Lhasa locked down - demonstrations spread

Lhasa remains locked down. Informers are offered rewards. Fear and money and paranoia are great motivators. Reports indicate demonstrations in Gansu and Sichuan.

A young Tibetan monk was less circumspect about government restrictions on the proposed march from India to Tibet. After all, said Tenzin Damchoe, the Indian-born child of Tibetan refugees, Tibetans had learned the art of the peaceful protest march from Gandhi. “It’s a little bit disgrace,” Mr. Damchoe, 30, said.

As for the revolt inside Tibet, he said he could only imagine the worst. “They crushed their own people,” he said of the Chinese response to the Tianemen Square pro-democracy protests in 1989. “There’s no doubt they will crush the Tibetan people.”

Demonstrations, some peaceful, others violent, against the brutal repressive Chinese regime continue around the world. They blame separatists and outside influences. They blame the Dalai Lama.

He said he was aware that the Chinese government blamed him for fomenting rebellion. “I’m happy they found some scapegoat,” he said, in half-jest, and then described what he said were deep-rooted grievances.

“Whether the Chinese government admits it or not, there is a problem. The problem is a nation with ancient cultural heritage is actually facing serious dangers,” he said. “Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place.” (NYT linked below for full story)

The Drapchi prison outside of Lhasa will be overflowing with newly incarcerated monks, nuns and civilians. They will be tortured and some will die. New refugees will flee across the Himalayas.

Light a candle.

Practice nonviolence.

Peace.

NYT

Lhasa riots

It is with a heavy heart I am reading and hearing about riots and loss of life in Lhasa.

It began on March 10th when monks were arrested following a peaceful protest of the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising. On the 11th, police used tear gas to break up peaceful rallies. Police sealed off key Lhasa monasteries on the 12th - Drepung, Sera and Ganden. Rioting started on the 14th.

Reports coming out of the capital indicate that monks from the Rampoche monastery, about 1/2 mile from central Lhasa making a peaceful march were confronted by the Chinese People's Army.

Reports indicate that young Tibetans may have been involved in torching a tourist bus and looting and burning Chinese owned businesses. Their frustration over the heavy handed Chinese military and secret police presence, ongoing deterioration of religious freedom and proliferation of Chinese business - an insidious economic genocide - especially in the central Barkhor area has turned violent.

Restricted religious freedom in monasteries, mass arrests and torture have been a way of life for Tibetans since 1959. 1.2 million Tibetans have died. Thousands fled over the Himalayas.

Tibetans continue peaceful rallies and speaking out against the oppression in Nepal, India and other countries around the world.

You can hear about my experiences in Tibet in Middle Kingdom podcasts #20 and #24.

#9 Extorts

Welcome to the Explorers Club. You are client #9 and I charge a cool $1,000 an hour to write and read this. The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

So, it's like this, I am a Diamond Writer and work for a writing extort, escort biz, honey.

I admit, up front that I had a difficult childhood; you know, filled with neglect, abuse, broken pencils, jammed typewriters and such. Parchment was hard to get a hold of, rather like the angle of this piece of sensational sleaze.

I survived, changed my name from Sleazy to Pleasy and signed up, signed on and signed off on a lucrative pay-as-you-go dream job, although, to be honest, music is my first love.

My first single was...
My second single was...
My next single is singing for the grand jury. Finally, I have an audience of more than one.

Children police force

Welcome to another edition of plant-a-rama, ding dong song.

You visited a wonderful nursery on the edge of town past exotic car factories and fields filled with gleaming metal. Every car on the road is a used car.

Guided by a young pale well seeded and seasoned botanist girl you selected roses, ferns, bamboo, lemon trees, wild camellias, climbing vines, hysteria, wistfulleria and assorted green. Where the roots whisper below the surface of apprenticeships and ocean liners.

So it happened one day when the crows were calling after sunrise, he opened the blinds. Riding the blinds is a phrase, a cryptic description of railroad life, hopping a freight out of town. Ain't nothin' but da blues.

Light streamed across a room to the pink and red veined orchid in a brushed silver container. Tibetan incense curled into light. Red gladioli, so glad, petaled their beginning. Piano Etudes by Glass. A handful of dust labeled fear gathered to celebrate in the light.

The piano fell silent. Violins picked up the slack hemming their garments, idling at intersections along life's loom.

In the "new" world order all the police are children. They know how the world word woks work.

The Rare Divorce

This happened in a country where divorce is seen as failure. A place where women know their place and stay in it. A place where mothers control and manipulate their daughter's behavior, attitudes and imaginary freedom with a heavy dictatorial hand.

She was different.

She told someone she could trust that, after seven months of marriage she'd decided to leave her husband and filed divorce papers.

"I feel so much better," she said when they had a talk. She opened up because she finally felt free, she knew he was a good listener and she had a lot to say. How she'd believed her husband in the beginning.

"He lied to me. He courted me with sweet words and I thought, or believed I thought or thought I believed he had an open mind but I was disappointed because he wasn't honest...so after some time measured in weeks then months I saw his, how do you say, irresponsibility, how he wouldn't contribute his heart to me, to our relationship; and then, when I tried to talk to him he was closed to me, he shut down and I was working and trying to keep the flat up and work on our relationship but I saw it was difficult, then really, really impossible to live with everything in my brain and heart," and she paused.

"Now, when he saw my action to end the marriage he was filled with remorse and regret and apologies. But it's too late. I told him to move out. He returned to his family. He tries to bother me every day in his childlike whining way but it's over. I can handle it. I am strong and know what I want in my life. My family is very supportive of my decision."