"What is the reason behind America’s sudden interest in Tibet, the Buddhist ideology of 1649 Dalai Lama preserving animal and nature (we certainly could be preserving nature at home) or is it what is under nature? Tibet has the world’s largest reserve of uranium, and in addition to gold and copper, large quantities of oil and gas were discovered in Qiangtang Basin in western China's remote Tibet area [http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/nts44532.htm]. A friendly Dalai Lama would help reimburse the CIA subsidies, and much more."
She also believes with good reason that 'the Tibet card' is being played to dissuade China from standing by Iran.
However we can go further and remind ourselves that not just Iran but China itself is under massive strategic encirclement (see Global Military Alliance: Encircling Russia and China: US sponsored military partnership in the Far East and the Pacific Rim, by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5605 )
This encirclement is taking place both diplomatically and militarily, with nuclear submarines and navy groups off the Chinese seaboard, while all the time the US seeks to capitalise on its real or imagined ability to shoot down Chinese or Russian missiles in mid flight ('Star Wars'). In the light of these circumstances, is it any wonder that the leaders of China feel they have to set their face absolutely against Tibet becoming another Western-'democratised' Ukraine or Poland (currently scheduled to host Star Wars programme monitoring bases for the US)?
It may not be pretty, all this ruthless geo-politics. But well-meaning 'liberal' interventions in the sphere of human rights which ignore these realities may often do more harm than good. As always the place to start humanising this heartless world is with ourselves, and the unjust power-dynamics of our own societies, corporations and foreign policies.
4) Democratic Imperialism": Tibet, China, and the National Endowment for Democracy
by Michael Barker
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6530
"By building upon the pioneering work of liberal philanthropists (like the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations’) – who have a long history of co-opting progressive social movements – it appears that the NED was envisaged by US foreign policy elites to be a more suitable way to provide strategic funding to nongovernmental organizations than via covert CIA funding.[reference in original] Indeed, the NED’s ‘new’ emphasis on overt funding of geo-strategically useful groups, as opposed to the covert funding, appears to have leant an aura of respect to the NED’s work, and has enabled them, for the most part, to avoid much critical commentary in the mainstream media."
Among Tibetan cause groups to have received funding from powerful Western foundations - who nearly always turn a blind eye to Human rights abuses in Western-dominated Congo, Haiti, the Middle East, etc - and/or obfuscate the Western-Corporate-linked causes of these systematic abuses - are the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), the Tibet Fund, the London-based Tibet Information Network (TIN) whose director went on to found TibetInfoNet, the Tibetan Literary Society, which publishes Tibet Times, Tibetan Review Trust Society, the Voice of Tibet radio station.
Barker concludes: "This article has demonstrated the close ties that exist between the Dalai Lama’s non-violent campaign for Tibetan independence and U.S. foreign policy elites who are actively supporting Tibetan causes through the NED. This finding is particularly worrying given the high international media profile of many of the groups exposed in this article, especially when it is remembered that the NED’s activities are intimately linked with those of the CIA. This funding issue is clearly problematic for Tibetan (or foreign) activists campaigning for Tibetan freedom, as the overwhelmingly anti-democratic nature of the NED can only weaken the legitimacy of the claims of any group associated with the NED. In this regard it seems only fitting that progressive activists truly concerned with promoting freedom and democracy in Tibet should first and foremost cast a critical eye over the antidemocratic funders of many of the Tibetan groups identified in this study. Only then will they be able to reappraise the sustainability of their work in the light of the NED’s controversial background. Once this step has been taken, perhaps progressive solutions for restoring democratic governance to Tibet can be generated by concerned activists, so that Tibetan people wanting to reclaim their homeland will able to be more sure that they are bringing democracy home to Tibet, not polyarchy."
5) Am I a stooge who believes the Dalai Lama is a 'complete fraud'?
On the discussion forum of the Network of Engaged Buddhists Nicholas challenged me: [You] quote views in your article that the Dalai Lama is
a) on the payroll of the CIA;
b) doesn't really believe in non-violence in his heart but displays these beliefs for political reasons;
c) will, when political circumstances are ripe, drop his non-violent stance and 'will hardly shrink from summoning Begtse the god of slaughter', ie lead Tibet in wars of aggression.
What you are saying, in effect, is the Dalai Lama is a complete fraud. Do you really believe this? and whose payroll are you on?
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