Mar 28 2011
cross-posted from Main Street Insider
We gave you a sneak preview of this episode on Thursday. This week we examine the details of the no-fly zone over Libya established on March 17th. Though there has been wide speculation about what is not allowed under this resolution, the truth is that the only thing expressly forbidden is an occupation. After that, any action that the Security Council deems necessary to protect civilians or benefit the Libyan people could be approved.
May 27 2008
From the AP:
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was personally informed of her continued imprisonment by officials from the Home Ministry who entered her villa prior to the announcement, the official said.
snip
The extension was issued despite a Myanmar law that stipulates no one can be held longer than five years without being released or put on trial.
The junta faced a deadline to extend Suu Kyi’s house arrest for another year or release her. Members of her National League for Democracy were marching from the party’s headquarters to her home when riot police shoved the group into a truck.
It was not immediately clear where the truck was headed or exactly how many people were detained.
link: http://ap.google.com/article/A…
According to this YouTube, “Dust In The Wind” has been adapted as a song of protest by Burmese refugees living along the country’s border (it’s YouTube, so take it with the appropriate grain of salt):
May 12 2008
First, breaking news this morning. There has been a 7.8 earthquake in China that has left four schoolchildren and one adult dead:
Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for “all-out” efforts to rescue victims of an earthquake measuring 7.8 that has hit south-western China.
The quake struck 92km (57 miles) north-west of Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu, at 1428 (0628 GMT).
The children were killed, and more than 100 others injured, when primary school buildings collapsed in the Chongqing area, a large municipality near Sichuan province, Xinhua added.
Another person is reported to have died when a water tower collapsed in the city of Mianyang, in Santai County.
link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asi…
The Bangkok Post gives further details of the magnitude of the quake:
Government and local officials said the quake struck at 2:28pm local time (1:28pm in Thailand) in Wenchuan county, Sichuan province. It was felt in cities hundreds of kilometres away, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, in addition to Bangkok.
“Major tremors” were felt by residents of cities closer to the epicentre, including Sichuan’s capital, Chengdu, and nearby Chongqing, the official news agency Xinhua said.
link: http://www.bangkokpost.com/top…
(Meanwhile in Myanmar below.- ek)
Apr 25 2008
The timing of the release of intelligence regarding the link between North Korea and Syria over an alleged nuclear reactor facility that the Israeli’s bombed inside Syria is being questioned by the international community.
Of course, rightly so because of where the intelligence information is coming from. The Bush Administration. Not the most trustworthy group of people on the world stage today, I think we can all agree.
From BBC:
The US has made explicit allegations that the target hit by Israeli warplanes in Syria last September was a nuclear reactor under construction.
It was being built with help from North Korea, the Bush administration said.
But the White House statement – after a series of intelligence briefings on Capitol Hill – raises many questions.
As does the decision to go public just as international talks to try to roll back North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme have hit a critical stage.
Apr 14 2008
Amid the Chinese government stepping up claims that the Dalai Lama wants to foment a violent uprising in Tibet – including allegations today that they discovered an arms cache in a Tibetan monestary (link: http://www.reuters.com/article… ), the Dalai Lama gave a forceful reply last Friday.
He didn’t call them the Evil Empire. He didn’t say they were members of the Axis of Evil.
He said, “we are not anti-Chinese”.
The full interview can be found at MSNBC’s website here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21…
Apr 11 2008
Some folks out there may remember that I wrote a while back on the IOC’s decision to give the Olympic games to China, asking rhetorically, “What were they thinking?”
Right now, given the IOC’s desire to see the Bubblelympics continue free of any influences of the world outside the Olympic village, I’ve just gotta ask, “What are they thinking?”
The Times UK covers the recent “decision” of the IOC regarding whether or not athletes at the games can make any political statements. Calling displays of the Tibetan flag potential propaganda, the IOC stated that athletes could be banned for such displays.
Ah, yes, but how to handle that whole “freedom of speech” thing?
Follow me under the fold for the machinations…
Apr 09 2008
“We want to say to China, ‘We thought that the Olympic Games would help you improve your human rights record,” Tutu said. “We still hope… But what we are saying to the heads of state, to President George Bush, is, ‘For goodness sake, don’t go to the Beijing games… for the sake of our children, for the beautiful people of Tibet. Don’t go!'”
Mar 30 2008
In one of those synchroncities that sometimes occur in life, shortly before I began to hear about the current unrest in Tibet, I had begun to read a book called The Essential Dalai Lama: His Important Teachings, edited by Rajiv Mehrotra and published by Penguin Books. The book is a compilation of essays and lectures on Buddhism by the Dalai Lama. It is a relatively thin book, under 300 pages, but I have yet to finish it a couple of weeks later, because each of the essays in the book is so full of meaning and deserving of further thought that I cannot read too much of it at once without stopping to absorb and ponder it.
I am not a Buddhist. I am someone who has a great deal of interest in spiritual questions about the actual nature of reality, but because of a questioning mind I have been unable thus far to accept any religion. As such, I am by no means an expert on this subject, but I want to convey some sense of what I believe is the deep importance of preserving the Tibetan culture. I have the impression that many Americans are unfamiliar with that culture and think of Tibet as far away and unimportant to them. I want to express why I think it is imperative that we support Tibet.
Mar 25 2008
From The Hindu:
“I have always made it clear that the expression of deep emotion should be in control. If it is out of control, we have no option. If the violent demonstration will continue, I would resign,” he told reporters here.
Disturbed by violent protests by Tibetans in various places, he asked the demonstrators to refrain from doing any harm to the Chinese people.
“I have always respected the Chinese people… Chinese communism. Even most of the Tibetan protesters are ideologically Communists. I think inside or outside China, if the demonstrators utilise violent methods, I am totally against it,” the Dalai Lama further said.
Mar 20 2008
…And Gordon Brown steps in to fill the Western void.
First, the footage. After this was aired on CTV in Canada and then picked up by other Western news outlets, China has formally admitted that the protests have spread outside Lhasa:
Mar 18 2008
“If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign,” Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader told a news conference in the north Indian town of Dharamsala, the seat of his government-in-exile.
“Even 1,000 Tibetans sacrificed their life, not much help,” he said. “Please help stop violence from Chinese side and also from Tibetan side.”
Mar 17 2008
From today’s Wapo – I’ve highlighted a chilling part of their report:
Vowing a harsh crackdown, Chinese police conducted house-to-house searches in central Lhasa Monday and rounded up hundreds of Tibetans suspected of participating in a deadly outburst of anti-Chinese violence, exile groups and residents reported.
The large-scale arrests and official promises of tough reprisals suggested the Chinese government has decided to move decisively to crush the protests despite calls for restraint from abroad and warnings that heavy-handed repression could taint next summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
The Tibetan regional governor, Champa Phuntsok, said detainees who show remorse and inform on others who were part of the week-long unrest would be rewarded with better treatment. But Buddhist monks and other Tibetans who participated in Friday’s torching of Chinese-owned shops and widespread attacks on Han Chinese businessmen would be “dealt with harshly,” he told a news conference in Beijing.