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Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

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Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as a side thought... if you look long enough at any country's history, you'll surely find horrors and terrible individuals. But that rarely means that country or its modern descendants would want to be "liberated" by a foreign conquerer, whether that's China or the USA. Forced assimilation is a form of genocide and people would almost always choose to be oppressed by one of their own rather than a foreigner...

Doesn't every country have official languages that they teach and conduct business in? There are very few groups who still speak their native languages after being assimilated into the US. Tibetan is still being taught in schools there along with mandarin. Wouldn't it be hard to integrate into the business community if you didn't speak the official language of business in a given country?

No definitely not. The majority of people and the majority of countries are multilingual. People conducting business in a language other than the one spoken at home is possibly even the norm, worldwide. And many places have regionally varying languages within a country.

Even in "monolingual" countries this is true to some extent. Most of the people likely to be in here right now are are in countries clustered along one side of the spectrum, that we are a minority and an outlier.

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, what a tiny nit to pick.

I appreciated it. I spent a little time looking at a map after reading it. The geographical, cultural and political relationships between India and Tibet are not discussed in the US as often as China-Tibet. Threaded forums are well able to accommodate these kinds of small side discussions, too.

Which is so surprising. Religious, cultural and political connections between India and Tibet are old and historic.

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#193

As a zen Buddhist, I've always kinda felt our Tibetan 'dharma brothers' style of buddhism (admittedly, I don't know a lot about) feels much more like a proper religion than the kind of thing I've been into.. Which put me off quite a lot of it, I still hope to someday visit the place. It’s pretty sad that such an essentially peaceful and introspective group of people are abused thus, even if they believe in some prett…

CHina wants the water sources to the major rivers in Asia.

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as a side thought... if you look long enough at any country's history, you'll surely find horrors and terrible individuals. But that rarely means that country or its modern descendants would want to be "liberated" by a foreign conquerer, whether that's China or the USA. Forced assimilation is a form of genocide and people would almost always choose to be oppressed by one of their own rather than a foreigner...

Doesn't every country have official languages that they teach and conduct business in? There are very few groups who still speak their native languages after being assimilated into the US. Tibetan is still being taught in schools there along with mandarin. Wouldn't it be hard to integrate into the business community if you didn't speak the official language of business in a given country?

The US does not have an official language. We just default to English. There are bilingual schools, especially in bigger cities. It's typically conservatives who don't want bilingualism. Within major immigrant hubs, bilingualism and code-switching are very common, especially in multigenerational households. And most modern immigrants come to America willingly, seeking a better quality of life. Among the forced assimilations (Native Americans, Blacks), yeah, they lost a lot of culture.

Many other countries are multilingual and to some degree multicultural. Few are as homogenous as East Asian countries.

> Wouldn't it be hard to integrate into the business community if you didn't speak the official language of business in a given country?

Uh, so offer free Chinese language schools and economic opportunities. It doesn't require kidnapping them and putting them in concentration camps.

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#196
The article is poignant and worth reading.

This young man chose to die for his beliefs.

“The self-immolation of young Tibetans like Tsewang Norbu, who seems to have it all, lays bare China’s claim that the spate of self-immolations that have engulfed the Tibetan plateau since 2009 is triggered by psychological and livelihood issues.

China continues to hatch strategies to win the hearts and minds of the new generation of Tibetans in its Sinicization project, but the self-immolation protests by young Tibetans like Yonten and Tsewang Norbu expose how China’s ill-intent strategies in Tibet is deeply hurting young Tibetans.

To prevent self-immolations and save lives, TCHRD calls on China to halt its Sinicization programs and uphold the human rights of Tibetans to protect and promote their culture and language, and freely exercise basic freedoms including freedom of expression and freedom to practice one’s religion or belief.”

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#197

As a zen Buddhist, I've always kinda felt our Tibetan 'dharma brothers' style of buddhism (admittedly, I don't know a lot about) feels much more like a proper religion than the kind of thing I've been into.. Which put me off quite a lot of it, I still hope to someday visit the place. It’s pretty sad that such an essentially peaceful and introspective group of people are abused thus, even if they believe in some prett…

I'm curious how you define "proper religion" in this context.

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And those Afghanis now starving to death after being ravaged by imperialist war-adventuring for decades

Yeah, creating educational opportunities for girls was the worst. Good thing that's all being put back the way it's supposed to be.

Gender equality works well for the developed world because a lot of other systems are compatible with it and we have technology to even the playing field. But it may very well be bad for most people involved, including the girls themselves, in an extremely undeveloped society.

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#199
post #47

I do wish the world would be more sympathetic to Ukraine and Tibet than it is currently ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet ).

Indeed. Both the Tibetans and the people of Xinjiang deserve much better than what they currently have.

and Iraq? And the United States?

Re: Popular Tibetan singer Tsewang Norbu dies of self-immolation protest

#200
post #53

I lived in Dharamshala (home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile) for 3 months a few years ago. My partner at the time went back to the US to visit family, and I didn't want to leave Asia so I went there since I had some interest in Buddhism at the time, too. In random book stores, I met actual monks who had served time (in China) as political prisoners. One of which had also written a book about it…

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