My favorite guy in the Western Hemisphere (in the East, he competes with the Dalai Lama .... I have also come to like Modi a lot, Amitabh Bachchan is a perennial) speaks up.
Nehru ne Tibet mein ja ke Chin ke sath yuddh kyon nahin kiya? Ye bahut ajib baat hai. Nehru ne khud apni ajadi ke liye yuddh nahin kiya. Shanti ke raste se gaye. To fir Tibet ke liye banduk uthane ka sawal kahan paida hota hai?
Britain ka tha ki hum India par raj is liye kar rahe hain ki ye jungli log khud apne par shasan kar nahin sakte. Agar hum tumhe independence de dete hain to aapas mein kat mar karte rah jaoge. You don’t know how to govern. To World War II ke khatm hote hote British samrajya ka sharir to khatm ho chuka tha. Lekin British samrajyavad ka pret khatm nahin huwa. Usne wo shrir chhod diya. Usne wo sharir chhoda aur Amrika ke sharir mein ja ke ghush gaya. To on the behalf of Britain tab Ameriki wahi baat kahne lage. Ki tum ajad kyon huwe? Dekho, tumhari banegi nahin Pakistan se. To Pakistan ko prop karna shuru. To ye to galat baat hai. Ek desh ajad huwa hai aur aap usko harass par harass kiye ja rahe ho. Desh ajad bhi huwa ya nahin?
India Pakistan partition ke baad jo log mare wo Hitler ke yahudi hi the. Bengal famine mein jo log mare wo Hitler ke yahudi hi the. India Pakistan ka border demarcation janbujh ke kuchh is kism se kiya gaya ki log bhari tadat mein mare jate. Jis bande ne wo demaracation kiya, wo usi raat desh chhod ke bhag gaya. Kyon ki use bakhub malum tha usne kya kiya. Log marne wale hain, ye use maloon tha. Log mare usi style mein demarcation huwa tha.
To ye kahna ki Nehru ne Chin se jang kyon nahin lada, ye to Amrika ke sharir mein Britain ka pret bol raha hai. Chin ne galti ki. Tibet mere ko behad priya hai. Jitna Bharat priya hai utna Tibet priya hai mere ko. Lekin Nehru did not have the option to go to war. Jab Britain aur Amerika kah rahe ho ki tumne achha nahin kiya ajadi le liya, to Soviet Union ke tarah haath badhana, asha karna ki Chin ke sath dosti ho jata to achha rahata. Wo to understandable baat hai.
Yuddh kiya Amrika ne. Korean War, abhi tak chal raha hai. Jab ki Korea Tibet ke tarah remote nahin hai. Tibet abhi remote hai to us samay kaisa raha hoga? Bharat khud apne Akshay Chin ilake mein nahin ja sakta tha to Tibet to dur ki baat thi.
Yuddh kiya to Amerika ne Vietnam mein. Dekho kya huwa. Abhi tak sab afsos kar rahe hain.
Chin ne us samay galti ko. Lekin aaj ka solution wo hai jo Dalai Lama khud kah rahe hain. Tibet ko independence nahin chahiye, lekin Dalai Lama ko Chin ke bhitar jaa ke ghumfir karne ki ijajat ho. I support that.
Pakistan aur Bharat ko ye British divide and rule mindset ko 60-70 sal late hi samajh lena chahiye. Britain ke pret. Ki tension se fayada nahin. Chalo relationship ko normalize karte hain aur ek dusre se jam ke byapar karte hain. Shanti banate hain. Tarakki ki sonchte hain. Chhota sa tapu hai Britain. Kya hai? Aaj kya hai Bharat ke samne?
Duniya ke do sabse bade loktantron ko ek dusre ka number one ally ban jana chahiye. Jis tarah Madhesi Nepal mein kah rahe hain, Abhi Nahin To Kabhi Nahin. To abhi accha mauka hai. Obama ke final year mein. Bharat ko bhi regional outlook se upar uth kar ek global outlook ke or badhna chahiye. Militarily nahin, lekin trade, commerce ke raste to tatkal kar sakte hain.
Britain ka dhona chhodo. 21st century aa gaya hai. 1947: A Love Story ko bye bye karo. Bit gayi so baat gayi.
Chin ko bhi chahiye ki thoda maturity dikhao.
Nehru ne Chin ke sath Tibet mein ja ke yuddh nahin kiya is liye tumne Pakistan ko apna military ally nahin banaya. Tumne Pakistan ko apna military ally is liye banaya ki Britain ka pret tumhare sharir mein ja ke ghush gaya.
It is mind over matter. Chinese communists are matter people. They build roads and bridges. They are so good, there is no more road or bridge to build in China, that is why they are going to Pakistan. The hammer needs a nail. Or it will rust. It is not exactly goodwill.
The Dalai Lama is a mind person. Buddhism is not religion, it is science. It is a science that passes for religion. It is a science that does not mind being called religion.
The brain is body. The brain is matter. The mind is mind.
Buddhism is a science of the mind. There are plenty of sciences that deal with the brain and even mind. But Buddhism is the only that deals exclusively with the mind. It does not deal with food, for example. You want food? Go beg, Buddhism says. The Chinese say (or said) grab the landlord's land, by any means necessary.
Military conquests can not bother the mind. It can damage or even destroy the brain. But the mind is mind. After all, the Buddha himself created the world’s first republic by sheer mind power. He was so effective at evaporating the caste hierarchies of the Hindu cobweb, you see Buddhists in Tibet, in China, in Thailand, even Sri Lanka, but not in India, not in Bihar, not in Gujrat where he died (left the body), not in his hometown where he was born. The Bramhins had to physically eliminate. Totally annihilate. They had to destroy the body and the brain because they were so utterly incapable of confronting the mind. The Chinese have not come even remotely close. The Chinese can only dream about what the Bramhins did. And they did it with primitive tools where you had to see blood before your eyes while you took the life. Tibetans have not diminished in number. The religion is more or less intact. And they don’t much care about taxation, and the railway.
Mind over matter.
The Dalai Lama has the solution to China’s Tibet problem. He is the only one who has. And the Chinese should take it while he is still alive, or they might not have a solution for 200 years. The solution is for the Dalai Lama to visit Tibet and China. The Chinese government may take care of the logistics. The Dalai Lama does not mind. What train he rides in, what lodge he spends the night in. All that is matter. He does not mind. The solution is for the Chinese to welcome the Dalai Lama into the country and take him everywhere he wants to go. The trip could last a year. It might last for the rest of his life. Let him be. He is not asking for Tibet to be a separate country. There is no “splittism,” the most awkward word the Chinese have managed to put into the Oxford dictionary. There’s the selfie and then there is splittism. Both are highly awkward. Blame the Americans for one, blame the Chinese for another.
Only a Dalai Lama visit can normalize Tibet’s southern border and Tibet can go back to the way it was for thousands of years. Tibet is a natural part of South Asia, more so than Afghanistan. There is no India China border dispute. There is only a Chinese reluctance to let the Dalai Lama bring a closure to the whole issue.
Mind over matter. The Chinese should let the Dalai Lama visit before it is too late.
I am a Buddhist. I have been for almost 20 years now.
That is why what is going on in Nepal is of world war proportions. The Bramhins will be defeated in Kathmandu before they will be defeated in Delhi. Buddhists are not looking to conquer, not with the sword. Buddhists are looking to simply exist. You may not annihilate the body. You may not annihilate the brain. And you may not have hierarchies. But for that one person one vote is good enough. People have to make their own choices.
Mind over matter. The Dalai Lama has a bad knee. Maybe the Chinese would like to help. He wants to visit.
It is said India and China have a border problem. That is not true. India has no problem. What China has is a Tibet problem. China gulped down Tibet, but it is not done digesting yet. Digesting would be when it could afford to open up the border like it was open for thousands of years before it showed up. In the mean time, let the line of actual control be. Let it slide. It's just rocks. Let trade bloom.
Not even the Dalai Lama wants Tibetan independence. He is happy 400 million Chinese are now Buddhist. He wants a few hundred million more. The Dalai Lama visiting China and Tibet is a great idea. I can't think of a better way of settling the issue of whether Tibet should be a separate country or not.
A black guy is in the White House occupying the most powerful political office on the planet and can still be at the receiving end of racism. What is the solution to that? The only way the African Americans are lo longer a sorry lot in America is if Africa does the China thing. Africa needs to become an economic powerhouse. Africa needs to attempt a political, economic union, or at least a free trade area.
China has lifted more people out of poverty than any power in history. I would want India and Africa to emulate that.
China grew at double digit growth rates for 30 years. That is mind blowing. I want to know how. I want to learn.
The only way China can now go back to double digit growth rates is if it engages in fundamental political reform. China still is only one fourth the size of America measured by per capita income. It needs to grow at double digit rates for another 20 years before it relaxes a bit.
The only way China can truly integrate Taiwan and Tibet is if it goes federal.
You can not dream up the industries of tomorrow if you do not celebrate free speech. It is only a matter of time before the Internet is beamed down from the skies, and then your virtual Great Wall will fall like a house of cards.
Don't exacerbate ethnic tensions in places like Sri Lanka and Burma, or India will come after you with everything it's got.
If the Dalai Lama wants to visit Tibet, he should be allowed to visit Tibet. Anyone or any power who thinks otherwise is wrong in the head.
China engaging in fundamental political reform paves the way for China becoming a true global power.
China could lead the way on things like boundless clean energy and global bullet trains. But only political reforms will give it an image makeover to make big moves possible.
He mentioned the Crusades, the Inquisition, he mentioned slavery and Jim Crow. And he is right. But he should also have mentioned apartheid, and colonization before that. And the talk can also be extended to the abortion debate. People quote the Bible to talk on the wrong side of progress on gender relations.
“The president’s comments this morning at the prayer breakfast are the most offensive I’ve ever heard a president make in my lifetime.”
--- former Virginia governorJim Gilmore (R).
There has been only one black president in your lifetime. How many times can you expect to get offended in your lifetime?
The US civil war was about slavery and the Lincoln people were on the right side of history. China is about repressing Tibet, and the Chinese are on the wrong side of history.
The two sides in the US civil war were at war. And either could have won. Tibet today has no army that is fighting the Chinese army. The Chinese are the only force in town.
The US South wanted to break away from the rest of the US. Tibet is not seeking to be a separate country.
And to expect Obama to sympathize with China on this question is beyond ridiculous. Because Obama is black - he is actually biracial - he is much more likely to empathize with the repressed Tibetans. And he does.
The future is a plural China that is integrated with Taiwan, and is a federal, democratic, multi-party state.
At some level it makes me very happy to see what is happening in Iran. At another level, it makes my blood boil with anger at the waste I fear I might end up seeing by the time the storm is over. Because I witnessed the waste when the people in Burma similarly poured out into the streets. They were let down. For all their blood, toil and tears, they were let down. It is very hard to create a political storm like this one, but once it dies down without result, it does not come back for a long, long time.
What's white people got to do with it? You might ask. Many of them seem to be alert and on the right side of history. Many of them are tweeting on behalf of the people in the Tehran streets. Many have turned their Twitter avatars green in solidarity. How is that dumb? How is that white? How is that something to get angry about?
I am for nonviolence, but as I watched the Burma protests die down in 2007, one thought that I started having was what if the world were to bomb the dictator's artificial city deep in the woods where all his minions live and work? Would that boost the morale of the street protesters to hold on and keep lunging along?
After Benazir died, I asked, why did she not have a security apparatus befitting a head of state? The world never got Bin Laden, but Bin Laden got Benazir. What a shame. They wore her death like a trophy.
You have to feel sorry for the dumbness of the white people and their governments, and their media, and their NGOs, and their social media, and their masses. In a democracy the people are directly and indirectly responsible for all of them.
Dumb white people will think nothing about pouring a trillion dollars into a dumb war, trillions into a housing bubble even if that might bring them a mega recession, but when it comes down to pouring 10 million into a nonviolent movement for democracy somewhere, they will be like, oh no, we can't be interfering in other countries' internal matters.
A nonviolent movement like the one that is underway in Iran is science, it is not alchemy. It does not happen randomly and equally randomly go away. It can be brought about at will. It can be actively helped to reach a grand conclusion. Or it can be watched to death, all the street efforts in vain.
This is precisely the time for the governments of the world to speak up. Governments that talked down daily a country's regime that it suspected of having nuclear weapon ambitions are silent today. Whispers count for silence.
Powers that think nothing of giving 10 billion dollars to the Pakistani army to create three million refugees in a matter of weeks will not pour a billion into a mass movement that just might succeed in establishing a full-fledged democracy in the heart of the Arab world in a way that will make the dictators in Egypt and Saudi Arabia wet in their pants.
An election from scratch has been the starting demand, the minimal demand. But now the demand has to shift. The movement has to ask for the installation of an interim government that will hold elections to a constituent assembly within a year of taking power to give Iran a new constitution.
Everyone who is tweeting for Iran needs to chime in a dollar. Movements need money. They need money to pay for the medical costs of those injured in the streets. They need money to organize better. They need money to launch brand new political parties. You can create a large, national political party in a matter of months.
What Iran has to ask for is an interim government and a new constitution.
Why should white people be concerned about the fate of democracy in Iran? Because a total spread of democracy in the Arab world is the only way to conclude the War On Terror. There is no other way. And street protests are the best way to do it, the only way actually.
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