YESTERDAY we learned that 37-year-old Lobsang Namgyal self-immolated in Ngaba City on 3 February. The Central Tibetan Administration, the International Campaign for Tibet, and Free Tibet all referred to it as the 100th self-immolation in Tibet. Several media outlets followed their lead, including Radio Free Asia and the New York Times.
But have [...]
THIS PAST TUESDAY I poke with my good friend Matthew Filipowicz about the wave of self-immolations that's swept over Tibet. You can listen to the radio show here.
I WAS RECENTLY ON WNYC talking about the ongoing political crisis in Tibet with Brian Lehrer. You can listen to the segment, "Tibet Today," here or at WNYC's website:
ON 7 NOVEMBER 2012 THE DALAI LAMA SENT PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA A NOTE of congratulations on his reelection. It was, in most respects, an unremarkable form letter. For careful observers of Tibetan politics, however, the last paragraph jumped out:
As you know, it is over a year since I handed over all my political authority [...]
I SPENT THE YEAR AFTER COLLEGE in an AmeriCorps program that placed me in the Task Force for the Homeless in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. During my time there I served at several different transitional homes, emergency shelters, and soup kitchens. It was the end of a string of social-service work for me, which started several [...]
IT WAS AN UNUSUAL SCENE, to say the least. Scientists and academics stood in line next to young Tibetan monks. Aging spiritual seekers mingled with ambitious young Cambridge undergraduates. And they all filed, one by one, through checkpoints watched by hawk-eyed Secret Service agents with crew cuts and discreet earpieces.
This unlikely group was gathered [...]
TODAY I WAS QUOTED in a CNN article about the name of Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, “Name of Israel’s Anti-Hamas Operation Has Biblical Meaning.” Here’s the relavant paragraph:
Israel’s choice of Hebrew words has provoked some criticism online.
“By calling this operation ‘Pillar of Cloud,’ the IDF are, in a [...]
ON MONDAY, Hurricane Sandy decimated New York City along with large parts of New Jersey and Connecticut. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and many flood victims are still waiting to be rescued. The MTA is New York City is shut down indefinitely and many in lower Manhattan still cannot go home. Some 6.5 million [...]
SOLITARY CONFINEMENT at the Louisiana State Penitentiary is among the most desperate and forlorn places on Earth. The prison—better known by its nickname, “Angola”—is the largest maximum-security prison in the country, with 5000 inmates. It is a place largely indistinguishable from the slave plantation it once was—a place where sexual slavery and rape are endemic, [...]
HERE IS a roundup of Buddhism and social justice news from 8 through 14 October 2012:
Go to: Tibet • Burma • Engaged Buddhism News • Engaged Buddhism Views
Rare Footage Shows Extreme Measures of Tibetan Protesters – “In the remotest regions of China, inhabited by the [...]
