2009 April 16 « Rev. Danny Fisher

April 16, 2009

Tibet News (4.16.09)

“Indian policemen arrest a Tibetan activist wearing only his underwear during a protest in New Delhi on Monday. Tibetan students organized a naked protest at the Chinese embassy against the ongoing situation in Tibet. A court in Tibet has condemned two people to die for their roles in violent riots in Lhasa last year, China’s state media said last week, the first death sentences reported over the deadly unrest.” Photo by Prakash Singh for AFP / Getty Images.
Here is some of the latest news about Tibet:

The Associated Press reports that “Dutch lawmakers said Thursday they will invite the Dalai Lama to parliament despite a warning from China that the visit would harm relations between the two nations.”

Reuters reports that Nepali police recently detained seven Tibetans participating in an anti-China demonstration in Kathmandu.

Reuters also reports that the Chinese government “plans to more than double spending on livestock and other local agricultural products upon which rural Tibetans depend.”

Asia Sentinel considers Dharamsala as “Tibetan Buddhism’s new permanent home.”

Oxford prof Timothy Garton Ash writes for the Los Angeles Times that the lack of nuanced coverage about China has nothing to do with Western biases–as the Chinese government has so often said–but rather the sad state of foreign reporting. He continues:

The real problem with China coverage in the mainstream Western media is not its negativity; it’s simply that there’s too little of it, given the growing importance of China and the fact that Chinese culture and society is so different from ours. Western media should not be writing less about the Dalai Lama or the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen anniversary, but they should be writing more about the other stories that make up China’s complex, unfolding drama.

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April 16, 2009

Burma News (4.16.09)

An image from this week’s “water festival” in Rangoon, Burma. Photo by the International Herald Tribune.
Here’s some of the latest news about Burma:

Both the Agence France-Presse and the International Herald Tribune report on Burma’s New Year “water festival” in Rangoon.

The AFP also report on the meeting of Asia Pacific ministers on the island of Bali to discuss the plight of Burma’s Rohingya peoples.

The New York Times writes about the uncertain future of those Rohingya refugees now living in Indonesia.

A press briefing at the U.S. State Department today clarified which sanctions against the junta are required by law and which are discretionary.

Speaking of the junta and the State Department, the Washington Post writes about how the State Department may replace its sanctions diplomacy with a “carrot-and-stick approach.”

The AFP reports that ten of the U.S. Senate’s seventeen women senators have signed a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asking to “step up pressure on [Burma's] ruling junta to scrap elections plans and free democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.” The signers were Senators Dianne Feinstein, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Patty Murray, Olympia Snowe, Blanche Lincoln, Maria Cantwell, Susan Collins, Barbara Boxer, Amy Klobuchar, Barbara Mikulski, and Lisa Murkowski.

Ban responds to the letter from the senators, saying:

The Secretary-General has received a letter signed by a number of US Senators on the situation in Myanmar. The Secretary-General and his Special Adviser share their concern about the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi. The Secretary-General and his Special Adviser have repeatedly called for her release and that of other political prisoners, and will continue to do so.

The Secretary-General continues to follow closely the situation in Myanmar, including through his Special Adviser, to promote national reconciliation, democratic transition, and respect for human rights in accordance with the mandate given to him by the General Assembly.

April 16, 2009

A Throne for His Holiness

Via Go Beyond Words: Wisdom Publications’ Buddhist Blog: Boston.com is featuring a really cool little video about the building of a throne for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s upcoming visit to New England. Check it out.

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April 16, 2009

The Tricycle Editors’ Blog Revisits Reincarnation Debate

Stephen Batchelor (left) and Robert Thurman (right) in New York City in 1997. Photo by Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
Over at the Tricycle Editors’ Blog, the great Phil Ryan revisits a feature from the magazine’s Summer 1997 issue in which Stephen Batchelor and Robert Thurman debated the topic of reincarnation in Buddhism. I remember reading this way back when; it’s a spirited, provocative piece. Take a look–Trike has kindly made the entire piece available online here.

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April 16, 2009

Buddhism and…Mel Gibson’s Divorce?

The director of The Passion of the Christ practices Catholicism…his way!!
Image via Warner Bros.
Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal points us to a gossip piece which suggests that one of the reasons for actor-director Mel Gibson’s impending divorce is his wife Robyn Moore’s interest in Buddhism. Gibson, though, was a co-producer on Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, the 2005 documentary which detailed (among other things) the famed singer-songwriter’s career and Buddhist practice–he even has a blurb featured prominently in the trailer (see here). So…who knows if there’s anything to this story or not?

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