I Am A Buddhist Like Richard Gere

An Officer And A Gentleman

What Tibet Needs Is A Political Party
Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China
Imagining A Federal, Multi-Party China Of State Funded Parties

What Tibet Needs Is A Political Party

Church, State

If the Tibetan diaspora does not have the sense and the guts to engineer a church and state separation within itself, they are throwing the Tibetan protesters to the dogs inside China. They might as well ask to call off the protests.

Nothing prevents the Tibetan diaspora from organizing a political party. Call it the Tibet People's Party or something.

Puppy Love With The Dalai Lama

I am on record saying I am fond of him, he is the ultimate, I am a Buddhist, he is bigger than the Pope. But he is a religious leader, a spiritual guide, at most he may give political advice. But political leadership has to be separate, elected.

Politically speaking what's the difference between His Holiness and Fidel Castro? The Dalai Lama went into exile in 1959, I believe. And he has been the political leader of the Tibetan diaspora ever since. There is something very wrong in that picture. He should have had to face at least 10 elections by now, but he has not, neither has Castro.

Doomed

Unless the diaspora engineers this separation, the movement in Tibet is doomed. It is only a matter of time before the protests are snuffed out. It is very hard to ignite a mass movement. So it is a great tragedy when a mass movement is sent to waste because people who could did not make the right political moves.

Clear Goal

That political party will have to say very clearly that it does not want Tibet to become a separate country. That party will also have to say it believes Taiwan is a part of China. And then the goal becomes that China grant Tibet the status of a federal state with its own parliament and competing political parties. Legalizing that Tibetan political party becomes the primary goal. Then we are talking. Right now we are not talking.

Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China
Imagining A Federal, Multi-Party China Of State Funded Parties

Reaching Out To Taiwan

Taiwan is in a much better position to help Tibet than any other land mass. Not India, not America can help Tibet like Taiwan can. So much so that the Tibetans might as well moving their Dharmashala to Taiwan.

The Tibetan political party will have to enter into all the top political parties in Taiwan to try and engineer a common plank that as long as China agrees to become a federal, multi-party democracy of state funded parties, Taiwan will agree to become just another state inside that federal China.

You put that state funded parties part to give a very clear message that the idea is not to demolish the Chinese Communist Party. You give them wiggle room. Otherwise all attempts will be non-starters.

Agitate

Then you agitate. First you organize a political party. Then you come up with political clarity. Then you build a strong coalition with the parties in Taiwan. Then you agitate. At that point not just Tibet and Taiwan, but the rest of China might also join you. And then the CCP will have no option but to give in.

I can't think of a better use of the Olympic games than turning China into a democracy, although a democracy with Chinese characteristics.

In The News

As Rivals Battle, McCain Builds November Machine Washington Post beginning a conversation with voters who live in states where he has not campaigned. ..... a novel and risky campaign structure that will rely on 10 "regional managers" who will make daily decisions ...... his "Service to America" tour. ...... a departure for a party that has prized itself on running hierarchical, highly disciplined campaigns .... moving too slowly to build a large national apparatus. .... The senator has chosen former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina to be a high-profile pitchwoman for the campaign and the Republican Party. She will travel the country as a key surrogate for McCain and other Republicans.
Zimbabwe election may go to runoff Los Angeles Times Morgan Tsvangirai winning 49.4% of the vote and Mugabe 41.4%. A presidential candidate would win outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. ..... The runoff would be held within 21 days. ...... ZANU-PF lost key rural strongholds, including a seat in Mugabe's home village ..... met in emergency session with military and security chiefs. ..... In recent weeks, several hard-line security chiefs said they would not serve Tsvangirai, and last week Mugabe said the opposition leader would never be allowed to rule Zimbabwe. ....... "They have effectively been wiped out in large parts of their heartland. They're in shock. They have no idea what to do about it." ..... "But even if Mugabe steals the election, he misses the point. This is not just a rough patch. This has been seismic. The country has rejected him."
Zimbabwe Opposition Insists Mugabe Lost New York Times the posting of vote counts at individual polling stations ..... Immensely crafty and thoroughly ruthless, he is not a man likely to give up his hold on power without a fight ...... There is a great nervousness among those who have hitched their fortunes to an old autocrat. ...... “There’s no way the key older military people will support” the opposition against Mugabe ..... the president would steal the election if he could, but that it was not certain he had complete control over the apparatus of power, from the military to the intelligence agency. ..... Mugabe, once a guerrilla leader, retained some of his most bitter enemies after taking power, including a head of the secret police who had spent considerable effort trying to assassinate him.
Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race Being accepted. Proving loyalty. Navigating the tight space between racial divides. Americans of mixed race say these are issues they have long confronted ........ “Maybe we’ll get a little bit further in the dialogue on race” ...... the advancing age of marriage in the United States fuel a steady rise in the number of interracial marriages. ........ 6 percent of married couples. ..... two or more races, a category that now includes 7.3 million Americans, or about 3 percent of the population. ...... “When you’re mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.” ..... “Sometimes, when I’m at the playground, people think I’m the nanny,” she said. ..... “It’s really unfair to expect people to choose,” she said. “It’s like asking to be loyal to one parent or the other.” ...... 41 percent of the mixed-race population was under 18. ...... the uproar that greeted Tiger Woods when he described himself as “Cablinasian” (for heritage that includes Caucasian, black, American Indian and Asian) in 1997 ...... the benefits of a mixed identity outweigh any challenges. ..... “Ultimately,” she said, the goal is “to not have to check a box.”
Tibetans Protest in Delhi, but March Is Off New York Times India continues to be in the eye of the Tibet storm. It shelters about 100,000 Tibetan refugees .... New Delhi says it does not allow anti-Chinese agitation on its soil
Obama Wins Most Texas Delegates The Associated Press Obama leads the overall race for the Democratic nomination with 1,631 delegates
Clinton's vow may be hazardous to party's health Globe and Mail
Hillary Clinton should pull out Telegraph.co.uk

Obama swamps Clinton on Pennsylvania airwaves Boston Globe he is buying five times more air time than Clinton. Thus far, the TV ads have mostly been biographical ..... The $2 million in ad buys could help partly explain why Obama, who is in the middle of a bus tour across the Keystone State, is closing the gap in the polls to the low double digits.
Experts Debunk Clinton's Electoral Vote Idea U.S. News & World Report the superdelegates holding their collective breath, waiting for someone to pull decisively into the lead ..... a race between Clinton and McCain could break down very much like the 2000 and 2004 elections ..... Clinton would lose to McCain 314-224, while Obama would beat him, 273-265. .... Obama seems to perform better than Clinton in a race against McCain.