Well surprise surprise, Harper is fucking everyone.

It’s just the Harper government against, Tibetans, Chinese (citizens), Canadians and wait for it…FIRST NATION. I know, surprising right? except sadly, for some Canadians, this isn’t sarcasm.

A reader alerted me to this blogpost: The Natives are Restless. Wondering why?


Things have been and still are really fucked, especially for the Indigenous community in Canada. But aside from this alarming situation, the section on treaties made me ask, is this our present and possible future in Tibet? even with “genuine” autonomy-treaty? 


Go to the original to read the whole thing. It’s short. But here’s an excerpt that made me think about Tibet:

Then what? What is the problem?

I’m going to go to the Idle No More page and click on “Manifesto”. I think it’s important you read this in its entirety rather than just have me excerpt it for you:

We contend that:
The Treaties are nation to nation agreements between Canada and First Nations who are sovereign nations. The Treaties are agreements that cannot be altered or broken by one side of the two Nations. The spirit and intent of the Treaty agreements meant that First Nations peoples would share the land, but retain their inherent rights to lands and resources. Instead, First Nations have experienced a history of colonization which has resulted in outstanding land claims, lack of resources and unequal funding for services such as education and housing.

The #IdleNoMore hashtag on twitter has been an amazing source of information on the nationwide rallies, and the further efforts of indigenous peoples to organise a sustainable grassroots movement.

We contend that:
Currently, this government is trying to pass many laws so that reserve lands can also be bought and sold by big companies to get profit from resources. They are promising to share this time…Why would these promises be different from past promises? We will be left with nothing but poisoned water, land and air. This is an attempt to take away sovereignty and the inherent right to land and resources from First Nations peoples.

For news, pictures, and information on the Idle No More movement, you can check out the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society online by clicking on the poster.

We contend that:
There are many examples of other countries moving towards sustainability, and we must demand sustainable development as well. We believe in healthy, just, equitable and sustainable communities and have a vision and plan of how to build them.
Please join us in creating this vision.

In short, this is what we have always been talking about. Whether the particular focus has been on housing, or education or the environment, or whatever else.  What lies at the heart of all these issues is our relationship with Canada.  And Canada? This relationship is abusive.

I don’t get it, I thought things were getting better?

You’re right, you don’t get it. Things are not getting better.  In fact, many of us feel that things are getting worse. Many of us feel that the reason things aren’t getting any better, is because Canada has forgotten it is a Treaty nation too.

When the relationship between indigenous peoples and Europeans first began here, we had a relationship based on Treaties of Peace and Friendship. As indigenous peoples understand this relationship, it is one that should work to the mutual benefit of all involved. That relationship quickly became overshadowed by one more focused on extinguishing (getting rid of) aboriginal rights, particularly as they relate to the land. I am not speaking about events hundreds of years ago. I am telling you that Canada continues to focus on stripping away all of our rights and land while at the same time telling the world that it is doing the opposite.

One of the most captivating photos taken during the December 10th rallies, by Blaire Russell.

In this document (PDF) Canada clearly lays out its interests in any negotiations it enters into with indigenous people. The term ‘certainty’ has replaced ‘termination’, but the intent is still the same.

I can go find dismal statistics on pretty much any aspect of life for indigenous peoples in this country; trot them all out and say, ‘look it’s really bad’ and you will nod and say, ‘wow it sure is’, but that still won’t make it clear for you.  I need you – WE need you, to see the forest and not just the trees.

Hold on, hold on, just hold on a little bit more.

This poem pretty much captures how some of us have been feeling about the self-immolations in Tibet. Thanks to the reader that alerted me to this. It was written by a Tenzin Woebum.

This poem is to help sum up some of my feelings and thoughts in response to the recent surge of Self-Immolations in Tibet (as well as India). It shouldn’t take over 90 sacrifices to instigate global intervention, but instead of pointing fingers I choose to invest in my education and well-being to take this responsibility on a whole different plain. All I need is some time…

_________

Hold on, hold on, just hold on a little bit more.
I know it’s intolerable and I know I can only imagine the reasons behind your tears
but please, I beg of you, no more.
Like the birds that fly during the changes of the season,
I may not know who you are but we fly for the same reason.
Hold on, hold on, just a little bit more.

My thoughts are never too far away from you,
I have a special place in my heart for the land I long to return to.
Give me time and we can rise together
and finally live in peace with our indignant invaders.
They, who choose to ignore our cries
And instead watch us burn and spread more lies.
Please, you are my people
And no matter how far I am, I will always love you.
Hold on, hold on, just a little bit more.

I cannot sleep because I feel utterly helpless
And yet tonight,
another young child of Tibet will choose eternal rest.
I have come all the way here to study the language of your oppressors
So that I may one day convince them to change their ways of tyranny.
There are many of us who have not forgotten you
And as we get older
we know we are getting closer.
Please do not be angered by our progress
Our will cannot be broken, And we will never digress.
Hold on….

It’s too late,
I read the news and I fall back into this same bitter state.
Angry at myself, at him, her, this, that, and even you
Why can’t you just wait(?)
and believe in me, in us,
Instead now your ashes float up to the skies,
And make gray what was once blue.
You are a hero and no matter what they may say
This is what is in our thoughts as we prostrate and pray.

You are a protector of peace and a champion of courage.
Choosing to burn the object of oppression,
Instead of setting aflame the apparatus of repression.
And to make clearer of your souls intention,
In your last moments, you wished for the return of the teacher of compassion.
Not even the strength of the flames could shackle away your final message.

Please, hold on, hold on a little bit longer
Let us share the moment we have dreamed for together.
But You are Right!
How can I know your pain from such thick lenses?
I am trying to make sense of it all but in the end all I can do is listen.
Please…Listen to me as I am listening to you,
I too am a child of Tibet, so please…
Please, hold on, hold on, and survive a little bit longer.

A Fly on the Wall: A Foolish Rant by a Foolish Tibetan

rangzenkid:

With the large number of mainland Chinese boarding students in my American high school, their opinion is naturally more important then mine. I am the only Tibetan in the school. There’s not even any Bhutanese, Nepali, or Indian. There are a few Taiwanese, but they’re no help, because they just…

Nope. Start with the right to Freedom of Expression.

If you are still having this problem, then here’s an idea. 

You’re being shut down because your non-Chinese teachers/administrators are confused and under pressure from your Chinese teacher, Chinese students, and Chinese teacher-Student supporting staff and students.

What you need to do is file a complaint against the school administrators that while they are respecting the Chinese students and teachers rights to represent themselves as Chinese, they are not letting you represent yourself as a Tibetan, a cultural identity you yourself identify as. They have no rights to encroach on your personal identification as a Tibetan. You can argue on the basis that, while the Chinese government is forcing the Tibetans to identify as Chinese and forcing Chinese language (carry a copy of a recent article of Tibetan student protests for language rights), they are suppressing your right to identify as Tibetan and indirectly letting the Chinese teacher and student identify you, without your approval, to the rest of the school as Chinese.

US or Canadian school systems don’t like it when you plead the first amendment as guaranteed by the Constitution. Carry a copy of the 1st amendment with you when you see your school administrator.

Good Luck. 

P.S. this will automatically highlight Tibet’s political situation on its own.

That awkward moment when u realized u had been a pompus asshole teen

Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties
Tibetan spore could lead to new drugs for cancer, asthma, and diabetes.
Tibetan yartsa gunbu sellers negotiate with urban buyers.

Tibetan yartsa gunbu sellers negotiate with urban buyers.

Photograph by Michael Yamashita, National Geographic

Nicholas Mott

National Geographic News

Published November 28, 2012

In the Tibetan mountains, a fungus attaches itself to a moth larva burrowed in the soil. It infects and slowly consumes its host from within, taking over its brain and making the young caterpillar move to a position from which the fungus can grow and spore again. (Learn about other fungi that invade brains.)

Sounds like something out of science fiction, right? But for ailing Chinese consumers and nomadic Tibetan harvesters, the parasite called cordyceps means hope—and big money. Chinese markets sell the “golden worm,” or “Tibetan mushroom”—thought to cure everything from cancer to asthma to erectile dysfunction—for up to $50,000 per pound. Patients, following traditional medicinal practices, brew the fungal-infected caterpillar in tea or chew it raw.

Now the folk medicine is getting scientific backing. A new study published in the journal RNA finds that cordycepin, a chemical derived from the caterpillar fungus, has anti-inflammatory properties.

Read more on the National Geographic Daily News site.  

Isn’t it amazing to learn now that all along those conversations about weird herbs that the popo la’s and momo la’s, including your own, were blabing to each other about was actually NOT a bunch of ‘primitive’ ‘magical’ malarkey (even in that, oohh pola, you are so sweet and cute with your random stories, affectionate way) they made up during your preteen-teenhood? 

I remember this time when my cousin hurt his arm from a fall and my grandmother was talking about some sort of random earth from her village in Tibet that you could use to help heal the arm. And I was like “yea, whatever grandma, you’re talking that magical nonsense again,” in the sweetest, I know you’re trying to help but this is not helping way, with the I’m-so-modern-and-educated-and-shit-air. 

Ya, I-have-a-degree-in modern-education? FAIL.




Libby Liu unleashes the sexists within

I’m talking both Tibetan and enji supporters.

All the scandal that’s breaking out from the recent RFA debacle is confusing enough but I am getting a little more then tired at all the language being used regarding Libby Liu. 

Ok fine, she was caught up in a sex scandal in California as the deputy district attorney, but can Tibetans cool off on all the sexist name calling please? 

I think your questions and points on her can be made without having to reference disgusting and offensive language that have less to do with her actual professional credentials and possible ambitions, and more to do with hyper sexualizing her as a sexual deviant because of her past, all because she is a woman.

If she were a man, he would not be sexually denigrated, most of you would be focused more on the his motivations for what he did. But because she is a woman, somehow this conversation has become more focused on her sex life and making derogatory sexualized comments.

In this case, the Libby Liu situation is not only exposing problems in the exile system but also sexism, women included.

I mean seriously, what does her private parts have anything to do with this whole RFA drama?


STAY FOCUSED PEOPLE!

Tibetan Studies

Submitted by Angry Angry Angry:

I’m so f’in annoyed right now. Lately I’ve been meeting and finding out a lot about the Tibet studies scene. So the buzz in that scenes for academics, it seems, happens to be authentic Tibetans who (get this) live in Tibet! that makes sense right? But here’s what I find so f’d up about this. It’s fine if your work is based in Tibet but you don’t need to walk around and give off the air (sometimes also verbalize) that Exile Tibetans are irrelevant because they’re not “authentic” enough. That to do work with “real Tibetans” it’s inside. You can keep that shit to yourself. 

Real Tibetans live both inside and outside Tibet!

Excuse me for China invading my homeland and as a result I was born outside of your research interest.

Right on! Fuck that paternalistic shit! Do they really believe that the exile and those inside live on separate isolated islands with no connection or effect what so ever on each other?

Can I trail off and add that the word “Tibetologists” sounds like a weird name for creeps who are the equivalent of pedophiles that are into Tibetans and Tibet, instead of infants?

Well…it does to me.

And then I saw this.

I haven’t heard the original version but I like this one just fine :)
 

Here’s the video description: My best friend Jennah and I, covered this beautiful tibetan love song by Lobsang Guge called Tsedung Gyi Regug.

We wrote the english part to this song to make it our own. We’ll be singing this song at the TCCC Concert on December 8th in Toronto, Canada.

Thank you for watching my video!! SUBSCRIBE!!!

Don’t forget to visit Jennah’s Youtube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/Jennahbeebear

Q:hey angry tibetan girl: I have a question re "I feel awkward when I see Enji’s (westerners) wearing #Chuba’s" are you going to give up your blue jeans, because you know, they are an originally made classic staple of culture and attire in USA? Think any Tibetan wants to give up their jeans?

Anonymous

Just like I feel awkward when I see Enji’s wearing Chuba’s, I feel awkward when Enji’s try to deflect, rather then ponder, a direct critique of their behavior. Deflection, along with the chuba, also doesn’t look good on you honey.

Besides, Jeans are not thought of as appropriating and or reflecting any distinct culture. Would love to see a passionate argument by westerners expressing their offense at companies and non-western people for culturally appropriating the jean.

Maybe then, Tibetans and others would consider giving up their jeans?

Congratulations Palestine! Next, Tibet?

New York Times: U.N. Assembly, in Blow to U.S., Elevates Status of Palestine

UNITED NATIONS — More than 130 countries voted on Thursday to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember observer state of the United Nations, a triumph for Palestinian diplomacy and a sharp rebuke to the United States and Israel.

The new status will give the Palestinians more tools to challenge Israel in international legal forums for its occupation activities in the West Bank, including settlement-building, and it helped bolster the Palestinian Authority, weakened after eight days of battle between its rival Hamas and Israel.

Palestine was first threatened by the newly created State of Isreal (thank you British empire) in the late 1940s that led to further invasion of Palestinian land. Tibet was also invaded by China around the same time.

Today Palestine’s sovereignty is officially recognized.

Why is the Tibetan leadership wasting time “moderating free speech, democracy” when they should be working on this?

I’m happy for Palestine but I’m also seething with this could have been us, if only, frustrations.

Video: I am Lobsang - Tibetan Short Movie 2012

Lobsang brings me back to the memories of myself in High school. Memories I’ve long since forgotten. The ones I’ve selectively chosen to forget.

I remember the feeling of guilt for not standing up for another newly arrived Tibetan who was made fun of by people I called friends several times in High School.

Or participating with others in using the word FOB, fresh off the boat.

Or pretending it didn’t happen when my parents were ignored in line, given dirty looks.

Or that time this woman said something racist to my mother and when she asked me what that lady said, I pretended I didn’t hear either but in reality I heard, and secretly wanted to hurt that woman physically. Instead, I did nothing.

I also remember the times my mother spoke back, even when accused of having “broken English.”

Or that time I stood up to my friend for calling this international student from China a “chink.” And that other time I finally told my friends, in a not-so-sure-about-how-this-is-going-to-go-down-fashion, to stop saying mean things about the Tibetan girl I say hi to. Because their comments had much to do with my face, along with theirs, recalling the Asian American experience of racism than where each of us was actually from (“chink”).


The process of becoming Asian-American, even without your knowledge or choice, in the US, while struggling in the confusion to make sense of diaspora, exile, Tibetan, Tibet, belonging….

I was able to mask it better with my unflinching command of the American accent. Because the accent is where they/we always got you. It’s how they/we could tell. 

It’s funny, I thought I had forgotten.

Reminder: SUBMIT!

If you’re Tibetan and have funny/angry…ideas for a post or stories/thoughts/situations/etc. that you’d also like to share but don’t want to reveal who you are. Well, look no more, I’m accepting submissions.

I’ve already had several people submit funny/angry posts. But I ask for one thing, try to make it as funny and/or angry as possible.

You can submit your idea and/or story here.

I will post the ones I find appropriately angry and funny.

Go on, get angry, let it out.

After all, aren’t we all Angry Tibetan (Girl or boy) at one point or another. Unless you are terminator.

Revisiting: “Teaching Tibet” ambassador at 8?

Remember being that young and feeling anxious when you were introduced as the “Tibetan” at any social gatherings including the classrooms? I do!

Since when did we become Tibet experts at such a young age? I mean, there weren’t many of us around and I was almost always the only Tibetan in every social situations and it became a, “So, What is Tibet? tell us about it” scenario. I always got so tensed up in these situations because I also didn’t know that much. I developed a mantra that went something like “Tibet was taken over by China in 1959. We escaped from Tibet to India, lots of Tibetan refugee’s live there now. I came here to the West with my family. Tibetans are peace loving people. etc.” Usually that would be enough to escape my 5 minutes of fame or in other words HELL.

BUT sometimes some one would ask “Why did China take over your country or How come Tibet is not on the map, does it really exist?” and my mouth would go dry. I would panic in trying to fight the dis-empowerment of being questioned about the existence of my country (and therefore my identity) and at the same time, not knowing the answer. Why the hell did I think I was suppose to know all the answers? I was 8 for Buddha’s sake!

These were terrifying and I’d literally have a heart attack every time. I would beat myself up over not having answers to some times impossible questions. I mean shit, as if I had read Tsering Shakya’s book at the age of 8! I just really wanted to be a “normal” 8 year old who had an unhealthy relationship with my white Barbie!

When I think back on it, it was a good experience in motivating me to find the answers  on my own, because I hated being caught off guard. Nonetheless, it was never easy.