h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well done J-t-G, this is a thoroughly researched and documented intro to the Tibetan Photo Project. My only suggestion by way of augmentation of an already exhaustive treatment is that it would be nice to have some links to things like "sand mandalas," with which some people may not be familiar. Even, indeed, links to mandalas.

Cheers,

C \|/

Thanks, Chai. That's a good suggestion; I'll see what I can find.

JTG

Hi guys!

*Sigh* ... this stuff is very interesting and, in my view, important ... so why do so few other people seem interested or concerned at all??

What can be done ...??

Thanks, Unmentionable.

That's a good question. Chaiwallah has probably been fighting the good fight for a lot longer than I have, and would probably have more to share. I think, to a certain extent, it's just a question of Tibet representing one more thing that people can't be bothered about; which is a shame, in my opinion, because the Tibet issue seems to touch the heart of such basic human concerns as compassion, justice, tolerance, etc... basically the measuring sticks we use to decide whether or not we are decent human beings. The challenge we face is getting people to take an honest look at the Tibet issue and start thinking about it for themselves. At heart, most people are decent enough to react positively to something that is so fundamentally disturbing, I think.

'What can be done?' Well, until we have a better plan, I think we must keep up the process that we're already a part of, which is a bit like the start of an avalanche. Concern about Tibet, at a grassroots level, began with a few fairly ordinary people expressing their outrage about what they had observed first hand. What they had to say conflicted with an international consensus to look the other way. I think it is very encouraging that, despite every effort by the international community to make sure that Tibet remains a non-issue, more and more ordinary people are starting to feel that same outrage, and are determined to do something to help. Our job now is to keep up that process of learning and sharing so that our friends, neighbours and fellow Researchers start to care enough to also get involved; then, I believe, we will see things change. The occasional release of high-profile political prisoners is more than just window dressing; it is clear evidence that the weight of opinion matters (though perhaps for different reasons), in China as elsewhere.

It's a tough job getting people to care about something that doesn't seem to affect them. But the thing that I find encouraging is reminding myself that, until fairly recently, I was one of them; whatever it was that worked with me can have the same effect on someone else. People tend to wake up slowly to situations that are disturbing; but, once they do, only the most defective of them can resist the basic human urge try to make things better. That's my hope, anyway.

Cheers,

JTG

Ps A comment or two in the Peer Review thread might help to get the avalanche started.

'... Until fairly recently, I was one of them.'

'Them' being the people who didn't know or care, of course.

Hi JTG!

There's not much more I can do, personally, than being interested in, and talking about this. To me, too, this is 'one more problem' ... in addition to many other problems. I care very much for Tibet, the country and the people, because I know a bit about it. But there are problems much closer to home, here in South Africa. We have our own crises - environmental, political, and then the AIDS calamity. It's hard enough to even get people *here* in South Africa to be concerned over - or even aware of - what is really happening.

Do you know the HH. Dalai Lama has again been here in South Africa recently? He said that he doesn't know if or how he could help us here in South Africa ... and I'm wondering if or how we in South Africa could help Tibet, when we have our own problems weighing us down.

I think people in the world still don't understand that we're dealing with similar problems in different parts of the world. What is happening in Tibet or anywhere else, is in my view a concern for the whole world, because we are all part of the same world where every thing affects everything else.

Sometimes, however, I become paranoid and I start seeing the whole world as being filled with robots, braindead zombies, or sleepwalkers, or people who are totally brainwashed by the mass media ...

You're right, of course; there is only so much that any one person can do, but very few people every reach their absolute capacity to do something positive. I think that what you said about everything affecting everything else is important to bear in mind. Injustice in Tibet, South Africa or anywhere is not just a regional problem; it is something that we all have to face up to.

Did you get a chance to see the Dalai Lama when he was in SA? Tibetans are in a very vulnerable position, of course. The Dalai Lama is dependent on the goodwill of the Indian government and others even to be able to travel abroad. So, naturally, he has to be careful not to offend. On the other hand, perhaps his comments should be taken as a challenge for us to come up with ways to help Tibet and each other.

Indeed, JtG, and RUMP, HH the DL does have to be extremely careful of what he says in SA, because Mbeki is not madly pro-Tibet, but he is quite strongly pro-China, probably because China have promised aid to SA, something Tibet is not in a position to do. It's quite surprising that Mbeki allowed the DL to visit at all.

One of the reasons Tibet remains a "non-issue" in terms of gloibal politics is that the West, in general, looks to China for economic salvation, that famous potential 1.3 billion consumer market. A myth because 900 million of them are landless peasants, of whom a further 350 million live below the UN absolute poverty level. And even in the rich cities, average per capita discretionary spending is still around US$1,000 per annum, well below the $5,000 level where consumer economies take light ( compare with Ireland, where the average is US$28,000 per annum.)

Meanwhile, China, curiously, owns a very large slice of the US deficit, lending the USA money to buy Chinese imports, and providing the ultra-cheap "outsource" labour, which is such a threat to American jobs. And the trade deficit between the USA and China is in the order of billions of dollars per annum ( in China's favour.) Most of the west's economies are totally hooked into the US economy, so we're all effectively hooked into the Chinese economy, hence the reluctance of any western politicians to say boo to China. Everybody is concerned to keep the ship afloat, no matter what, even at the cost of all those jobs back home.

In China meanwhile, the smoke-and-mirrors act surrounding China's so-called booming economy continues apace. Though there are signs of cracks appearing in public, such as the admission that the largest state-owned bank ( and all banks are state-owned in China ) was defrauded of 850 million US$ by some employees recently. Mind-boggling. And corruption is the order of the day. So the fact that China's account "books" and economic statistics are routinely, indeed generically falsified to suit the political requirements, is not surprising. But the Chinese have been falsifying their statistics for political ends ever since the disastrous Great Leap Forward ( 1958 -1962 ) when the Mao-made famine killed an unknown number ( min 30 million, max 65 million + ) people.

Meanwhile, such is China's confidence in their regime and their people's loyalty that they have just closed down a huge number of internet access points:

China's e-crackdown (editorial)
Citing its concern for the effects of violent and pornographic content on
China's impressionable youth, Beijing permanently closed down 1,600 Internet
cafes and suspended the operations of another 18,000 between February and
August. Pity Beijing didn't demonstrate similar sensitivity for its youth on
Tiananmen Square in 1989. It's also unfortunate that Beijing wasn't more
concerned about the public good during the SARS epidemic of the summer of
2003, when it covered up the extent of the crisis.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20041102-105344-7555r.htm

Interesting times.

Cheers,

C \|/

I heard a report recently about how China's economy is really a hollow shell, with state subsidies on a vast scale propping up enterprises that otherwise wouldn't be viable even with the availability of a slave or near-slave labour pool; that private enterprise is still largely a veneer, with PLA generals and Party leaders still pulling the strings; and that the only thing that keeps much of Chinese industry afloat is access to state-owned (or acquired) raw materials at prices below cost. If there is any truth in this, it seems incredible that China should have been allowed to gain such a degree of influence on world trade. I read a post in an Indian message board recently in which a Chinese user was boasting that China could sink India's economy on a whim. How realistic is that? There has been a lot of concern in Canada recently about China buying businesses here. It's difficult to make sense of that scenario, when, as you say, the vast majority of Chinese are living in abject poverty. Have Western economists and business leaders sold us out?