More Recommended Reading

End of the day links for your edification:

1. John Gray reviews Margaret Atwood's Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, in which Atwood takes something of a meta-view of debt. In essence our profligate ways with our own money reflect our attitudes towards the capital that is our planet, but that the Earth will not be so kind as the present crisis when it's time to pay it back.

2. U.S. officials accuse Pakistan's ISI of supporting Taliban attacks in Afghanistan in a very direct manner, with ISI agents going so far as to strategize with the Taliban about attacks on American forces. Meanwhile, former members of the Taliban say that talks with the Taliban are a possible route to peace, though one says of American forces: "They have a right to ensure that there is no danger to them from Afghanistan...[but] That is the limit of their rights in this country."

3. An aging Dalai Lama concedes that his strategy of engaging the Chinese leadership on Tibet has failed not only to gain traction for Tibetan autonomy, but to slow down the Chinese makeover of the country. China's response to any burgeoning demonstrations of Tibetan independence is met only with repression and violence, but alternative strategies are wanting.

4. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister-delegate, insists that Israel is a "partner for peace" while at the same time he's making backdoor deals to expand Israeli settlements in a particular part of the West Bank, a move that the U.S. government has long opposed as an impediment to peace.

5. In an op-ed for the WSJ, three former Presidents of Latin American countries argue that the "war on drugs" is a dismal failure, and it's time for a new course of action.

Tibet

Driving into work this morning I heard a report that Chinese authorities arrested Tibetan protesters seeking the return of the Dalai Lama. That left me wondering what the situation in Tibet is like presently. Apparently, not good:

Scratch only a little bit, and Dorje, a Tibetan nomad, lets loose with a tirade at the people he simply calls "the Chinese," the majority Han who he says will get no respite from Tibetan frustration this year — or for generations.

"After I die," the 53-year-old grizzled herder says, "my sons and grandsons will remember. They will hate the government."

On the cusp of the first anniversary of a mass revolt on the Tibetan Plateau that marked the worst ethnic unrest in China in nearly two decades, many Tibetans still seethe at living under China's thumb. Some engage in small-scale civil disobedience. Others, including monks, brazenly display photographs of the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader they revere as a God-king but that China maligns as a "beast." Nearly all gripe about a lack of religious and political freedom.

Another imminent anniversary date adds to the sensitivity of the Tibet issue. March 10 marks 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled across the Himalayas to exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. Fearful of a spasm of new unrest, Beijing has closed off many ethnic Tibetan areas to journalists and made scattered arrests of organizers of resistance campaigns.

Tibetan monks, nomads and students interviewed recently by McClatchy said ethnic tensions have deepened in this eastern region of Qinghai province, which still remains open to reporters.

More than 1,200 miles separate this mountain town from Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Ethnic Tibetans still predominate in this region, though, and two of the six most important Tibetan monasteries are in the dry, arid mountains that rise at the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

At the Kumbum Monastery, which once housed 4,000 monks but is down to 800 today, a 29-year-old monk said Tibetans were defying China by refusing to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which Han Chinese celebrated on Jan. 26 and many Tibetans celebrate under a different calendar system on Feb. 25-27.

"How could there be celebrations? Last year, they shot so many of us," said the monk, who is not being identified to avoid reprisals against him. "Tibetan people are trying to stand up for ourselves by not celebrating."

If anything Tibetans are more frustrated and restless than at any time in recent memory, and there are no indications that will improve in the near future.

Quit Moving The Olympics Around

Tony Perottet and Christina Larson (via Paul Glastris) think the real problem with the Olympics is that, by making the them a prize to be handed out to countries, we encourage politicization of the games and that we could stand to learn something from the ancient Greeks:

So how is it that the ancient Greeks managed to better insulate their Olympics from geo-politics? The answer is that they didn't move the venue every four years the way we do. Instead, with one exception, they always held the contests at the religious sanctuary of Olympia, in a politically irrelevant corner of the Peloponnese. Perrottet suggests that we follow the Greek's example and find a permanent home for the games in some safe little neutral country like Liechtenstein.

Of course, as the Greeks were nearly constantly at war with each other they had significantly more incentive to hold the games in a neutral location. Our problem is mainly that we don't see a tyrannical form of government as a disqualification for hosting the games, but we could avoid offending the tender sensibilities of the world's dictatorships by holding the games in the same place every four years.

Tibet Update (3/27)

Reports of unrest have quieted in Tibet and China in the last few days, but it's impossible to know if that's because the situation has calmed or because Chinese authorities have effectively closed off access by the outside world to troubled regions. Chinese officials permitted reporters back in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, on a guided "show tour" to demonstrate their peaceful control over the city, only to have the event interrupted by protesting monks. China reports that nearly 1,000 participants in the riots have surrendered to authorities, though it's quite likely that a substantial number of them did not so much surrender as they were rounded up by police. Despite Chinese claims that the unrest is at an end, it's clear that tensions are still simmering in Tibet and surrounding Chinese provinces. President Bush continues to press China on the issue of Tibet, and though calls for a boycott have still not gained widespread traction some European leaders have signaled their willingness to drop out of the Olympic games if Chinese repression continues.

Tibet Update (3/24)

Despite what apparently was some intial hesitation in the first few days after protests erupted in Lhasa, China has gone to great lenghts to put an end to the violence in Tibet and China. But despite their efforts, demonstrations and violence continues in Tibet and neighboring Chinese provinces and casualties continue to rise. China has also instituted an information blackout, but information about the uprisings continues to leak out of the country. Pressure is building for a boycott of the Olympics as protestors disrupted the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece, but officials in Europe and the Americas continue to resist talk of such a boycott.

For all of our Tibet coverage click here.

Tibet Update (3/19)

It appeared Chinese authorities had for the most part brought Lhasa under control these last several days. But yesterday a bomb attack reportedly killed four policemen in Tibet's capital city, and scattered protests continue in Chinese provinces housing large Tibetan populations. China has continued to round-up suspected participants in the protest, claiming that it is in a "life and death" struggle in Tibet and it has responded by flooding potential areas of unrest with troops, desperate to avoid being caught off-guard again by protesters. European authorities are weighing how to deal with the delicate issue of China and the Olympics, but as this Reuters piece makes clear, when it comes to China and human rights we have to be careful not to bite the hand that feeds us.

China in Tibet

Via Andrew Sullivan, here's a somewhat dated Atlantic Monthly article by Peter Hessler called "Tibet Through Chinese Eyes" which attempts to document the Chinese approach in Tibet and its resulting effects. An excerpt:

Tibet had started to depress me, and I was looking forward to leaving. Strangely, it almost seemed worse for not being as bad as I had always heard. There were definite benefits of Chinese support, and I was impressed by the idealism and dedication of some of the young Han teachers I had met. But at the same time, most efforts to develop the region were badly planned, and it was frustrating to see so much money and work invested in a poor country and so much unhappiness returned. And often I felt that the common people, who knew little of Tibet's complicated historical and cultural issues, were being manipulated by the government in ways they didn't understand. But although I was certain that nobody was truly happy (most of the Han didn't like being there, and most of the Tibetans certainly weren't happy to have them), I wasn't sure who was pulling the strings. One could go straight to the top and probably find the same helplessness, the same strings. It was mostly the irrevocable mistakes of history, but it was also money—simple economic pressure that drove a mother away from her son to a place where the people did not want her.

China's domineering presence in Tibet, motivated simultaneously by nationalist and idealistic ideals similar to those in the minds of the missionaries and settlers of the 19th Century American West, was doomed to provoke conflict. And reading this article, it's hard to imagine how China could guarantee some measure of autonomy to Tibet even were they so inclined (which they are not.) In the end there can only be two results from China's occupation of China; independence, or complete assimilation.

Tibet Update (3/18): Situation Uncertain

News of events in Tibet and China is hard to come by at this point, thanks to a lockdown on information by Chinese authorities. There is news of a round-up in Lhasa, and scattered protests in other Tibetan and Chinese provinces, but most information seems to be coming from exiles and human rights groups and is hard to verify. The Dalai Lama has threatened to resign if the violence worsens, as he remains committed to non-violence and greater Tibetan autonomy but not independence. However, younger Tibetans (including, presumptively, some of the leaders of the violent protests in Tibet) are less patient and are demanding full autonomy for Tibet. The editors of the NY Times weigh in with this condemnation of China's crackdown, but stop short of calling for a boycott of the upcoming Olympic games as demanded by some activists.

UPDATE: As news in Tibet is hard to come by, so is decent analysis. Here's Scott Horton with a few words that are worth reading.

UPDATE II: For the best coverage of what's going on in Tibet, definitely keep an eye on Boing Boing for posts like this.

UPDATE III: Also, see this round-up of Tibet coverage at Wired's Threat Level, including explanations of efforts by Chinese and Tibetan citizens to get around China's blockade of online information. The post also includes links to Clinton and Obama's policy statements on Tibet. Both call for respect for Tibet and restraint by the Chinese authorities, though Obama also calls for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet.

For all of our Tibet coverage, click here.

Tibet Update (3/17)

Violent demonstrations against Chinese rule have now spread to three neighboring Chinese provinces which house large Tibetan populations. Non-violent demonstrations are also occurring in other countries in the region. Chinese authorities argue that they are showing restraint in quashing dissent, while at the same time they promise to "deal harshly" with those participating in the protests and have issued a deadline for those involved to surrender to police. China is busy cutting off Tibet from the outside world to avoid the bad press that will inevitably follow a harsh crackdown. Protesters in Europe and America are calling for a boycott of the Olympics, but so far government officials are resisting such a move. This article in Time discusses the frustrations of some of those who are calling for Tibetan independence, illustrating how likely it was for the protests to turn into something more.

For all our coverage of the unfolding situation in Tibet, click here.

Quick Update on Tibet

Despite China's apparently successful efforts to lockdown Lhasa, two days after rioting began after confrontations between Buddhist monks and police, violent protests have spread not only to other Tibetan cities, but to provinces neighboring Tibet that house large Tibetan populations. The Dalai Lama has indicated that he will not order Tibetans to cease their protests. So far, the International Olympic Committee is resisting calls to boycott China.

Violent Protests in Tibet

Tibet, subjugated by the Chinese since their 1950 invasion of the country, has erupted in riots protesting Chinese rule:

Violent protests erupted Friday in a busy market area of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans clashed with Chinese security forces. Witnesses say the protesters burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus.

The demonstrations were the most violent since protests by Buddhist monks began in Lhasa on Monday, the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. The protests have been the largest in Tibet since the late 1980s, when Chinese security forces repeatedly used lethal force to restore order in the region.

The developments prompted the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, to issue a statement, saying he was concerned about the situation and appealing to the Chinese leadership to “stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people”.

By Friday night, Chinese authorities had placed much of the central part of the city under a curfew, including neighborhoods around different Buddhist monasteries, according to two Lhasa residents reached by telephone. Military police were blocking roads in some ethnic Tibetan neighborhoods, several Lhasa residents said.

Information emerging about Friday’s protests was scattered and difficult to verify. But witnesses in Lhasa say the violence erupted on Friday morning at the Tromsikhang Market, a massive, concrete structure built in the old Tibetan section of the city by Chinese authorities in the early 1990s. “It’s chaos in the streets,” said a person who answered the telephone at a bread shop near the market.

A local travel agent, reached by telephone, said a riot broke out at the market and around the nearby Ramoche Temple because of friction between Tibetan and Han Chinese traders. The agent said fires erupted near the Ramoche Temple and elsewhere in the market area, while Tibetan traders also overturned a tour bus and set it ablaze.

Robert Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University who has communicated with Tibetan exiles, said the initial incident occurred Monday afternoon when about 400 monks left Drepung Loseling Monastery intending to march five miles west to the city center. Police officers stopped the march at the halfway point and arrested 50 or 60 monks.

But Mr. Barnett said the remaining monks held the equivalent of a sit-down strike and were joined by an additional 100 monks from Drepung. The monks “were demanding specific changes on religious restrictions in the monastery,” said Mr. Barnett. He said monks want the authorities to ease rules on “patriotic education” in which monks are required to study government propaganda and write denunciations of the Dalai Lama.

Tibet has experienced no violent demonstrations since a crackdown in 1989, making these incidents unusual. At this point it's impossible to say whether the protests will grow in size, but thanks to the upcoming Olympics China is not so free to violently suppress any demonstration as the Burmese government did last year.

UPDATE: This report suggest that protests have expanded beyond Tibet's capital city of Lhasa, but provides no detail. This article provides more detail on that and the response of Chinese security forces. The BBC has more pictures of the protests. CNN offers a handy timeline of this weeks events, from the peaceful marches on Monday to the outbreak of violence today. The U.S. has responded by urging Chinese officials not to respond with violence.

UPDATE II: This TIME article is the best explanation of the background of the protests that I've seen yet, and it details the particular tensions in Lhasa over the influx of Chinese into the city, a particular example of China's policy of assimilating Tibet by swamping it with Chinese immigrants.

UPDATE III: From Sophie in comments, here are more pictures of the protests.