Exiled Tibetans start 'Uprising March' from Dharamsala to Delhi highlight plight

[WisdomBeing]

I just read this today and wanted to highlight a few points i found interesting.

1. The Tibetan Youth Congress is marching to express support for the self-immolators. Isn't self-immolation a negative and futile action in a people who are said to be Buddhist yet suicide is anathema to Buddhists? Is the TYC now publicly encouraging self-immolation?

2. They are agitating for "genuine autonomy for their homeland". Here they are directly contradicting the Dalai Lama's middle way approach, yet they are asking for his return to Tibet?

3. The Dalai Lama is said by the Chinese to be "a violent separatist." If his decrees against Dorje Shugden practitioners is anything to go by, he has definitely instigated violence and separation between Dorje Shugden and non-Dorje Shugden practitioners. He is creating schism in the very community who he is supposed to be preaching compassion and wisdom. Are the Chinese wrong to call him "a violent separatist"?


Exiled Tibetans start 'Uprising March' from Dharamsala to Delhi highlight plight in Tibet
http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/exiled-tibetans-start-uprising-march-from-dharamsala-to-delhi-highlight-plight-in-tibet-114021000675_1.html
ANI  |  Dharamsala  February 10, 2014

The Tibetan Youth Congress embarked on an 'Uprising March' over the weekend from Dharamsala to New Delhi to mark 55 years of the first uprising in Tibet in 1959 to express solidarity with the self-immolators protesting the repressive Chinese rule in Tibet.

The Tibetan Uprising Day, which is observed on March 10, commemorates the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the presence of the People's Republic of China in Tibet.

The march which is scheduled to cover a distance of about 600 kilometres will be held from February 8 to March 10, as it aims to support the Tibetans suffering from Chinese brutalities in Tibet.

The march from Dharamsala to New Delhi will cover Indian cities, including Chandigarh, Ambala, Kurukshetra and Panipat.

The cultural secretary of Tibetan Youth Congress, Tashi Dhondup, said that they would present a memorandum with a set of five demands to the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi and appeal to the UN and embassies of other countries to support their demands.

"We are marching for the demands. We have five demands that we have put forward. We are going to end our march on March 10 in New Delhi, as it is 'National Uprising Day'. On March 10 we are going to assemble in Delhi and at Jantar Mantar we are going to end(the march). Next day we will make a petition to the UN (United Nations) and to all the consulates and to the Chinese also about our five demands,"said Dhondup.

Violence has flared in Tibet since 1950, when Beijing claims it "peacefully liberated" the region. Many Tibetans say Chinese rule has eroded their culture and religion. They are agitating for the Dalai Lama's return from exile in India, and genuine autonomy for their homeland.

The Chinese government,however, denies trampling Tibetan rights and boasts of having brought development and prosperity to the region.

Since 2009, at least 121 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in China in protest against Beijing's policies in Tibet and nearby regions with large Tibetan populations. Most were calling for the return of the Dalai Lama.

As shocking as the first suicides were, the people who chose to burn themselves did so, Tibetan scholars say, in reaction to specific instances of abuse at particular monasteries. Tibetan Buddhist monasteries are often under surveillance and subject to raids by Chinese security forces.

A Buddhist monk, Tsering said that they participated in the march to express solidarity with the self-immolators.

"Those who self-immolated in Tibet, so, as a moral responsibility (we are marching) and to reveal truth," said Tsering.

Beijing considers the Dalai Lama, who fled China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a violent separatist. The Dalai Lama, who is based in India, says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

Tensions have mounted between Tibet and China since 2008, after the riots that broke out in the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan parts of China which led to a government crackdown.

[icy]

To many Tibetans, China’s unyielding push to regain Tibet has only confirmed the futility of nonviolent protest. They have downgraded their demand for independence from China to autonomy within its boundaries. Every year, Tibetans reject the prosperity of China for life as refugees in remote places. Yet wherever they go, they find themselves marginalized by leaders anxious not to offend China.

In the decades since, far from moulding and influence China's behaviour, it is the West that has incrementally abandoned its own values in order to appease Beijing. It has been customary since the early 1990s for American presidents to host the Dalai Lama in Washington but in 2009 Barack Obama did away even with this minor gesture of solidarity with Tibetans for fear of offending the Chinese. The brief private audience that Obama eventually granted the Tibetan leader was accompanied by humiliation: the Dalai Lama was made to exit through a back door, surrounded by piles of White House trash.

In a desperate attempt to move the world, Tibetans have set fire to their own bodies, the count todate is 126 bodies.  Even these sacrifices, in violation of Buddhist precepts, have failed to provoke any meaningful outrage in places that matter.

Conscious of the discontent flourishing within the exiled community, the Dalai Lama spent the last decade modernizing the Tibetan resistance movement. He has exhorted the young to participate in them.   The democratically elected government in exile and the Tibetan Youth Congress appeared to be of such machinery. 

Of course the implementation of the Dorje Shugden ban is seemly a ploy to deflect the failure of not regaining Tibet.   As a result of the ban the community, monasteries, sanghas and people were forcibly torn and separated; violence were instigated to harm Shugden practitioners.  Isn't that not "a violent separatist"?

[Matibhadra]

Every year, Tibetans reject the prosperity of China for life as refugees in remote places.

The disgruntled feudal lords who control exiled Tibetans are not interested in Tibet's prosperity within China, rather, they dream of something much bigger for themselves, which is to see themselves reinstalled in Tibet as the local Western puppets, and thus being able to sell Tibet to the West for their personal profit.

So did the evil traitor the 13th ”dalai”, who gave, or rather sold, a huge chunk of Tibet (South Tibet, now Arunachal Pradesh in India) in exchange for British support to his tyrannical rule.

And so would do the evil 14th, and so would do all those fake lamas accepting Western support to disrupt the peace and prosperity in Tibet for their personal gain.

This explains the enthusiasm towards the evil dalie, and some other lamas, from the side of America's Bush and Obama, Canada's Stephen Harper, France's Sarkozy, and other office boys of big Western companies.

Meanwhile, Western relevant intelligentsia and policy-makers are well aware that Dorje Shugden lamas, as exemplified by Pabongkha Rinpoche, and pure Dharma practitioners as they are, are not in the business of selling their country, which explains the silence of Western media about the brutal ban.

[dsiluvu]

I just read this today and wanted to highlight a few points i found interesting.

1. The Tibetan Youth Congress is marching to express support for the self-immolators. Isn't self-immolation a negative and futile action in a people who are said to be Buddhist yet suicide is anathema to Buddhists? Is the TYC now publicly encouraging self-immolation?

2. They are agitating for "genuine autonomy for their homeland". Here they are directly contradicting the Dalai Lama's middle way approach, yet they are asking for his return to Tibet?

3. The Dalai Lama is said by the Chinese to be "a violent separatist." If his decrees against Dorje Shugden practitioners is anything to go by, he has definitely instigated violence and separation between Dorje Shugden and non-Dorje Shugden practitioners. He is creating schism in the very community who he is supposed to be preaching compassion and wisdom. Are the Chinese wrong to call him "a violent separatist"?

Some very interesting questions and points you've raised here WB... yes it's kinda odd for the TYC to march and demand from China when their demands does not align with His Holiness's?

I was wondering why would HHDL return to Tibet... when He does, He will inevitably lose all his powers and for sure China will not allow HH to have much of a say in anything. I really don't think HH really wants to return to Tibet. Yet TYC seems to be taking matters in to their own hands and demanding things that may not even be what HHDL wish for?

So what are these 5 demands?...

TYC will continue to carry out campaigns to urge the United Nations to press China to cease its brutal policies in Tibet and call upon the UN to support the basic rights of the Tibetan people and aspirations for freedom as well as step up its pressure on the Chinese government.

Five demands:

1. The Chinese government must positively respond to the demands of the self-immolators, who have called for, among many other things, the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet

2. Free all political prisoners, including 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Choekyi Nyima, Tulku Tenzin Delek and Rongye Adak who are in Chinese jails

3. China must allow the world media and an independent international youth group into Tibet to find out the ground reality
   
4. Immediately cease population transfer into Tibet and stop insidious ‘Patriotic re-education campaign’ that is being forced upon the Tibetan people
   
5. Stop nuclear testing, excessive mining and damming of rivers on the Tibetan Plateau which impact millions of people in Asia

The Tibetan Uprising March will conclude on March 10 in Delhi but until the Tibet issue is resolved and our demands are met, Tibetan Youth Congress vows to continue its campaigns in various phases for truth and justice.

From reading all 5 points... I think I would strongly support point No.5... not because points 1-4 are not strong or right, I honestly don't think China is that easy to succumb to such political pressure and in fact would greatly create more hostility and tighten security in more in Tibet. 

Yet Tibetans are will to take their lives and burn themselves for such political agendas... wonder why they don't demand and do the same for the separations, suppression created by the CTA to Shugdenpas and their own people to be more united first?

[Matibhadra]

From reading all 5 points... I think I would strongly support point No.5... [5. Stop nuclear testing, excessive mining and damming of rivers on the Tibetan Plateau which impact millions of people in Asia]

If so, why not protesting against the Canadian companies responsible for such abusive mining, in Tibet and worldwide?

When Canadian Mining Companies Take Over the World

By Kari Paul

Activists gather outside Canada's embassy protesting against the Canadian Osisko Mining Corporation, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Jan. 27, 2012. Residents and environmentalists are demanding that the government put an end to the open-cast gold mining project near the town of Famatina, in northwest Argentina. The governor of the region temporarily suspended the project due to ongoing resistance from residents who worry the project will contaminate the water. Gold mining methods require large explosions, huge volumes of water, and the use of cyanide to extract the mineral.

Plans to build Europe’s largest gold mine in Romania mobilized tens of thousands of protesters within the country and worldwide, sparking debate about the environmental impact of the project and the government’s role in its construction.

The project, which would be built in Rosia Montana, has gained international recognition, but it is just one of hundreds of projects Canadian mining companies have implemented around the world. Canada is home to almost 1,300 mining companies, constituting 75 percent of all the mining companies in the world.

Canada and Mining

Non-profit advocacy organization Mining Watch Canada has been monitoring Canadian mining companies’ global actions since its founding in 1999. Jamie Kneen, a research coordinator with the group, said there are several reasons Canada has become the most popular base for these companies.

“Canada provides very favorable conditions,” Kneen told VICE. “The listing requirements for the TSX [Toronto Stock Exchange] are pretty lax, the disclosure requirements are pretty lax, you don’t have to have Canadian directories or Canadian shareholders to be a Canadian company.”

Whereas American companies can be prosecuted for environmental and social policies abroad under the U.S. Alien Tort Statute, Canada does not have any laws to hold companies accountable.

“Only two Canadian laws apply internationally to mining practices, and one is against having sex with children,” Kneen said. “The other is against bribery and corruption.” However, he said the Canadian federal government told Mining Watch that it is difficult to apply these laws.

“They’ve had a lot of resources thrown their way to try and make Canada look better as far as bribery and corruption activity abroad, but there’s way more than they can keep tabs on,” he said. “It’s just kind of, cross your fingers and hope that they act responsibly.”

In 2009, the opposition Liberals introduced Bill C-300, a law designed to set international standards regarding human rights and the environment for Canada-based corporations, but the bill was defeated.

According to the International Business Times, a leaked report from 2010 (funded by the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada) found that of the 171 high-profile incidents of pollution, human rights violations, and unethical behavior, 34 percent were committed by Canadian companies.

The companies’ actions and the government’s inability to regulate them have gained Canada a reputation as “worst offenders in environmental, human rights and other abuses around the world.”

Africa

Mineral resources have been a major interest in Africa since its colonization in the late 19th century, and historically, European countries like the U.K. or France have dominated trade in the continent.

Today, Canada is the largest stakeholder in Africa’s mining sector. As of 2011, 155 Canadian companies were operating in 39 countries in Africa, All Africa reported. The top countries Canadian companies do business with in Africa as of 2011 were, in order: Zambia, Mauritania, South Africa, Madagascar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Tanzania, Mali, Senegal, and Eritrea. The combined assets of Canadian mining companies in Africa totalled more than $30.8 billion in 2011.

Canadian mining companies have allegedly been responsible for many human rights abuses in Africa. In 2005, Quebec-based Anvil Mining Ltd was accused of providing logistical support to Congolese soldiers as they attacked the town of Kilwa. The soldiers killed more than 70 people and raped and injured many others. The victims of the attack brought a class action lawsuit against Anvil Mining Ltd., but the case was thrown out by Canada’s Supreme court, which ruled the complaint should be heard in Congo instead.

The UN said the case “demonstrates the difficulty in proving the legal responsibility of private companies in the perpetration of serious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law.”

It is estimated that up to half of the gold mining in Africa is carried out by child laborers. Much of the gold is produced in small-scale mines and sold to larger companies, so it is unclear which companies are benefitting from the labor. Canada-based Artisanal Gold Council said it is working to implement tracking programs to prevent these human rights abuses.

Latin America

Africa represents only 21.5 percent of Canadian assets abroad — the majority are in Latin America. Canadian companies operate 80 mining projects in South America and have 48 more in development, according to a 2013 North-South Institute Report.

The institute estimated the total revenue of Canadian mining investments in the region as more than $19 billion. The majority of Canadian companies’ interaction with Latin America is in Mexico, which accounts for almost $5 billion of the revenue. Peru comes in second at almost $2 billion. The top Canadian mining companies in Latin America are Barrick Gold, Teck, Yamana Gold, Goldcord, Kinross Gold, and Pan-American Silver.

Mining in Latin America is seeing increasing amounts of backlash this year, in the form of protests by citizens and legal resistance from politicians.

On March 18, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Bucaramanga, Colombia to protest the gold mining project of Vancouver-based Eco Oro Minerals Corp. The protests targeted company plans to mine for gold at high altitudes; protesters argued it will hurt the ecosystem and affect the city’s only clean water supply. This was the fourth, and largest, anti-gold-mining demonstration in the area since 2010.

In Nicaragua, a group of more than 5,000 locals and Catholic priests protested on March 21 against a project owned by B2Gold Corp. The mining industry in Nicaragua is the fastest growing in Latin America.

On Sept. 12, Brazilian prosecutors blocked a permit from Belo Sun Mining Corp to build the country’s biggest gold mine yet. Prosecutors said the company failed to study the impact the project would have on local indigenous communities and the Amazon River.

Asia

Operations in Asia represent 11 percent of Canada mining companies’ assets, with the majority based in China and Kyrgyzstan.

Toronto-based Kumtor Gold Mine in Kyrgyzstan is facing a potential shutdown, not due to human rights abuses but because workers want to nationalize the mine. Workers have been protesting since March, demanding that the government take full control of the mine, which accounts for 12 percent of the country’s entire economy. The government is expected to vote on it in coming months.

Protests erupted in Tibet after a landslide on the site of Canadian company China Gold International in Tibet buried 83 workers in March. Chinese State media reported the landslide as a “natural disaster”, but others saw it as a part of an ongoing problem with mining companies in Tibet.

Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser has been following the mining development in the area since 2007 and said mining companies have destroyed the local landscape. “Unchecked mining has polluted water, sickened animals and humans, dislocated herdsmen and now caused a massive mudslide,” she said on her blog.

Many locals took to the web to denounce the landslide, but Chinese internet censors deleted any criticisms.

Europe

In addition to the project in Romania, Canadian mining companies have a presence in several other European countries.

In 2012, Canadian mining company Edgewater faced potential criminal charges in Spain for knowingly implementing a high-waste excavation project in the Northwestern region of Galicia. Environmental organizatons continue to fight against the company and prevent it from opening any more projects in Spain.

People in Thessaloniki, Greece have been protesting several mining projects of Vancouver-based Eldorado Gold company since March 2013. The most recent protest was held in September and attracted more than 10,000 people in opposition of the mine and 3,000 in counter protest, in favor of the mine.

http://www.globaljournalist.org/stories/2013/10/12/when-canadian-mining-companies-take-over-the-world/