This Week’s “On the Buddhism Beat” Post is Up at Shambhala Sun Space
by Danny Fisher
My latest “On the Buddhism Beat” post is now online over at Shambhala Sun Space. I do hope you’ll take a look. My analysis of the news about U.S. President Barack Obama’s “snub” of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has already provoked one thoughtful comment. Here’s what I wrote:
* Though US President Barack Obama has chosen not to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the exiled Tibetan leader’s upcoming visit to Washington, the Commander in Chief will meet with him in November after a visit to China.
* The editors of the Wall Street Journal offered a powerful statement this week in response to the controversy around President’s break with tradition vis-à-vis His Holiness (both Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush met with him each time he came to Washington during their administrations). They write that the decision “sends the message to other democracies that it’s acceptable to cave to Chinese pressure,” and is also peculiar in that “the Dalai Lama advocates the same human freedoms on which the US was founded: Democracy and the right to exercise basic civil liberties, including freedom of worship.”
* In addition, Tibet’s Prime Minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche accuses the US of “appeasing China.”
Read the rest of the post here.
Re the excerpt of On The Buddhist Beat that you’ve posted: There is A LOT going on behind the scenes regarding something like this. It’s largely a kabuki dance. If we cave a bit to the Chinese then they might do something significant for us.
I think “other democracies” are well aware that what the public is shown and what really is going on in international politics are mostly unrelated. When Tibet finally does ‘open up’ and is on its way to a degree of liberation it will seem like a great surprize, when really, to insiders to the negotiations, it was a foreseen step coming from all the small efforts that came before.