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 […]
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LHASA HOTEL BOOM: THE BACK STORY
CHINA IN FAIRY LAND: HUGE HOTELS, PROPERTY SPECULATORS & MASS TOURISM IN A REMOTE CORNER OF TIBET THE BACKSTORY BEHIND THE HOTEL CONSTRUCTION BOOM IN LHASA 2011 Gabriel Lafitte 2002 This is a story about the biggest tourism destination in Tibet, bigger than the holy city of Lhasa, even though few Tibetans know […]
Wachstum und Luxus auf dem Dach der Welt – Das boomende Hotelgewerbe Gabriel Lafitte Bedenkt man, dass die sog. Autonome Region Tibet (TAR) auch im Jahr 2010 weitgehend abgeriegelt war und die Lage nach wie vor angespannt ist, dann hat die weltweite Luxus-Hotel-Industrie einen merkwürdigen Zeitpunkt gewählt, um den Bau großer Hotelanlagen in Lhasa anzukündigen. […]
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 […]
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Restoring Sustainability to Tibet
HOW THE TIBETAN PLATEAU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE IMPROVEMENT A briefing to European Union Directorate-General on Environment, and EU Directorate-General on Climate, 4 April 2011 By Gabriel Lafitte www.rukor.org, editor@www.rukor.org +613 407 840 333 TIBET: HEART OF EURASIA Environmental impacts do not respect national boundaries; they are invariably transboundary issues. Eurasia is […]
ECO-TOURISM IN TIBET: WITH CHINESE, TIBETAN OR GLOBALISED CHARACTERISTICS? Several big new hotels, badged with high profile global brand names, are under construction in Lhasa; the StRegis luxury hotel is already open. When the four new hotels are complete, by the end of 2012, Lhasa will for the first time have about 2700 premium priced […]
WHAT COULD EUROPE DO TO HELP TIBET? A briefing by Gabriel Lafitte Presented at European Parliament Tibet Intergroup 30 March 2011 www.rukor.org, editor@rukor.org, +613 407 840 333 In a world where active, violent conflicts inevitably dominate headlines and the attention of policymakers, unresolved conflict over Tibet attracts less attention. It is a political reality of […]
MOBILITY AND MOBILISATION: WHY MODERN STATES CANNOT TRUST NOMADS Gabriel Lafitte March 2011 China, at its imperial centre, has long mistrusted the mobility of the nomads of its northern and western edges. The mobility of the nomads was always the core of imperial fears and strategies. Mobility was an ever-present problem for successive dynasties facing […]
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DEPOPULATING THE TIBETAN GRASSLANDS
NOMADS AND NOMADOLOGY A presentation by Gabriel Lafitte to “Der Dritte Pol in Gefahr – Chinas Umweltpolitik in Tibet” conference of Tibet Initiative Deutschland 15 March 2011, Berlin glafitte@aanet.com.au, www.rukor.org +613 59623434 +613 407 840 333 Table of Contents THE CAMPAIGN TO REMOVE ANIMALS TO GROW GRASS 1 “HAS THERE BEEN DIFFICULTY?” 2 FEARLESSLY EMBRACING […]
CHINA’S FIRST FIVE-YEAR PLAN FOR TIBET By Gabriel Lafitte March 2011 China’s 12th Five-Year Plan has been launched, covering the years 2011 through 2015. This twelfth plan continues a lineage of central plans originating in the revolutionary years when Stalin’s Soviet Union was the model for everything, including the dream of a […]