All things tibet
CHINA’S NO-SHOW AT GLASGOW COP26 22 aspects of China’s approach that are relevant to Tibet: China’s Meteorological Administration speaks with glowing approval of the increasing runoff from Tibetan glaciers, and the warming of Tibet as all good, as Tibet becomes more like China. The official China Meteorological Administration says of climate change across Tibet: […]
…AND INTENSIVE URBAN CONSTRUCTION WORKFORCE TRAINING Blog one in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 1/5 ON THE SCAFFOLD: CONCRETISING TIBET Recent commentary on Tibet and Xinjiang, similarities and differences, focussed on labour mobilisation. Key question: are Tibetans being pushed off their pastures and […]
Blog TWO in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 2/5 AN ARCHIPELAGO OF SECURITISED BORDER VILLAGES High on China’s construction agenda is the securitisation of over 3000 kms of border, in Shigatse and Lhoka municipalities (formerly prefectures) where Tibet abuts Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan […]
Blog three in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 3/5 CLEARING THE TIBETAN HIGHLANDS Why does China these days frequently label Tibet an “ecological security barrier highlands”? What does that mean for tibetans? Much of the Tibetan Plateau is above 4800m altitude. Most of […]
Shamefully lagging behind Blog four in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 4/5 U-Tsang, central Tibet, which China calls Tibet Autonomous Region, has long been an embarrassment to a centralized party-state whose legitimacy is based on economic growth. By almost any metric, TAR is […]
Blog five in a series documenting China’s path to urbanising Tibet, depopulating the highlands, converting exnomads into infrastructure construction workers 5/5 WORKING FOR THE HAN MAN The most favoured construction corporations in Tibet build the highways, airports, railways, bridges, hydro dams. Wherever concrete and steel are needed, they are there. They also build cities, such […]
China prepares Tibetans for tightly disciplined bullshit jobs in distant cities. Blog one of four on realities of the labour market for displaced Tibetans If Tibetans are catapulted out of their pastures, into urban apartments and migration to big cities, how will they fare? What awaits them in the city job market? If you want […]
Blog two of three on realities of China’s labour market for displaced Tibetans China is urbanising fast, including in Tibet. From a distance, out on the open range, urban life can look tempting. Up close it’s a relentless hyper-competitive race. China’s big consumer brands are in constant need of heroes, nudgers, validators, influencers or, as […]
Blog threer of four on China’s labour market for displaced Tibetans Lying flat is one of several metaphors used by the disillusioned young Han. Inside rolling and going Buddhist are equally popular. If only more young Chinese, disillusioned by the dead-end bullshit jobs, could discover what most Tibetans grow up with, that practicing Buddhism does […]
Blog four of four on China’s labour market for displaced Tibetans TRAINING TIBETANS FOR BULLSHIT JOBS This is the labour market Tibetans are now expected, sometimes compelled, to enter. All aspects of this vast, highly competitive urban labour market marks Tibetans generically as uncompetitive, backward, lacking in entrepreneurialism, untrustworthy and not even fluent in the […]