David reads books

Tibet in the media

The Tibet issue gets quite a lot of media attention. However, the quality of a lot of what is written is not great. News from the Chinese media is nothing more than propaganda and it often gets re-reported by the major news agencies. What is written in the media outside China does a good job of representing the viewpoints of both sides but lacks nuance. It tends to be the Tibetan Government in Exile versus the Xinhua News Agency. There is no appreciation of the wider range of viewpoints that exist.

Shakya Tsering, a leading Tibetan historian and author of Dragon in the Lands of Snows, has an excellent article in the Far Eastern Economic Review titled The Gulf Between Tibet and Its Exiles. In it he highlights the difference in outlook between the Tibetans in exile and the Tibetans in the PRC. The article discusses many of the complexities of Tibetan politics that are generally ignored.

The article was written in response to two earlier articles. One was by William Engdahl in Global Research which was later retracted and is no longer online. The other was by Ching Cheong repeating Engdahl's argument.

Another article on a similar theme was published in the Asia Times Online in March 2008. Tibet, the 'great game' and the CIA by Richard Bennett talks about Tibet's connections with the CIA. Although some people some people are surprised by the historical connections between the Tibetans and the CIA during the Cold War it is hardly a secret. It is the subject of the book The CIA's Secret War in Tibet and the documentary The Shadow Circus.

While I am sure that various foreign intelligence agencies (especially those of India and the US) maintain connections with various Tibetan groups I think it is a little naive to connect the covert guerilla war in the 1960s to the present outbreak of protests in Tibet.

What journalists should be spending more time doing though is investigating and understanding the politics of the Tibetans in exile. Some of them might be quite surprised to learn that not all Tibetans regard His Holiness the Dalai Lama with uncritical devotion. There are a wide range of viewpoints in the Tibetan diaspora.

Another topic that really needs thorough investigation is the Dorje Shugden sect who are protesting against the Dalai Lama claiming he is opressing their religious freedom. This group is closely linked with the New Kadampa Tradition (NKT) led by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso. There is a very long Wikipedia article titled the Dorje Shugden controversy which covers a lot of the details.

Some suspect the Chinese of being an invisible hand behind the Dorje Shugden controversy using it to discredit the Dalai Lama. However, as far as I know thre is no credible evidence to prove this. It could also be the result of a split within the Tibetan in exile community. This would not be a first as there has already been the Karmapa controversy. It is also possible that this is just the workings of a religious sect or cult that is fanatical about its beliefs. Whatever the case might be it is something that needs more investigation and analysis in the media.

Labels: media, Tibet

posted by David @ 4:21 AM 2 comments

The cost of climate change

Today is World Environment Day. The theme for this year's event is "CO2, Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy." I have already written a post about climate change and Taiwan at David on Formosa.

I was struck by this alarming article from the ABC about how climate change is affecting the Pacific island nation of Kiribati. Kiribati is a nation of low lying coral attols with a population of about 100,000 people. President Tong is in New Zealand for talks about relocating his people.

The IPCC forecasts sea level changes by the end of this century of 18-59 cm. This estimate is probably conservative. If the entire Greenland ice cap were to melt sea levels could rise by seven metres. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet would have a similar effect. This would be catastrophic for the entire world. (US EPA)

Australia has been slow to react to the problem of climate refugees, but this issue is likely to become more serious in the next decade. Australia has the capacity to host the refugees from Pacific Island nations. I would like to suggest an innovative way it could do this.

The people of Kiribati (or Tuvalu or other island nations) could be offered a piece of land on which to resettle. Not all of them would necessarily move at the same time. Initially at least a few thousand would need to move to establish a working community.

The land would need to be along the coast as fishing and living by the ocean is an important part of their culture. People would come under state and federal laws of Australia but form their own local government. As Kiribati is a former British colony there should be no major problems with this. People would be free to use their own native language and the school curriculum would be bilingual.

Development of the land would be a model of ecological sustainability. The community would aim to develop in a way that is carbon neutral (although some carbon emissions may be necessary in the early stages of development). They would seek to develop a local economy that provided for as many needs as possible as well as some industries producing surpluses for sale to outside.

As the community developed its economy and infrastructure more people could relocate from the islands to the new community. If the space or resources were limited a second community could be established based on the lessons learnt from the first.

Of course detailed plans and financial support would be required to realise this idea. However, to not attempt to solve the problem is to condemn an entire nation to extinction.

Labels: climate change, environment

posted by David @ 9:19 PM 0 comments