Showing posts with label government crackdown on monks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label government crackdown on monks. Show all posts

Monday, July 20, 2015

Clark calls for internment camps for "radicals"

Intercept (firstlook.org/theintercept); Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly
WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 31: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., right, leaves the U.S. Capitol with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. left, and Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., after Sen. Paul spoke at length on the Senate floor against an extension of provisions of the Patriot Act on Sunday, May 31, 2015.  (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Massie, Amash, Paul (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., hands me a copy of a letter from James Clapper in which the director of national intelligence complains to two members of the House Intelligence Committee about Massie’s recent attempts to reform one of the NSA’s massive surveillance programs.
 
On the top right, in curly script, Massie has written his response: “Get a warrant.” It’s in red ink. He’s underlined it.
 
“If you assume the worst” about the National Security Agency’s surveillance practices, Massie tells me, “it’s not a bad position to take, given what we’ve found out.”
 
Indeed, for Massie, as with so many others, the information NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden gave journalists two years ago about the extraordinary sweep of U.S surveillance programs was a huge eye-opener.
 
Prior to the Snowden revelations, Massie says, he knew almost nothing about the NSA’s implementation of the tools Congress gave it to protect national security. More 

Sunday, November 3, 2013

China to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet (video)

Wisdom Quarterly; Reuters in Beijing, Staff Reporter (scmp.com, Nov. 2, 2013); NTDTV.com
The Dalai Lama jokes in response to a question about the Chinese government. Making gestures like horns, the Tibetan spiritual leader said, "Why the Chinese government is sort of afraid of me? The totalitarian government think of me as a demon" (10-21-09). He talked about the Four Noble Truths to thousands of Buddhists from Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Vietnam, and Indonesia who converged at Tsuglagkhang temple (demotix.com).

British: "China staged Tibet riots"
Magic Tibetan ritual (sacbee.com)
(NTDTV) The G2 Bulletin has just published an important update on the situation in Tibet. Britain's GCHQ monitors half of the world from space. They have confirmed the Dalai Lama's claim that CCP agents posed as Buddhist monks and triggered riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured. GCHQ analysts believe the Beijing leadership is behind the large riots as a way to provide an excuse -- or pretext -- to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region. The same has been confirmed by British intelligence officers in Beijing. Satellites orbiting the earth closely monitored the situation. The images they downloaded from the satellites provided confirmation the CCP used agent provocateurs to start riots.
  
China to silence Dalai Lama in Tibet
Reuters in Beijing and Staff Reporter (scmp.com, Nov. 2, 2013)
The 14th Dalai Lama and actor/activist Richard Gere, D.C. (japanese-buddhsim.com)
  
Comedian Russell Brand and Dalai Lama
The government says it will confiscate illegal satellite dishes and increase monitoring of online content to keep his voice quiet in his homeland

Beijing aims to stamp out the voice of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Tibet by ensuring that his "propaganda" is not received by anyone on the internet, television, or other means, a top [Chinese] official said.
 
China has tried, with varying degrees of success, to prevent Tibetans from listening to or watching programs broadcast from outside the country, or accessing information about the Dalai Lama and the exiled government [of Tibet] on the Internet.

(Sky News) One hundred have died in riots in Tibet's capital against
Chinese authorities. Police used tear gas during clashes in Lhasa.
 
But many Tibetans are still able to access such news, either via illegal satellite televisions or by skirting Chinese Internet restrictions.
 
The Dalai Lama's picture and his teachings are also smuggled into Tibet but at great personal risk.
 
Writing in the ruling Communist Party's influential journal Qiushi, the latest issue of which was received by subscribers yesterday, Tibet's party chief Chen Quanguo said that the government would ensure only its voice is heard.
 
"Strike hard against the reactionary propaganda of the splittists from entering Tibet," Chen wrote in the magazine, whose name means "seeking truth." More

Chinese authorities invited journalists to Lhasa to interview Buddhist monks.
But during a visit to one of Lhasa's temples, a group of 30 monks stormed the
news briefing, accusing Chinese authorities of lying about violence and unrest.

Tibet is a plateau region north-east of the Himalayas. It was incorporated (i.e., forcefully invaded and occupied) by China in 1950 and is currently called an autonomous region in China, a growing empire of more than a billion Buddhist inhabitants ruled by the officially communist but actually capitalist dominant Han Chinese ethnic group. The conflict between many Tibetans and the Chinese [communist] government has been nonstop as many demand cultural autonomy, religious freedom, and basic human rights. In March, 2008, a series of protests -- using Chinese military agent provocateurs -- turned into "riots" in different regions across Tibet. The Chinese government used these as a pretext for Draconian measures of social control and genocide. Deadly Tibetan rioters were accused of attacking ethnic Han inhabitants and burning their Chinese-sponsored businesses.

Fire Under the Snow

Foreign delegate, GBC (Hindustan Times)
(2008) As the international debate over Tibetan freedom unfolds, the documentary "Fire Under the Snow" (see below) tells the story of a Tibetan Buddhist monk who was imprisoned and tortured by the Chinese communist army for 33 years.

The Tibetan Buddhist monk still has eyes that smile serenely. But the lines on Palden Gyatso's face tell a different story, a story of torture and decades of imprisonment. Gyatso recounts his arrest in 1959 while he was peacefully demonstrating with thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns. The CCP put him in prison for 23 years where he was tortured and in labor camps for 10 years. He was finally released in 1992.
 
Siberian Buddhist from Russia at BGC (HT)
Japanese film-maker Makoto Sasa was drawn to Gyatso's story mostly because of his strong, unbroken spirit despite such soul-wrenching suffering. Makoto Sasa says: "He could have gotten out of the prison if he would have said -- 'Yes, Tibet belongs to China, so I agree with what the Chinese government says.' But he didn't do that because he didn't believe in it. And this spirit I think is what people feel most from the film. And with that, they can look at the Tibetans, the current situation in Tibet and I think that's what they are going to get from the film."

Palden Gyatso: "When I finally got to India, I felt that I had reached the land of freedom and I felt that the atrocities that I had experienced, the atrocities that my fellow prisoners faced in prison, I felt that I had the duty to tell about those atrocities to the outside world."
 

 
Heidi Minx interviews Palden Gyatso and asks why he was arrested. He was a political prisoner held by the Chinese in Tibet for 33 years. To read his tragic story, see Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Buddha Still Standing (Burma)

The "Saffron Revolution" that happened in Burma in 2007 was the precursor to the protests we see around the world today. We will not remain quiet in the face of tyranny (VespaTS/Flickr.com).

We found a magnificent Buddha still standing after the government crackdown in Burma. The dictatorship could not stomp the spirit of freedom and liberation represented by the Buddha.

We changed buses in Pegu and took a short trip around the city avoiding government fees. We saw the need for helping Burma (which the government renamed Myanmar). This police state is ruled by a military junta after a coup in 1990 that imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi, the country's only legitimate, democratically-elected leader.

In 2010, an election was rigged to keep the country's reviled military dictators in their current positions. People are starving and engaged in forced labor. My pictures may seem one sided. It is prohibited to take pictures of the military and the police. I do not simply take pictures of the many poor on the streets instead.

The Burmese people are the kindest people I have ever met. Their loving-kindness filled me with a sense of compassion to support or find a way to free them from tyranny, even if I do not know how. The country needs our support in America: I have posted some links to international organizations helping Burma.

Burma is NOT a usual travel destination, except for adventurous spiritual travelers. Even if one avoids all governmental fees, for example using public transportation, it is difficult to say that traveling the country helps the people. Perhaps all travel should be boycotted and help given less directly.

The government with its embezzled profits has moved the country's capital to a make believe, reinforced never land called Naypyidaw. Seeing it from the bus, tears came to my eyes. I understood how the "generals" had extracted the money from starving people to create a world-class capital for themselves and their relatives. It was so shocking that I neglected to photograph it.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Thai army attacks protesters and kills 15

Anti-government "Red Shirt" protesters clash with Thai security forces in central Bangkok April 10, 2010. Thai troops fired rubber bullets at opposition demonstrators as they cracked down on the biggest confrontation in the month-long campaign for new elections, witnesses said (Reuters/Damir Sagolj).

(WQ) Who are the Red Shirts? Red Shirts is shorthand for the National United Front of Democracy Against Dictatorship. Their struggle to restore democracy in Thailand and wrestle power away from a dictator (Abhisit Vejjajiva) who seized control in a military coup. Even Buddhist monks have joined in the struggle. Perennial protests went sour as Vejjajiva, tiring of their growing popularity and disruptions in the capital Bangkok, told paramilitary forces to clampdown on public demonstrations.

Thai soldiers attack demonstrators Saturday (4/10/10) in Bangkok. The deployment came after protesters were pushed back by water cannons and rubber bullets from the headquarters of the 1st Army Region(AP/David Longstreath).

BANGKOK – Thai soldiers and police fought pitched battles Saturday night with anti-government demonstrators in streets enveloped in tear gas, but troops later retreated and asked protesters to do the same. Ten people were killed, including a Japanese journalist, and more than 500 wounded, according to hospital officials.

The army had vowed to clear the "Red Shirt" protesters out of one of their two bases in Bangkok by nightfall, but the push instead set off street fighting. There was a continuous sound of gunfire and explosions, mostly from Molotov cocktails. After more than two hours of fierce clashes, the soldiers pulled back.

Anti-government demonstrator play into the hands of violent soldiers and police during clash Saturday, April 10, 2010, in Bangkok (AP/Wason Waintchakorn). PHOTOS

Army spokesman Col. Sansern Kaewkamnerd went on national television Saturday night to ask the protesters to retreat as well. He also accused them of firing live rounds and throwing grenades during the fighting. "The security forces have now retreated to a certain extent from the Red Shirts," Sansern said. He said a senior government official had been asked to coordinate with the protesters to restore peace and urged them to back away to avoid more violence. More>>

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Saffron Revolution: gloom one year later


Monks participated in the protests in large numbers. Many monks want to make the next revolution but the government is putting more limitations on them (BBC).

A year has passed since popular protests against Burma's ruling junta filled the streets of Rangoon. A military crackdown finally brought the demonstrations to an end weeks after they began. Here Burmese describe their gloom and pessimism about the future.

WIN, RANGOON: "I took part in the events on the street last year. Nothing has obviously changed in this time except our people are getting poorer and poorer. I feel pessimistic about the future. The UN can't take any effective action against our government. They talk a lot but there is no action.

And the cyclone has not affected the political atmosphere at all. In fact, after the cyclone, our people have had to face inflation and many more troubles than before. But people are talking about what happened last year. They don't forget about it. Many monks want to make the next revolution but the government is putting more limitations on monks because the first anniversary of the September revolt is getting close.
.
AUNG, RANGOON: I didn't take part in the protests last year. But I was a leader in the 1988 protest in my home town and I was imprisoned and fired from my government post. I believe nothing will change and no-one can make the regime change because they have guns. I feel pessimistic about the future of our country if the junta is in power. As long as they stay in power no one can help us. More>>