Website review: Pankaj Mishra: At war with the utop...
mhenriday discovered this in Politics
•4 reviews since Mar 22, 2008
politics, china, tibet
•guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/22/tibe...
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mhenriday discovered 4 months ago- I find Mr Mishra's comparisons very apt, despite the unsettling effect they seem to have upon those who wish very much to believe - or to convince others - that the present Chinese government - or perhaps, any Chinese government - is unique and unparalleled in the extent of its iniquity. Readers with good memories will no doubt recall the report issued in 1959 by the so-called «International Commission of Jurists» which accused the Chinese government of «genocide» - or rather, in the more careful legal language of the Commission : «Wanton killing of Tibetans and other acts capable of leading to the extinction of the Tibetans as a national and religious group, to the extent that it becomes necessary to consider the question of Genocide». A rather different story was told in a report of 2000 by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, at which time, the «population of the Tibetan nationality account[ed] for over 90% of the population», (I suspect that the conjunction «than» has inadvertently been omitted from the second to last sentence cited below) : «From 1952, Tibet's population history can be classified into four periods as follows: The first period, 1952 - 1958 : was characterized by high mortality and low fertility. The total number of the population in Tibet was slightly increased in this period. The second period, 1959 - 1969 : may be defined as the relatively high growth period. The population increased to 1.4805 million in 1969, i.e. 0.2743 million more than that in 1959. The third period 1970 - 1985 : was a period of rapid increase in population growth. The crude birth rate (CBR) fluctuated at 25 per 1,000, and the natural growth rate (NGR) continued at 18 per 1,000. The population increased to 1.9948 million in 1985. In the present period, 1986 to now : population growth and CBRs and NGRs dropped a little, but they are still higher in China. In 2000, the CBR was 17.60 per 1,000 and the NGR was 11.00 per 1,000.» The above are not quite the results to be expected of a policy of genocide. According to figures published by the National Population and Family Planning Commission of China, ethnic Tibetans made up some 92 per cent of the total population of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 2003. In 2006, the population of the region amounted to some 2.81 million persons. My conclusion is that «genocide» has not been on the agenda of past regimes in Beijing, nor is it on the agenda of the ultra-capitalist government now running the show (under, in one of those ironies so delightful to human history, the name of the «Communist Party»). There is no evidence that bounties have ever been paid for the capture of Tibetans, as was the case in Tasmania in the early 19th century, or that smallpox-infested blankets have been distributed to them, as in the United States. There certainly exists a pronounced «democratic deficiency» in Tibet, just as there does in China as a whole, but it would seem to be the case that security to life and limb there is far superior to that found in such prime examples of «Western» (read «US and UK») «human rights» intervention as Iraq and Afghanistan*.... *For more details about the old Tibet - so romanticised by certain prominent figures - and a few trenchant comments about the new China, see Michael Parenti's article Friendly Feudalism - The Tibet Myth ....
- gavinski rated 4 months ago
- A very measured, concise and insightful analysis of the Tibet problem, seen on Laodan's great pages: "Western commentators may continue to tilt at the straw man of communism in China. Tibetans, however, seem to have sensed that they confront a capitalist modernity more destructive of tradition, and more ruthlessly exploitative of the sacred land they walk on, than any adversary they have known in their tormented history."
- laodan rated 4 months ago
- Tibet at war with the utopia of modernity in The Guardian by Pankaj Mishra and in "Informed Comment: Global Affairs" by Philip J. Cunningham.
Tibetans' rage is directed not at communist rule, but the consumerist threat to their traditions and sacred lands. Well-off Chinese supporting harsh suppression of the "ingrate" Tibetans echo the middle-class media commentators in Delhi and Mumbai who egg on the police to "crush" those daring to resist their dispossession. But then corporate globalisation has rarely been more successful in inculcating a culture of greed and brutality among its most educated beneficiaries. Western commentators may continue to tilt at the straw man of communism in China. Tibetans, however, seem to have sensed that they confront a capitalist modernity more destructive of tradition, and more ruthlessly exploitative of the sacred land they walk on, than any adversary they have known in their tormented history. At war with the utopia of modernity by Pankaj Mishra MIDDLE WAY TO THE MIDDLE KINGDOM by Philip J. Cunningham Reading the media recently about what is going on in Tibet one is confronted mostly with propaganda that is reminiscent of the old days of the cold war and don't get me wrong it is not just Beijing that propagandizes; Western media and NGO's are equally painting their reporting and affirmations in propaganda colors. Here are 2 articles that stand out for their more objective tone. Pankaj Mishra observes a totalitarian modernity that is fighting the resistance of "primitivism" or religion or localism. The fact is that Tibetans like muslims and other local cultures are resisting their dispossession at the hands of capital holders. In the case of Tibet the capital holders are the Communist Chinese State and some of its Han citizens. Philip J. Cunningham narrates the dilemma of the Dalai Lama. "... after going on the CIA payroll at a time when the US sought to wage psychological warfare in tandem with covert destabilizing of China along its borders from 1959-1972"; the Dalai Lama is now preaching socialism as the future economic road for Tibet. What he envisions is not socialism with Chinese characteristics but socialism in its pure Marxist form. A form of socialism that he hopes will come to the rescue of traditional Tibetan culture that is being aggressed by the modernity of the logic of capital. The comments on Pankaj Mishra's article are most illuminating.
- Tibet at war with the utopia of modernity in The Guardian by Pankaj Mishra and in "Informed Comment: Global Affairs" by Philip J. Cunningham.
- sarahlee rated 4 months ago
- From the page: "Tibetans' rage is directed not at communist rule, but the consumerist threat to their traditions and sacred lands"
