The World Is as We Say It Is
One Intrepid Reader asked to view the Newsweek maps that I had to wait for the censor to clear, so I thought you all might be interested in this illustration of the way that governments shape and produce knowledge. What does Newsweek know about the external borders of India?!?!?
In other news, I have just come from a photo exhibit and documentary film on the recent events in Tibet, put on by some of the monks from nearby Sera Monastery in Bylakuppe. The film (made secretly over three months by an escaped Tibetan living in Britain), and the photos, smuggled out of Tibet, were quite eye-opening. The monks repeatedly made the point that if we can ignore the human rights violations in Tibet -- no freedom of religion; constant surveillance by the huge numbers of Chinese police officers, soldiers, and informants in Tibet (at an estimated ratio of one to 20 people in Tibet, as compared with one to 1400 in mainland China); forced resettlement; forced sterilization of women; lack of health care facilities; monasteries that are cut off from supplies of food and water -- then human rights everywhere are in jeopardy, because the international community has shown that it is afraid to take a strong stand. And I wonder, why did the international community get so involved in human rights issues in, for example, South Africa and the Balkans, but it has not yet taken the Tibetan cause seriously? The answer, I suspect, is money and markets - corporations salivating over hundreds of millions of consumers. But I would hope and like to believe that the international community can rise above this, and also concern itself with the higher values of human rights and freedoms.
Tomorrow, I'll visit the Tibetan community at Bylakuppe for the day (as we have a holiday from yoga on Full Moon days), and I expect I'll have much more to say after that...
In other news, I have just come from a photo exhibit and documentary film on the recent events in Tibet, put on by some of the monks from nearby Sera Monastery in Bylakuppe. The film (made secretly over three months by an escaped Tibetan living in Britain), and the photos, smuggled out of Tibet, were quite eye-opening. The monks repeatedly made the point that if we can ignore the human rights violations in Tibet -- no freedom of religion; constant surveillance by the huge numbers of Chinese police officers, soldiers, and informants in Tibet (at an estimated ratio of one to 20 people in Tibet, as compared with one to 1400 in mainland China); forced resettlement; forced sterilization of women; lack of health care facilities; monasteries that are cut off from supplies of food and water -- then human rights everywhere are in jeopardy, because the international community has shown that it is afraid to take a strong stand. And I wonder, why did the international community get so involved in human rights issues in, for example, South Africa and the Balkans, but it has not yet taken the Tibetan cause seriously? The answer, I suspect, is money and markets - corporations salivating over hundreds of millions of consumers. But I would hope and like to believe that the international community can rise above this, and also concern itself with the higher values of human rights and freedoms.
Tomorrow, I'll visit the Tibetan community at Bylakuppe for the day (as we have a holiday from yoga on Full Moon days), and I expect I'll have much more to say after that...
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