Read more http://www.lowellsun.com/lifestyles/ci_19044485?source=rss
Category: Alcohol Addiction
Women’s Drug Rehab Announces Evening Outpatient Alcoholism Drug Addiction Program
[ [ [[‘amanda knox’, 15]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/amanda-knox-1309358621-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/r3TksBVwTFWkrYaROarvCw–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00NzE7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/84dea2d038558516fa0e6a706700ff32.jpg’, ‘630’, ‘ ‘, ‘AP’, ], [ [[‘Conrad Murray’, 15]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dr-conrad-murray-on-trial-in-jackson-death-1317135792-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/OcnZ1oL8b35HJTX7lYEc_g–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MDI7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/fa85fed941f16915f90e6a706700f31e.jpg’, ‘630’, ”, ‘AP’, ], [ [[‘ralph steinman’, 12]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/nobel-prize-winner-ralph-steinman-dies-1317648781-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/6SIHluTeqosOBRTu37LgdQ–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00ODk7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/d0147b7437cf8316fa0e6a706700c233.jpg’, ‘630’, ”, ‘AP’, ], [ [[‘diana nyad’, 13]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/u-s-swimmer-nyad-begins-swim-across-florida-1312776343-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/prkREWxb4pKoOEJPbofPGA–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zODQ7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/b662d816a5dfd315f90e6a70670000e6.jpg’, ‘630’, ”, ‘AP’, ], [ [[‘Joshua Komisarjevsky’, 10]], ‘/photos/connecticut-home-invasion-trial-1316719606-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/A1N8mGB5Dh811ytFRPmjhA–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00NTk7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/ec21b03eeea50514f90e6a70670007ca.jpg’, ‘630’, ”, ‘AP’, ], [ [[‘CASCO Signal’, 13], [‘Yu Yuan station’, 13]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/shanghai-subway-trains-crash-1317124688-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/hPUVHzepCJiFHzudiNhNVw–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00NTk7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/TRHkg5396284.jpg’, ‘630’, ”, ‘AFP’, ], [ [[‘It is difficult to assess how many birds are affected’, 7]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/sweden-hit-by-substantial-oil-spill-1316444749-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos of the oil spill’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Ii9HcyoayObiPRmw7Ik4PQ–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MjA7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-09-18T165741Z_01_STO04_RTRIDSP_3_SWEDEN.jpg’, ‘460’, ‘341’, ‘Reuters/Erik Abel/Scanpix Sweden’, ], [ [[‘Andy Rooney’, 9]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/andy-rooney-leaving-60-minutes–1317174717-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/pMvL4lFxAn54rFTcZ0xwcA–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MjA7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/b4cf0a91be6cfd15f90e6a706700f8ed.jpg’, ‘630’, ”, ‘AP’, ], [ [[‘villages where people are trapped under collapsed houses’, 8]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/6-9-quake-strikes-india-nepal-1316432147-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos of the quake aftermath’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/ArZHT7_ugJNvdNZr7rXg7A–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNDA7cT04NTt3PTUxMg–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/AFP/photo_1316422839782-8-0.jpg’, ‘512’, ‘340’, ‘AFP’, ], [ [[‘The absence of Borders is going to be felt across the industry’, 6]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/last-borders-bookstores-close-1316449248-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos of the closing of the last Borders’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/B__uksKyx_HwEP3gUum2qA–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MzM7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/aed64c8a04652215f90e6a706700965e.jpg’, ‘460’, ‘313’, ‘AP/Amy Sancetta’, ], [ [[‘Anders Behring Breivik’, 8]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/norway-attacker-anders-behring-breivik-1311602377-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos of the confessed mass killer’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/_E5OB1E6rdgShUt41KVZaw–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00ODk7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2011-07-25T141034Z_01_SIN725_RTRIDSP_3_NORWAY.jpg’, ‘460’, ‘357’, ‘Reuters/Jon-Are Berg-Jacobsen/Aftenposten via Scanpix’, ], [ [[‘like there is no way out’, 9]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/the-faces-of-poverty-real-lives-real-pain-1316453315-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/OlSRGp1pKLgvYSpy6XCRkw–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zOTM7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/45d7db4304d12415f90e6a706700ca26.jpg’, ‘460’, ‘ ‘, ‘AP/Robert F. Bukaty’, ], [ [[‘including snipers picking off protesters from rooftops’, 5], [‘Violence has flared anew in Yemen in frustration’, 6]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/yemen-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos of unrest in Yemen’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/UUZ_CmgwS6mLf75U4D9flA–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00MjA7cT04NTt3PTYzMA–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/ea314f80041a2115f90e6a706700681f.jpg’, ‘460’, ‘ ‘, ‘AP/Hani Mohammed’, ], [ [[‘Dolores Hope’, 7]], ‘http://news.yahoo.com/photos/dolores-hope-dies-at-age-102-1316466341-slideshow/’, ‘Click image to see more photos of Dolores’, ‘http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/PVmQlI81830Gw1RqCrESFA–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD02MzA7cT04NTt3PTUxNg–/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/4ca0b51519923d15f90e6a70670063b1.jpg’, ‘460’, ‘ ‘, ‘AP’, ] ]
Read more http://news.yahoo.com/women-drug-rehab-announces-evening-outpatient-alcoholism-drug-100240312.html
Sally Burton says Richard may have had alcoholism gene
RICHARD BURTON’S widow Sally says her late, great husband “did not learn the lesson” of his father’s alcoholism.
Speaking in Burton’s home town of Port Talbot, the 61-year-old said she had little doubt the actor’s death at the age of 58 in 1984 was hastened by his legendary boozing.
Sally Burton, who was at her husband’s side when he died, said: “Drinking took a great toll on his body.”
She said that despite the alcohol problems suffered by his father, he drank because it was “macho”.
“He was born into a mining community and his father was a collier and the miners would drink after their shifts,” she said. “And in the ’60s young actors would drink, he said it was just what they did.
“I think however there could be an alcoholic gene, I think it could well be hereditary.”
Speaking about hurtful allegations in author Tom Rubython’s biography, And God Created Burton, which alleged Burton “hated” his miner father Richard “Dick Bach” Jenkins, his widow said: “He never used the word hate about his father.
“However I don’t think Richard had much respect for him.
“Because of his drinking his father would disappear for days, his mother [Edith] not knowing where he was.
“He would also spend a lot of the family’s money on drinking and she must have gone through hell but he never said he hated his father.”
Now based in Perth, Australia, where she runs independent production house Onward Production, Sally Burton was in Port Talbot last night for the first annual Richard Burton Lecture.
It was delivered by National Theatre Wales director John McGrath at the Princess Royal Theatre.
The lecture looked at the work of the National Theatre Wales which this year involved Port Talbot-born Michael Sheen’s hugely successful The Passion, an epic three- day, open air production in the steel town over Easter.
Speaking at Aberavon Beach Hotel, Sally Burton said her husband did not know why he developed a talent for acting. “He would say ‘why me? Why I am so different?’ she said.
“It’s incredible that people like Richard, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Sheen and Rob Brydon have all come from the same place.
“But to my way of thinking the Welsh are almost all natural performers.”
Birmingham-born Sally Burton revealed that while she has “had a few romances” in the years following the death of her husband, she is still single.
She lives with her pet dog Fletch (named after Ronnie Barker in Porridge) and loves her life in Australia.
When she met Burton, Sally was a continuity worker on the set of the TV mini-series Wagner.
She said: “I can’t quite remember his first words to me but he was certainly charming, Richard was charming to everyone on set.”
She married Burton on July 3, 1983 in Las Vegas.
It was Burton’s fifth marriage and her first and soon after they spent time in Hawaii before returning to their home in Céligny where Burton died on August 5, 1984 from a brain haemorrhage.
She donated Richard Burton’s diaries, some of his books, letters and other possessions to Swansea University in 2005 and the diaries are due to be published in book form next year.
She received an honorary fellowship from Swansea University in 2006.
She said it was “increasingly tough” speaking about Burton, whose name still makes headlines around the world despite his death more than a quarter of a century ago.
She said: “You may think it might get easier over time but it doesn’t.”
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New study shows Facebook could be a tool in detecting alcoholism
Updated: Tue Oct. 04 2011 17:50:27
ctvwinnipeg.ca
A study out of the United States says social media might reveal who, among users’ children or young friends are heading down the road of alcoholism.
University students are Facebook’s most avid users and tend to hold nothing back, even if it is bad behaviour.
“There’s pictures the next day about people passing out next to toilets and things like that,” explained Hope Scott, a university student.
The study shows social media sites like Facebook could serve as a screener for teens at risk of developing a drinking problem.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that nearly 60 per cent of those teens posting about their excessive drinking actually did score high on screening tests for signs of a drinking problem.
Still, social media experts say online personalities are not always truthful. “I have to caution that what appears online may not necessarily be what happens in reality,” explained Brian Myhre a social media expert from the University of Manitoba.
Myhre says a lot of posts online are really about forging a larger-than-life identity. “The internet, especially Facebook, is just a public billboard in a sense. (It can be used) to advertise yourself, almost as a celebrity in a sense,” said Myhre.
Addictions experts say, “Experimentation with alcohol with young people is quite normal,” explains Sheri Lysy of Addictions Foundation of Manitoba. “Just a part of the curiosity factor during adolescence, but there is a sub group of young people who may go on to develop a problem.”
-With a report from CTV’s Deborah Mensah-Bonsu
Brewer planners OK recovery club, bounce house
BREWER, Maine — Bangor Area Recovery Network, a nonprofit organization that deals with the effects of drug, alcohol and other addictions, gained planning board approval on Monday to open a new gathering place in Brewer.
City planners also approved a new indoor recreation facility and bounce house that will be located in the old Pepsi plant on Wilson street and a home day care, City Planner Linda Johns said Tuesday.
The Bangor Area Recovery Network, nicknamed the B.A.R.N., is planning to open a 2,700-square-foot club in the North Brewer Shopping Center for “membership to hold meetings and activities for persons in recovery,” Johns said.
The nonprofit group once met at Brewer’s Isaac E. Clewley Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4917, but had to find a new home when the facility closed in early 2009 and the Brewer post joined its counterpart in Bangor.
After going more than a year without a gathering place, a B.A.R.N. club opened last summer in Bangor on Hammond Street, and the new Brewer facility will replace that, Shawn Yardley, a B.A.R.N. board member, said Tuesday.
“We outgrew that place in Bangor,” he said.
The new indoor recreation bounce house is scheduled to open at the end of the month, if all goes as planned, Johns said.
“It’s indoor recreation with bounce houses and similar inflatable apparatus for kids,” she said.
The recreation facility is going into the location of the former baseball and softball W.I.N. Training Center, and information about it was presented to the planning board by Sean Thies of CES Inc. of Brewer, Johns said.
“He explained that they were going to utilize a total of 12,200 square feet of space,” Johns said. “The existing 8,200 square feet, the former batting cage — they are going to add an additional 4,000 [square feet] onto it.”
Packaged foods will be sold at the facility and food will be catered for events such as birthday parties, she said.
Larry Springer, who owns the building, was at the planning board meeting and must make some small changes to the parking lot and landscaping to comply with minor conditions tied to the board’s approval, the city planner said.
Miranda Jones also gained approval to open a home day care center at 139 Chamberlain St., Johns said.
Read more http://bangordailynews.com/2011/10/04/news/bangor/brewer-planners-ok-recovery-club-bounce-house/
Calendar for Oct. 4, 2011
Oct. 11 — Information Session for CRS Taxpayers.
Oct. 12 — Steps to Starting a Small Business.
Nov. 3 — Steps to Starting a Small Business.
Nov. 8 — Information Session for CRS Taxpayers.
Nov. 9 — Marketing to the Media.
Dec. 2 — Steps to Starting a Small Business.
* THE BUSINESS SUPPORT GROUP SCORE -as been holding a series of free seminars at the Santa Fe Business Incubator. The seminars run from 6 to 9 p.m.
To reigster call 424-1140.
Today — Effectively Marketing Your Business.
Wednesday — Creating Your Web Site and Getting Visitor Traffic.
Thursday — Web Strategies to Build Your Business.
September Bankruptcies
Chapter 7
* 11-13980-JG — Ester P. Griego, Santa Fe. Debts $192,218; property $218,296.
* 11-13999-JG — Joseph J. La Ve, Santa Fe. Debts $182,277; property $184,239.
* 11-14008-JG — Scott A. Lewis, Santa Fe. Debts $353,217; property $417,014.
* 11-14009-SG — William R. Spencer and Robbyn Garden, Santa Fe. Debts $213,714; property $153,124.
* 11-14010-JG — Amber L. Montoya, Santa Fe. Debts $200,664; property $171,250.
* 11-14011-JG — Raymond R. and Kathleen R. Herrera, Santa Fe. Debts $399,641; property $365,260.
* 11-14021-AG — Henry Tapia, Santa Fe. Debts $60,000; property $530.
* 11-14061-JG — Rodolfo Lopez, Santa Fe. Debts $533.377; property $17,160.
* 11-14096-JG — Reid Pierce, Santa Fe. Debts $13,869; property $49,730.
* 11-14145-SG — Ivan C. Brutschke, Santa Fe. Debts $749,739; property $267,563.
* 11-14190-SG — Joseph C. Dimarco, Santa Fe. Debts $48,175; property $2,370.
* 11-14205-SG — James Johnson, Santa Fe. Debts $77,794; property $85,368.
* 11-14223-JG — Mike Mora, Santa Fe. Debts $269,857; property $259,102.
* 11-14225-SG — Dale A. Ortega, dba Gallegos Professional House Painting, Santa Fe. Debts $262,842; property $133,704.
* 11-14326-JG — Norman D. Aragon, Santa Fe. Debts $260,121; property $231,372.
* 11-14238-JG — Suzanne L. Stark, Santa Fe. Debts $40,851; property $8,035.
* 11-14254-JG — Eugene E. Tauer, Santa Fe. Debts and property not available.
* 11-14257-JG — Robert C. Salazar, Santa Fe. Debts $302,104; property $281,531.
* 11-14261-SG — Peter L. Connick, Santa Fe. Debts $2.4 million; property $12,960.
Chapter 11
* 11-14184-S. James G. and Sharon K. Bruce. Debts $687,324; property $85,250.
Chapter 13
* 11-13945-SS — Trudie J. Jordan. Debts and property not available.
* 11-13939-JS — Cynthia J. Backlund, Santa Fe. Debts $1.2 million; property $1.1 million
* 11-14952-SS — Anthony A. Rivera, Santa Fe. Debts $266,808; property; $599,196.
Read more http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Sidebar/Calendar-for-Oct–4–2011
VIDEO: Alcohol-free bar opens in Liverpool
3 October 2011 Last updated at 14:44 ET Help
Read more http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-england-merseyside-15154646
Kenya: Poor Morals Blamed for Alcohol Abuse
John Njagi and George Munene
3 October 2011
The Catholic Church blames rising cases of alcoholism on the breakdown of the family. Parents, according to John Cardinal Njue, had abandoned their responsibilities of bringing up their children, leaving the young ones to grow up on their own.
Cardinal Njue called for concerted efforts to restore strong family values so as to check alcoholism and drug abuse.
“In areas where we have strong family support systems, these cases are fewer, he said.
The church had stepped in to fill the void by setting up structures to guide all sectors of the society and instilling strong moral values, said.
Moral teachings
Cardinal Njue, however, welcomed government efforts to crack down on illicit and poisonous liquor but noted these had to be augmented with moral teachings.
The clergyman was speaking in Mathira, Nyeri County during a fundraising in aid of St Joseph Miiri Catholic Parish. A culture of alcoholism is especially rife in central Kenya.
The government has launched a major war on illicit and lethal spirits packed in plastic bottles following the death of at least 30 people after consuming drinks laced with dangerous chemicals.
However, the church sees the crackdown as only a short-term measure, saying the individual has to be empowered to make the right decisions.
Cardinal Njue said the best place for instilling such morals was the family, but was disappointed that most families had fallen apart, exposing children, some at a tender age, to vices.
He gave the example of miraa growing regions, where school-going children were skipping lessons to work in the farms.
The Catholic Church, he said, had put in place support mechanisms for people of all ages, to guide them on Christian values.
Separately, police in neighbouring Kirinyaga County on Monday raided a chang’aa den and seized 110 litres of the drink.
A suspected distiller was arrested during the operation near River Tana in Sagana.
Police storm den
The police, acting on a tip-off, stormed the den in the morning and found the suspect selling alcohol. He was arrested and the drink confiscated.
The suspect is in custody at the Wang’uru Police Station.
Area deputy head of police, Mr Ronald Kimeyo, said the suspect would be charged in court with being found in possession of illicit liquor.
Mr Kimeyo said the brewing of chang’aa was rampant along the banks of River Tana.
“The brewers have established chang’aa dens on the banks of the river where they produce and sell the drink to their customers. They hide in these areas to avoid arrest,” he said.
Mr Kimeyo said the police were enforcing the Alcoholic Drink Control Act and would continue with the crackdown until the illegal business which had rendered most youths unproductive and retarded development in the area was stamped out.
Mr Kimeyo said last week his officers impounded 600 litres of a popular brew known as makabo at Kimbimbi and Kiorugari villages and six brewers arrested.
The six were arraigned in court and fined between Sh10,000 and Sh20,000 after they admitted possessing illicit liquor.
Shell Accused of Paying Nigerian Militants to Destroy Towns |
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Zimbabwe’s Mining Companies Play By New Rules |
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Liberia Ships First Iron Ore in Two Decades |
AllAfrica – All the Time
The undermining of Tibetan struggle!
There is a widespread misperception among us that any news about Tibet is good for our freedom struggle. It is true that mainstream media help us inform the world about the plight of Tibet. However, as much as media informs the public about certain facts, it indulges in obscuring the same facts. Instead of educating readers, it confuses them. Instead of advancing freedom, it becomes a stumbling block by siding with authority. This is what Hanna Beech does with ‘Tibet’s next incarnation’ published in the latest issue of Time magazine!
The article begins by expressing severe doubts about the legitimacy of Lobsang Sangay as the leader of the Tibetan people. She writes that Sangay ‘has never been to Tibet, never breathed the thin air of the high plateau, nor spun a prayer wheel in the shadow of the great Buddhist monasteries.’
The truth is that one does not necessarily need to be born in Tibet to become a Tibetan. One could feel a strong sense of Tibetan identity through other means as well. What binds Tibetans on both sides of the Himalayas is the tragic fate our country suffers under the foreign occupation of the Chinese. We all feel the painful torments of our homeland—our very existence as Tibetan—being threatened with extermination! This existential pain, this thin, suffocating air of un-freedom we breathe—whether born in Tibet or in exile—makes us Tibetan today. Hannah Beech does not see these realities! Such naïve ignorance may be understandable, coming as it does from a person who never experienced what it means to be a colonized and oppressed people.
But what is unpardonable is the author’s near-complete silence on China’s destruction inside Tibet—the naked colonialism, racism and wiping out of a whole civilization! She even serves as a spokesperson for the Chinese colonialists. For instance, she expresses a sort of puzzle as to why Tibetans inside Tibet are not satisfied despite China’s bringing of what she calls as ‘modernity’ in the form of railways, roads and power stations’. Such a view reminds us of the Chinese colonial propaganda that Tibetans are ‘backward, uncivilized and ungrateful,’ not able to appreciate the marvels of modern science. Such lies were used by every colonial power in history to justify its violence against the native population.
Tibetans resent China’s ‘modernity’—railways, roads and power stations—not because they do not need them, but because they are used as tools of colonial oppression and consolidation, helping speed up the transfer of Chinese military troops and settlers on to the Tibetan plateau! Tibetans know that Chinese ‘modernity’ brings in rampant prostitution, gambling and alcoholism. Tibetans are ‘ungrateful’ of these ‘modern’ facilities, because they have been built by money extracted from the exploitation of Tibet’s rich resources. Tibetan people’s hatred of China’s ‘modernity’ is an act of resistance to the colonial occupation.
Beech also attempts to demoralize the awakening of political consciousness among Tibetans in exile after years of stagnation and apathy. Beech uses some effective weapons in this nasty project. For instance, she quotes the young Karmapa Lama as saying, “if our culture is gone, if our religion is gone, even if we get independence, what’s the point?” Like many influential Tibetans, the Karmapa is a bit confused. Tibet’s religious culture and independence are not contradictory. They are in fact indispensable to each other. Tibetan independence is the basis of our religion, culture and identity. They were built on a strong foundation laid by Songsten Gampo, during whose reign Tibet’s power and independence was at its peak. Tibet suffers degeneration today precisely because it is under a foreign military occupation.
Like many educated but arrogant westerners, Beech mocks what she finds as the ‘commercialization’ of Tibetan freedom movement—‘Free Tibet’ bumper stickers and other merchandise sold by Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala. Such insensitivity and hubris explains why the author is totally blind to other serious exile Tibetan activists, who often risk their lives by fasting unto death in the sweltering heat of Delhi. Even Tibetan musicians make her depressing. The rock band, JJI exile brothers, are “full of existential angst and very stoned.’ She rightly sees their nihilism but not their charming wit and humour much loved by both Tibetan and sympathetic western audience.
Beech thinks that a militant struggle will ‘rob the [Tibetan] movement of its moral sheen.’ Moral sheen? Perhaps she does not know that Aung San Suu Kyi refers to young Burmese militants who want a violent overthrow of the military junta as ‘freedom fighters.’ She is not impressed with the pictures of martyr Tsewang Norbu, ‘a burly monk wearing sunglasses.’ She does not write a word about Thupten Ngodup, another martyr who immolated years ago for Tibetan independence. Is it because Ngodup was not a monk and never wore sunglasses in life! She thinks the self-immolation acts by Tibetans as ‘futile,’ despite knowing that it was the Algerian Mohamed Bouaziz’s martyrdom that triggered the whole Arab Spring, overthrowing long running dictatorships in the Middle East!
Beech mentions the economic rise of China and the need of western governments to kowtow to the dragon, which makes it possible for them to ignore and sideline Tibetan movement. Beach should have realized that after years of deception Tibetans have come to the painful knowledge that democracy and freedom do not come from corporate governments. They are the ones who suppress them!
China’s power might look invincible today but beneath the façade of Beijing’s economic miracle tensions are brewing, as the homes of millions of ordinary Chinese are bulldozed for high-rise buildings in Shanghai and Guangdong. As far as Tibetans are concerned, our determination and yearning for freedom has never been stronger. As the young imprisoned poet, Pema Rinchen wrote, ‘even if we have to carry the weight of Jomolangma or wait till the waters of Kokonor dry up,’ we will oppose the red menace.
When the Arab spring began, mainstream American media raised the spectre of radical Islam replacing the Arab dictatorships. In truth, as Noam Chomsky observed, ‘it was not radical Islam but independence that worried the US.’ Similarly, it is not the ‘loss of moral sheen’ or the rise of radicalism among the Tibetan youth, but the real potential for Tibetan independence that worries Hannah ‘Bitch’ and her bosses at the Time magazine!
Tenzin Nyinjey is a political commentator based in Dharamshala.
The views expressed in this piece are that of the author and the publication of the piece on this website does not necessarily reflect their endorsement by the website.
‘Walk For Recovery’ Held at Stonewall Resort
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Read more http://www.wdtv.com/index.php/home/local-news/9266-walk-for-recovery-held-at-stonewall-resort