Ethnicity And International Politics
Tibet
I know this isn't a usual type of article for ontd_p, but since I imagine Tibet will be in the news and on here a lot, I think it would be a good idea to have a brief overview of Chinese human rights violations on Tibet
Tibet
Tibet has been an independent country throughout the historical period and since time immemorial according to Tibetans' own myth-based sense of national identity. That independence is supported by the country's geography, history, language, culture, religion, and race.
Tibet's Rich Culture
Geographically, the Tibetan high plateau is a distinctively demarcated region, with boundaries starting at approximately the 10,000-feet altitude line. It can be clearly perceived on any relief map.
Historically, Tibetan dynasties often conflicted with Chinese dynasties. The Tibetan Yarlung dynasty (which ruled during the sixth through ninth centuries) conquered the Chinese T'ang dynasty (seventh through tenth centuries) for most of the eighth century. No indigenous Chinese dynasty ever conquered Tibet, though the Mongol Empire (thirteenth through fourteenth centuries) and the Manchu Empire (seventeenth through twentieth centuries) incorporated both China and Tibet under their imperial hegemony. The British Empire invaded Tibet and imposed a trade treaty on it, doing the same with China. However, none of these three empires made any attempt to homogenize China and Tibet into a single national entity, or to colonize Tibet with Mongolian, Manchu, British, or surrogate subject Chinese settlers. Except for a few border regions in the Far East, there was almost no Chinese population in high plateau Tibet until the People's Republic of China (PRC) invasion between 1949 and 1951.
Linguistically, the Tibetan language differs from the Chinese. Tibetan is written in an alphabetic system with noun declension and verb conjugation inflections based on Indic languages, as opposed to an ideographic character system. Formerly, Tibetan was considered a member of the "Tibeto-Burman" language group, a subgroup assimilated into a "Sino-Tibetan" language family. Chinese speakers cannot understand spoken Tibetan, and Tibetan speakers cannot understand Chinese, nor can they read each other's street signs, newspapers, or other texts.
Culturally, Chinese people tend not to know the myths, religious symbols, or history of Tibet, nor do Tibetans tend to know those of the Chinese. For example, few Tibetans know the name of any of the Chinese dynasties, nor have they heard of philosophers Confucius or Lao-tzu, and fewer Chinese know of the Yarlung dynasty, or have ever heard of Songzen Gampo (emperor who first imported Buddhism, seventh century), Padma Sambhava (eighth century religious leader), or Tsong Khapa (philosopher 1357–1419). Tibetan and Chinese clothing styles, food habits, family customs, household rituals, and folk beliefs are utterly distinct. The Chinese people traditionally did not herd animals and did not include milk or other dairy products in their diets; in fact, the Chinese people are the only large civilization on the earth that was not based on a symbiosis of upland herding people and lowland agriculturalists. Hence they were the only culture to create a defensive structure, the "Great Wall" in order to keep themselves separate from upland herding peoples such as Tibetans, Turks, and Mongolians.
Religiously, Buddhism is common to both Tibetan and Chinese cultures, being the main religion in Tibet and one of the three main religions in China. However, the main Chinese forms of Buddhism are quite different from the Tibetan forms (widely considered by Chinese Buddhists as an outlandish form of Buddhism they call "Lamaism," or Lama jiao in Chinese). Only in the twentieth century, among overseas Chinese and underground on the mainland, has interest arisen among Chinese in the spiritual leader known as the Dalai Lama and Tibetan Buddhist teachings and rituals.
Racially or ethnically, while there is some resemblance in facial features and other physical characteristics among some eastern Tibetan and Chinese individuals, most Chinese and Tibetans are easily distinguishable on sight, and generally do not perceive each other upon meeting as racially or ethnically the same. The Tibetan acclimatization over many centuries to an altitude of two miles or higher has created a pronounced internal physical difference, as Chinese individuals do not acclimatize easily to Tibet, and long years of exposure to the altitude tends to produce various lung disabilities among Chinese settlers. Chinese mothers in wealthy families that settle in Tibet prefer to give birth to their babies in hospitals in neighboring, low-altitude cities such as Hsining or Chengdu.
Chinese Invasion and Dominance
In 1949 the People's Republic of China began invading, occupying, and colonizing Tibet. China entered into Tibet immediately after the communist victory over the Chinese Nationalists, imposed a treaty of "liberation" on the Tibetans, militarily occupied Tibet's territory, and divided that territory into twelve administrative units. It forcibly repressed Tibetan resistance between 1956 and 1959 and annexed Tibet in 1965. Since then it has engaged in massive colonization of all parts of Tibet. For its part, China claims that Tibet has always been a part of China, that a Tibetan person is a type of Chinese person, and that, therefore, all of the above is an internal affair of the Chinese people. The Chinese government has thus sought to overcome the geographical difference with industrial technology, erase and rewrite Tibet's history, destroy Tibet's language, suppress the culture, eradicate the religion (a priority of communist ideology in general), and replace the Tibetan people with Chinese people.
In China itself, communist leader Mao Zedong's policies caused the death of as many as 60 million Chinese people by war, famine, class struggle, and forced labor in thought-reform labor camps. As many as 1.2 million deaths in Tibet resulted from the same policies, as well as lethal agricultural mismanagement, collectivization, class struggle, cultural destruction, and forced sterilization. However, in the case of Tibet, the special long-term imperative of attempting to remove evidence against and provide justification for the Chinese claim of long-term ownership of the land, its resources, and its people gave these policies an additional edge.
The process of the Chinese takeover since 1949 unfolded in several stages. The first phase of invasion by military force, from 1949 to 1951, led to the imposition of a seventeen-point agreement for the liberation of Tibet and the military takeover of Lhasa. Second, the Chinese military rulers pretended to show support for the existing "local" Tibetan government and culture, from 1951 through 1959, but with gradual infiltration of greater numbers of troops and communist cadres into Tibet. A third phase from 1959 involved violent suppression of government and culture, mass arrests, and formation of a vast network of labor camps, with outright annexation of the whole country from 1959 through 1966. Fourth, violent cultural revolution, from 1966 through 1976, destroyed the remaining monasteries and monuments, killed those resisting the destruction of the "four olds," and sought to eradicate all traces of Tibetan Buddhist culture. A fifth phase of temporary liberalization under Hu Yao Bang was quickly reversed by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and led to a mass influx of settlers beginning in the early 1980s. Martial law and renewed suppression took place between 1987 and 1993, with intensified population transfer of Chinese settlers. Finally, from 1993, direct orders of the aging Chinese leadership placed Tibet under the control of an aggressive administrator named Chen Kuei Yuan. Chen proclaimed that the Tibetan identity had to be eradicated in order for remaining Tibetans to develop a Chinese identity. Since Tibetan identity was tied up with Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan Buddhist culture was in itself seditious, or "splittist," as the Chinese call it.
Chen also was able to use China's growing economic power to invest heavily in internal projects in Tibet, bring in millions more colonists, and he extracted unprecedented amounts of timber, herbs, and minerals from the land. He also toughened up the policies of the People's Liberation Army and the Public Security Bureau.
In 1960 the nongovernmental International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) gave a report titled Tibet and the Chinese People's Republic to the United Nations. The report was prepared by the ICJ's Legal Inquiry Committee, composed of eleven international lawyers from around the world. This report accused the Chinese of the crime of genocide in Tibet, after nine years of full occupation, six years before the devastation of the cultural revolution began. The Commission was careful to state that the "genocide" was directed against the Tibetans as a religious group, rather than a racial, "ethnical," or national group.
The report's conclusions reflect the uncertainty felt at that time about Tibetans being a distinct race, ethnicity, or nation. The Commission did state that it considered Tibet a de facto independent state at least from 1913 until 1950. However, the Chinese themselves perceive the Tibetans in terms of race, ethnicity, and even nation. In the Chinese constitution, "national minorities" have certain protections on paper, and smaller minorities living in areas where ethnic Chinese constitute the vast majority of the population receive some of these protections.
In the 2000s, many view the Chinese genocide in Tibet as the result of the territorial ambitions of the PRC leadership. It is seen as stemming from their systematic attempt to expand the traditional territory of China by annexing permanently the vast, approximately 900,000-square-mile territory of traditional Tibet. Tibet represents about 30 percent of China's land surface, while the Tibetans represent .004 percent of China's population. Tibetans were not a minority but an absolute majority in their own historical environment. Chinese government efforts can be seen as aiming at securing permanent control of the Tibetans' land. For this reason, some observers see genocide in Tibet as not merely referring to the matter of religion, that is, of destroying Tibetan Buddhism. Chinese policies have involved the extermination of more than 1 million Tibetans, the forced relocation of millions of Tibetan villagers and nomads, the population transfer of millions of Chinese settlers, and systematic assimilation.
The Dalai Lama
A Tibetan government in exile exists under the leadership of the Dalai Lama in India and Nepal. During the cold war years, the Dalai Lama avoided politics, but tried to work with the Chinese occupiers from 1951 until 1959. He left Tibet to bring the Tibetan genocide to the world's attention. In the early 1980s, he tried to negotiate with Deng Xiaoping and succeeded in sending several fact-finding missions to Tibet. In the meantime, the exile government has worked to preserve the seeds of Tibetan culture and society.
In 1989 the Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize for his travels around the world to spread the Buddhist message of peace and reconciliation. He has informed the general public of many countries about the Tibetan struggle. His overall policy of nonviolence has been followed by most Tibetans. Despite the historical record, the Dalai Lama calls for dialogue and reconciliation. He has publicly offered to Beijing to lead a plebiscite and campaign to persuade his people to join the Chinese union in a voluntary and legal manner, under a "one country, two systems" formula, as in the cases of Hong Kong and Macao under the following circumstances: (1) all the high-plateau provinces are reunited in a natural Tibet Autonomous Region; (2) Tibet is allowed to govern itself democratically with true autonomy over internal matters; (3) Tibet is demilitarized except for essential border garrisons; and (4) the environment is respected and economic development controlled by the Tibetans themselves.
There were renewed discussions over Tibet starting in 2002 and several delegations made visits to the region.
source
The Predatory TPLF oligarchy has its own interest, at the expense of all Ethiopians.This regime is trying to control everything by engulfing economies, regional powers, and the land. I think, its destruction will not be stopped so long us the west keeps sponsoring and rewarding state terrorism against the poor.
February 13th, 2010 at 12:51 PM
በአጭሩ የናይጀርያ አይነት ስርዓት ነው የምፈልገው አትለንም? ወንድሜ: አገር ዝም ብሎ በምኞት: በስሜትና በዘፈቀደ ዘይቤ አይመራም:: ሁሉም የየራሱ ታሪካዊ አመጣጥ አለው:: ታሪኩን አጥንተህ: ጥሩና መጥፎን ለይተህ: የጎደለውን ለመሙላት: ምን ዓይነት ስርዓት ነው የሚበጀው ብለህ አስበህ ብትጽፍ ይሻላል::
February 13th, 2010 at 1:10 PM
Amen Dr. Mesay.
February 13th, 2010 at 2:42 PM
Yours is better Messay
February 13th, 2010 at 4:00 PM
#8 and #10 are my favorite ones, though all are great ideas.
February 13th, 2010 at 4:19 PM
Dear Ethiopians,
Ethiopia was not, is not and should not be a theater or platform of actors where groups from different times pop up and perform the same kind of act with the same verse, note, pitch and nich of politics from old school of taught of socialism. The points indicated by Messay Kebede are kinds of things that I read when I was grade 8 some 30 years ago from pamphlets distributed by EPRP and similar groupd that existed then and who ruled the country now.
As far as I can tell the writer is a professor of philosophy at a university here in America.
Therefore by default, he knows the what, why and the how of politics and the philosohpy of politics to a particular society which is now a very integral part of the glob.
This is a period where your business is your ethnicity not the converse, your self is the singlton that is needed in the world not by being in your group (in your type or ethnicity). Haiti is a living example where all people of the world rolled over there to dig out a soul who was trapped in a collapsed building. It is only by being a member of a global group, either social, political, economic or scientific that societies will servive and flourish to their highest potential with being equal with others who achieved the most in global domains.
The existence of societies is no more local. It is global and therefore global means, global knowledge and global modes of thinking are indespensible part and parcel of any political constructs or political domains.
It is therefore in this direction that you need to prepare a political platform and create a political domain to bring our society to the level of contemporary societies, not by creating shelves of ethinicities and teaching them an extreme backward ideas of shelf managemant of socialism how to live locally by being and remain different.
Imagine for a moment, if this boutique management politics of socialism is imposed in America where all races and ethinicities of mankind exist, practically life will simply stop, because of the story : "The tower of Babel" that we read in the bible.
The good thing is that American founders were wise enough, they did not create such a shelf managemant constituition.
Political structure should be built in looking at three coordinate of the modern demand:
(1) local coordinates
(2) global coordinates
(3) time coordinates
Therefore any political action of a society should be described in these three coordinates. It is in this case that you look what you have to do locally in order to belong globally in a specific time frame.
These are the things Ethiopia and Ethiopians need now and beyond.
Good Luck!
February 13th, 2010 at 4:21 PM
Unconitional unity is just a force of act, hebret is what is needed. Unconditional unity a dream of you and your likes. Do I hate unity? No. unity is achieved by my consent not by force. Come out from your hiden propoganda and seek for true meaningful hebret. Why don't you ask me what I want? Why do you still try to force upon me? Don't you get it? Nothing happen without my consent!!!!
February 13th, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Unconditional Unity? That time has passed. No imposed unity on people. The people should be given the ultimate right to decide their fate. My personal choice is UNION of States. A true Autonomous Federal States Unitying for common goal!
February 13th, 2010 at 9:39 PM
Very good ideas and imagenative. But, 'unconditional unity' is a problem. The Dergue tried it, and it was a disaster. True the idea of 'secession' in the constitution is problematic too. So, need to be creative and find something in between.
February 13th, 2010 at 11:57 PM
Well done Dr Messay. I agree with other commentators above that unconditional unity is very problematic. I would add to your list the urgent need for a population policy – otherwise, it will be extremely difficult to maintain let alone improve on the almost non-existing education, health, safe water, infrastructure, etc services.
February 14th, 2010 at 6:59 AM
The Derg’s unconditional unity was applied in the context of a tightly centralized state. My proposal includes regional autonomy and self-rule. It results in a federal arrangement on the condition that everybody agrees to play the card of unity. Those who think that nations were built on the basis of consent are still victims of both Stalinist and Western destabilizing propagandas.
February 14th, 2010 at 11:18 AM
Messay,
What would you do if I tell you that I don't even want to hear your "unconditional unity" let alone accept it?. Would you force me by holding a gun on my head?.
For so long Ethiopia has suffered under and been served poorly by incompetent leadership who instituted flawed policies.
Lets learn from our past mistakes and save Ethiopia from itself.
February 14th, 2010 at 1:35 PM
agree with Dr Messay but include cultivate the culture healthy political discourse and fair system.
February 14th, 2010 at 3:17 PM
Dear Ethiopians and its loyal friends:
Ethiopia was not, is not and should not be a theater or platform of actors where groups from different times pop up and perform the same kind of act with the same verse, note, pitch and niche of politics from old school of taught of socialism. The points indicated by Messay Kebede are kinds of things that I read when I was grade 8 some 30 years ago from pamphlets distributed by EPRP and similar groups that existed then and who rule the country now.
As far as I can tell the writer is a professor of philosophy at a university here in America.
Therefore by default, he knows the what, why and the how of politics and the philosophy of politics to a particular society which is now a very integral part of the globe.
This is a period where your business is your ethnicity not the converse, your self is the singleton that is needed in the world not by being in your group (in your type or ethnicity). Haiti is a living example where all people of the world rolled over there to dig out a soul who was trapped in a collapsed building and with absolute terms proves my proposition that humanity transcends above ethnicity. People of different races and ethnicities come and make a descent living here in America, not because they are Americans but because first and foremost they are human beings and take that privilege which is forwarded by Americans. Therefore, it is only by being a member of a global group, either social, political, economic or scientific that societies will survive and flourish to their highest potential with being equal with others who achieved the most in global domains.
The existence of societies is no more local. It is global and therefore global means, global knowledge and global modes of thinking are indispensable part and parcel of any political constructs or political domains.
It is therefore in this direction that you need to prepare a political platform and create a political domain to bring our society to the level of contemporary societies, not by creating shelves of ethnicities and teaching them an extreme backward ideas of shelf management of socialism how to live locally by being and remain different.
Imagine for a moment, if this boutique management politics of socialism is imposed in America where all races and ethnicities of mankind exist, practically life will simply stop, because of the story : "The tower of Babel" that we read in the Bible.
The good thing is that American founders were wise enough, they did not create such a shelf management constitution.
Political structure should be built in looking at three coordinates of the modern demand:
(1) local coordinates
(2) global coordinates
(3) time coordinates
Therefore any political action of a society should be described in these three coordinates. It is in this case that you look what you have to do locally in order to belong globally in a specific time frame.
These are the things Ethiopia and Ethiopians need now and beyond.
Good Luck!
Dejenie A. Lakew, Ph.D.
(Mathematician)
February 14th, 2010 at 8:24 PM
Dear Massey, all the previous regimes were trying to decide the fate of people based on their own interest. What you are telling us is the same. People can decide what is appropriate for them. Do not try to impose the interest of certain group one the others. At least you you know there are others group who do not support your ideas. It is the people who can decide this not individuals or groups.Please let people decide their fate.After all no one can do that.
February 14th, 2010 at 8:48 PM
Messay,
Yes, multinatinal and multi religious countries need some sort of consent to be viable and long lasting. If not resistence and instabilty are the outcomes. I find the interjection of Stalin at every levels of discussion unhelpful. Focusing more on the ideas than on personalities is more fruitful.
February 15th, 2010 at 1:26 AM
I like the idea of " If I were a president…" and thumbs up for Dr Messay's input. It is a good start entertaining ideas and broaden outlooks and devise the priorities among countless priorities of todays Ethiopia.
February 15th, 2010 at 6:35 AM
Dejenie A. Lakew #6,
Economic globalization is not like 2+2 = 4; it is more complex than math’s formula you have memorized to solve any given algebraic equation.
Generally speaking, what has economic globalization contributed, something important, something beneficial, and something tangible, to the millions of Ethiopian farmers and to the millions of American factory workers rather than destroying their normal living standards?
The only people who are benefiting from this new economic globalization are the ones like Meles Seitanawi, his wife Jezebel, Al Amoudi, and some extremely wealthy Arabs and Westerners.
You wrote: “…it is only by being a member of a global group, either social, political, economic or scientific that societies will survive and flourish to their highest potential….” Why don’t you be specific when you write down this long sentence and unscientific at that? Why don’t you simply say that it is only by joining the wealthy thieves, Meles Seitanawi, his wife Jezebel, Al Amoudi, Arabs, and Westerners that the Ethiopian peasants and the American workers will prosper, flourish, and enjoy life?
How come you forget so easily that there was a society in America and elsewhere that was prosperous, vibrant, and flourishing before the creation of globalization and before the introduction of NAFTA; however, that prosperous middle class American society collapsed after the introduction of economic globalization and NAFTA. (I always condemn President Clinton for only two mistakes he has made while he was a president: NAFTA and the Bosnian War.)
Because of economic globalization, several companies in America and other countries lost their money; high-paying jobs were gone to foreign countries, and “out sourcing” became a household word or a common vocabulary; therefore, high-paying jobs were replaced by low-paying jobs, and the United States could not compete with foreign companies who use cheap labors.
Some cultures of poor countries are also highly endangered by highly developed countries, and as more people try to join globalization, it is undoubtedly they would lose their social, ethical, and moral values.
The single and biggest problem of poor countries like Ethiopia is, however, competition. The Ethiopian farmers who use oxen and horses to plow their farmlands cannot compete with mechanized countries. As a result, the government of Ethiopia has no other choices but to sell some Ethiopian fertile farmlands and beautiful young Ethiopian kids to the wealthy foreigners so that the Woyanne government can have some foreign currency that enable Meles the thief to compete with global economy.
For poor countries like Haiti and Ethiopia, to compete with global economy is like the Amharic saying: ድመት እንደ ውሻ እጮሃለሁ ብላ ተሰንጥቃ ሞተች (A cat attempting to roar like a lion, suddenly burst out and passed away.”
In short, globalization is the effective means of exploitation by the wealthy, and it is the killer of the middle class in America and the destroyer of the Ethiopian farmers.
Using your math skill, you have put three coordinators to support your global idea, but they do not work and never worked in countries where the poor always outnumber the rich.
I am sure you understand what happened to “The Tower of Babel.” Otherwise, you could not have written it down here if you have no clue about the history of this tower.
The “Tower of Babel” represents the globalization of the world: In the Biblical times, some people tried to build a high tower that riches into heaven so that they could dominate the entire universe; unfortunately, they failed because their motives – to rule the entire world – were wrong. In the same way, globalization that destroys our language, our culture, our tradition, our history, our religion, our economy, and our boundaries is not good either for Ethiopia or for other developing countries.
February 15th, 2010 at 12:58 PM
Correction: ድመት እንደ አንበሳ not እንደ ውሻ
February 15th, 2010 at 6:02 PM
Helen #7,
When it comes to the disintegration of Ethiopia, force is necessary and justified by any means to keep the unity of Ethiopia intact.
During the American bloody Civil War, Abraham Lincoln fought hard to keep the Union, and the secessionist South, defeated and humiliated, joined the victorious North, and later on, America became the only powerful nation on earth.
We may not be as powerful as America, but we can be able to defend our borders if we stay united, respecting each individual’s right as far as each person remains with a united Ethiopia. There is no individual right for any person who works tirelessly to divide Ethiopia and incur painful destruction. No one is free if he/she wants to be free by leaving a united Ethiopia, but everyone living in a united Ethiopia is free to exercise his/her freedom according to the new constitution of a united Ethiopia – a constitution that could be crafted as soon as Meles Seitanawi leaves office.
February 15th, 2010 at 9:06 PM