PROPERTY RIGHTS UNDER MARKET SOCIALISM WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS #7 in a series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET The 1990s saw great changes, as China emerged as the world’s factory. Industrialisation accelerated, powerful enterprises grew, vested interests resisted central efforts at reform, the idea of property rights began to take hold, and central leaders tried to […]
Category: China
Issues within China
ALLOCATING TIBET A ROLE IN THE GLOBAL DIVISION OF LABOUR #3 in a blog series on THE FUTURE OF TIBET If China succeeds in enmeshing Tibet with the lowland economy of China, Tibet will not only be re-oriented to look east for all economic connection, it will also be globalised. China is deeply enmeshed in […]
GEOLOGISING THE ROOF OF THE WORLD In 2013 the 25,000 worldwide members of the Geological Society of America will celebrate the organisation’s 125th birthday. GSA is a global fraternity of the profession of geology, and is flourishing. Fed by competitive resource nationalisms, fears expressed by governments that they should not have to depend on other […]
PRESENTATION TO TIBET POLICY INSTITUTE SEMINAR 22 MARCH 2012 CHINA’S SECRET DECISION TO “DOWNPLAY THE NATIONAL QUESTION.” Zhu Weiqun, of the CCP United Front, has boldly proposed abolishing all reference to nationality on the identity cards all Chinese citizens must carry, and frequently produce for inspection. This latest step towards erasing Tibetan identity as a […]
On November 1 2010 repressive new regulations intruding into management of Tibetan monasteries came into force. In Kandze and Ngaba, even more prescriptive, detailed and restrictive regulations controlling all aspects of monastic life were brought into force in November 2011. In exile, these were denounced in 2010 by Kalon Tsering Phuntsok as “an evil design […]
MYSTICAL PURITY OR POLITICAL ARTEFACT? Presentation by Gabriel Lafitte to “River waters: Perspectives and Challenges for Asia” conference of the Foundation for Nonviolent Alternatives, India International centre, Delhi, November 2011 glafitte@aanet.com.au www.rukor.org +613 59623434 ABSTRACT: Potent new metaphors are forming in the ice above India: the third pole, the water tower of Asia, the engine […]
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BURNING THE BODY
ANSWERING A LIFE MADE MEANINGLESS BY POLITICS THROUGH DELIBERATE DEATH? The meditative inner process of collapsing all categories has been interrupted. Inner discovery of the openness, clarity, sensitivity, receptivity of the heart, and its intimate connectedness to all hearts, has been violently disrupted by state power at its crudest, by technologically supercharged instruments of bodily […]
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SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER IN BEIJING
TRUTH, GREED, TRUST AND TRAIN CRASHES: NEW REALITIES OF NEW CHINA Truth will out, as the Dalai Lama has always said. Take two stories in the respected business and economics publication Caixin Weekly in early August 2011. In the guise of a film review, a professor of political science at prestigious Tsinghua University skewers the […]
2011 EU-CHINA HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE AGREED FOCUS FOR 2011 IS RIGHTS OF MINORITIES A SUBMISSION PRESENTED TO THE EU DIPLOMATIC EXTERNAL ACTION SERVICE 25 MAY 2011 Interviews with nomads from all over the Tibetan Plateau, conducted in recent years by human rights monitoring agencies, show a remarkably consistent picture. Nomads are impoverished by decades of […]
IMPERIAL ARROGANCE CREATES ITS OWN DOWNFALL Reflections on a visit to Vienna at the invitation of SaveTibet, and a talk given at Universitet fur Bodenkultur, 11 April 2011, by Gabriel Lafitte Here in Vienna, as always, the situation is critical but not yet serious. On the surface all is well, the heurigen (wine bars) do […]