Friday, April 23, 2010

Lowly life

We hear of monks heroism, but not heard of horrendous act of nonresident, looting. The culprits are both Chinese and Tibetan, so says, more details look up here

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/china-tibet-quake-04232010132723.html

Monks "heroism" airbrushed

The selfless act of monks rescuing the earth quake victems is an embodiment of true Buddhist teachings in action. Robbie Benertta said, it showed the immense culture resources that Tibetan Buddhist monks provide to Tibetan people. For fear of the Tibetan monks taking the limelight of rescue effort, the Chinese have asked them to leave now.  For details click here. http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/gohome-04202010144941.html

Monday, April 19, 2010

The best of Buddhism

The latest news from the quake affected kham region, is that the  local authorities of Jykundo has ordered monks to return to their respective monasteries and they are no longer needed now. If the authorities fully  enforcing this order, it will be a great setback to the relief works.The Chinese leaderships were more concerned for social stability, and fear that such a mass gathering of the monks might feed to unrest. The Tibetan residents are already showing resentment against the Chinese rescue workers, and there is a clash of views. For details look up RFA news release
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/relief-04192010161828.html

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Kunleng show

VOA Kunling is  extremely popular in exile and it is known to be watched by Tibetans in Tibet secretly. In times of such a crisis as the Jykundo earth quake, Tibetan people all over the world tune to more news and informations, from Tibetan media as such as RFA, VOA, VOT.  I watched the Kunling two hours special program with great care and attention.

Hell on earth

A Chinese website carries some graphic pictures of the devastatiing earth quake hit on Jyekundo in tibet and the infliction of human casualities. It sends a chill down my spine...
http://www.secretchina.com/node/345007

The Maverick Monks

A young man who rode a motorbike to reach Jyekundo to look for his relatives said

“The aid distributions to quake victims were uneven. Some families spent the night outside without any tent in freezing temperature. Those who don’t have tents slept among the dead bodies to keep them warm in this freeze temperature. My relatives’ family has not received a single aid supplies yet. It is said aid supplies have arrived, but there is problem with the distribution of those aid supplies. More aggressive people grabbed more tents and the officials took possession of them, while the weak ones, women and children left without any. It is total chaos for the rush of aid supplies. Those who grabbed more tents and supplies resell at higher prices".  Detail report on this look up on RFA website http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/tibet-china-qinghai-04172010213555.html.

Friday, April 16, 2010

The Pickup

The Pickup,a novel by Nadine Gordimer, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. My rationale for reading this book was simple, it won Nobel Prize and must be excellent. The reading takes long and I have finally flipped the last pages. I have no substance to comment about this book. It was not engaging and thrilling. The plot and characters are easy to follow. But the style of the writing is very confusing. One can not distinguish easily who is saying what  in the story.  After all it is a difficult reading.

The gist of the story is a young beatiful white girl met a blackman (he is a Mulsim, not sure the colour of the skin, just assumed), when the former had a mechnical problem with her car and asked for help. The young immigrant, who is a faceless, and formless, without a valid ID happened to be a mechanic . The car repair business brought them together and a relationship blossomed. The young lovers, engaged in sensual pleasure and lured to each other.
However, the sturday immigrant was finally tracked down by the US immigration and despite of all legal battle that ensued, he lost all and ordered to leave the country in a specific time.

Julie, the white young girl summoned all her strength and pulled her every strings, but in vain. As the day of the depature approach, there was tug of war between giving up her love  and going for it.  Call it a love or what,  young and impulsive  Julie chose to leave everything behind in a rich country and abandoned all her comfort to accompany with this stranger to a stranger land.

Landed in a foreign country, where everything is different from U.S. Julie slowly adapted to living conditions there and besides found a vocation of teaching English to interested young women including her her in -laws. For Julie life means something else to her. It is more about openness, closeness and intimacy and the bond . Back in the U.S she has no close relatives, and besides estranged from her mother and dad.  Here in this new land, she found the companion of women, who are warm hearted and very nuturing. But her restless young man, attempted again all possiblites to get a visa and imbargo to any of the western nations for a greener pasture.  Finally, through Julie's relatives, he managed to get a visa to go to U.S. He believes that 
America is the land of honey and milk, where the poor can start from scratch to reach zenith of their life.    Where he could fully realize his potential and climb up the ladder of sucess. America is is the final destination for big dreamer.

Julie after learning this news, was surprised, and then also managed to get money from her uncle to cover their return flight tickets.

While the man's household reveled for the prospective of the young man's dream to be fulfilled, however Julie changed her mind. She refused to return to her country with her lover. She was his wife and she wanted to remain in his turf. The harshness of the desert and minimal material comfort in her new found home didnt deter her.  Undoubtely, there was psychological fight and emotional battle at the time of departure. The young Julie   did not give in, she didnt want to leave her newly found home. This foreigner woman spoke the local tongue and felt at home in a strange land despite of the loneliness and However men were destined to be in the oil field, as the novel read in the last page. -- he will come back--

Over all, the novel is abstract, philosophical and metaphirical and allegorical. I dont know if it is true as what one of the book critique about the book says  " it redefines "home' for our times, and it stays mindful of the shrinking world we live in". For me it was a book that needs to be reread one more time to get a good sense and grasp of it.
 

Monks save lives

Informations abtained from  contacts in Jyekunda gives a different pictures of the relief work, Chinese state is not showing any pictures of the thousand monks on the scene who were the first responder and acted heroically.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Quake hit Yushul

Tibetan living in exile started to hear the earth quake tragedy and casualities from their relatives in Tibet. Jigme Rabten a  Tibetan monk living in south India said: “I received a call from Jyekundo, informing that my sister’s family lost three members including her father- in- law , mother- in- law and a child. The three remaining children along with my sister have survived".

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Without Due Process

A Tibetan fugitive from Kham Payoe was rearrested and killed. A Tibetan prison inmate called Passang, break out from prison and on the run for several months. He was finally nabbed after two months search by by Ganzi police, army and also by Kandze prefecture. After his arrest at Satoe Nunnery in Kham Nyarong,  He was beaten mercilessly and taken to Kandze county and paraded in front of th the masses.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Welcome back

It is heartwarming to learn that my blog has many readers, as evidenced to me by several people who inquired me in person  the reasons of my long absence on the blog. Buoyed by such encouraging comments, I will commit myself again to continue to express my wild and weird thoughts on issues of concern.    In the past month, owing to a myraid of issues, I couldnt continue to keep up writing. Now things are settling back to normal and which will allow me to resume my blogging. I wish to welcom you my dear fans to revisit the site.

Thank .............DJ

Friday, April 9, 2010

The Big Brother is Watching You

(The following entries require editing and revision).  DJ

A Panel discussion at ICT last week was illuminating and insightful. Steven Marshall, a veteran expert on Tibet and China along with a  Chinese professor pitched in their analysis on the topic: "China's Fifth Tibet Work Forum and The Memorandum on Genuine Autonom" and the discussion was  moderated by Bhungchung K. Tsering of ICT appropriately.