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1dILwsmwCQ&feature=related
(3) Tibet Riot Filmed by Australian Tourist in 14/03/2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP8ELPLESYI