The Great Fall of China — 1

On 28 January 2011, the State Council Information Office and Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of China issued the following notice to its people:

"For the disturbances in Egypt, media across the nation must use copy circulated from Xinhua.  Websites are to strengthen [monitoring] of posts, forums, blogs, and particularly posts on microblogs.  Our bureaus will forcibly shut down websites that are lax in monitoring."

 This was soon after the Jasmine Revolution ousted Ben Ali in Tunisia and the Egyptians were flowing into Tahrir Square, which ultimately led to the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. People's protests are now infiltrating the streets of Beijing and other major Chinese cities, giving the Communist Party of China led by Hu Jintao splitting headaches almost to a point of nervous breakdowns. The harmony of the Party's absolute rule may be in danger.

The Karmapa Is Not…

On 26 January two Indians were arrested with a large amount of cash, which led to the raid on the room of Karmapa’s monk accountant in Gyuto near Dharamsala. Gyalwa Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorjee, the 17^th Gyalwa Karmapa and the spiritual leader of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The police seized foreign currencies, including a large amount of Indian rupees, which has become a feast of sorts for the Indian media. Instead of presenting well-researched news, various media channels sought comfort in eye-catching headlines and unsubstantiated allegations. Some of the headlines read:

Vital Lessons from Urgent Times

As I write this the long and apparently tech-savvy hands of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are busy making sure that no news of the great mass uprisings taking place around the world gets through the Great Firewall.

In the first weeks of 2011 a grassroots revolution in Tunisia [Tunisians prefer calling it the Jasmine Revolution] led to the overthrow of Ben Ali, the dictatorial president who ruled the country for 23 years. Not satisfied with a hastily-formed transitional government, people are demanding a completely new administration free from any trace of autocracy. In the same continent, hundreds of thousands of protesters are taking to the streets in Cairo, Egypt, demanding Hosni Mubarak to step down. Mubarak has been ruling the country with an iron-fist for over 30 years.

Just across the Red Sea from Egypt, another uprising is taking place in Yemen. The opposition leaders and students have joined the activists to rally against their corrupt president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh has been ruling Yemen dictatorially since 1978.

Appeal

(This is an appeal by a group of university students from Tibet. Translated by Bhuchung D. Sonam.)

The election for the prime minister of the exile Tibetan Government, which represents the six million Tibetans, is a crucial event at a time when the exile Tibetan community has been enjoying democracy and freedom resulting in more political awareness, desire for change and marching on the path of freedom struggle. This is why we need to understand that this election is a big test for the exile Tibetan community in general and particularly to measure their political maturity and collective thoughts.

In spite of all these, if a conservative, orthodox and a foot-dragging prime minister is elected then it will be tantamount to dumping off the heartfelt hope placed by the Tibetans inside Tibet on the political maturity and democratic culture of the exile Tibetans. It will also signal an end to the hope and trust placed by Tibetans individually and collectively on the exile Government and the international community at large.

Too Soon

Remembering Tsewang Norbu-la
1973-2010

Monsoon 1989. The sky was lavish sending millions of raindrops wearing boxing gloves, as my friend Tenzin Tsundue puts it. The playground was a brown sludge. Yet we continued the football match. Almost through the half time, a goal was scored. While we were recovering from the defensive lapse, the scorer ran to the middle of ground and performed an antic that would have done Roger Milla, the Cameroonian football star, proud.

Freedom of Tongue

'I am my language, I am an ode, two odes, ten. This is my language.
I am my language.' — Mahmoud Darwish

On 12 October 2010, the Provincial Communist Party and Amdo (Chin. Qinghai) Provincial Government held a meeting on education during which a new policy to replace Tibetan by Chinese as the medium of instruction was launched. At 8 am on 19th, thousands of Tibetan students in Rebkong took to the streets to demand ‘Freedom of Language.’

The peaceful protests by Tibetan students have spread all over Tibet and Beijing, where four hundred students from the Minorities University participated in a solidarity march. Last week about 6,000 students in Amdo protested against the new language policy. Students in the neighbouring Tibetan province of Kham (Chin. Gansu and Sichuan provinces) also held solidarity protests. As a retaliatory measure, at around 10:30 a.m. on 22 October, the Chinese authorities have detained over 20 students in Chabcha in Amdo, northeastern Tibet.