The curiosity drove me to attend the meeting called by Thubten Wangchen, who is a Buddhist monk, living in Barcelona, and representing his Holiness the Dalai Lama.My interest was based on my aim to meet personally a man who says that Tibetan people consider weapons not as the best way to reach the freedom for Tibet, in spite that his country was invaded by Chinese in 1959.
For the present there are about 6 million original Tibetan inhabitants in this country, and 7, 5 million of Chinese people who live in Tibet, what consider really a part of China.
A comment included in a interview to Wangchen called my attention. He said that never the Buddhist religion justified a holy war like Muslims, Sijhs or even Christians in the past.
The question is ¿what will happen with Tibet? I’m afraid that in the future the culture, the political orientation and the identity signs of Tibetan people, in general, will be water downed inside the Chinese environment. In fact, the Chinese authorities are making efforts to build god communications with Tibet, railway, roads, oriented to facilitate the immigration of Chinese people to this country.
Some difficulties of Mr. Wangchen speaking Spanish, minimized the message, but what I understood was that finally they are not asking for a really freedom, but for a determined kind of autonomy inside China.
I think that it has a lot to do with the pragmatic behaviour of Orientals and especially of the Buddhist. ¿Is it possible to oppose against the human tide that threat Tibet? ¿Or perhaps the best could be to reach enough power to protect the Tibetan interest, not only cultural or identity signs, but possibilities to improve the quality of life for them?
However I want to underline that my impressions are based only in the few knowledge I have about them, even that every day I become more and more interested on their philosophy.
On the other hand, I don’t know if this feeling is the same for all Tibetan People. Maybe there are some of them disposed to fight.
The weather in Barcelona, and of course in the San Jaume’s Square, was windy and uncomfortable. Despite of this, a window in the town hall was opened and the light shined inside the room. Maybe the Barcelona’s Mayor was listening to Mr. Wangchen’s speech, trying to find parallelisms between the request of autonomy for Tibet and the process of the “Estatut” for Catalonia.
After the meeting end, we walked across Ferran Street, towards Las Ramblas, and decided to eat something in a new Oyster Taverna. I thought in the new book by Arturo Perez-Reverte, “The painter of battles” and some words that he pronounced in the presentation of his book:
“¿What do you think about de pacifism?”.
“I don’t like the war, but there are inevitable wars. In the war you can’t put the other cheek. The tanks cannot be stopped with flowers. The dialog between civilizations and the good manners doesn’t drive to somewhere. All of us have a gun against the head; we can choose between remaining stopped or run fifteen meters. Fifteen meters that means a full life of love, freedom, dignity and culture”
At the time I was preparing an oyster to eat I thought in what is the best way: the pacific one, but trying to reach more power to control or the fight. I gave a sight around the Taverna. The seats were not very comfortable and I prefer the Cambado’s oysters, but the rest of food and the wine were not bad at all.
And then I saw him again. That time I felt that there were too many coincidences: the airport, last Thursday and yesterday. He was seated alone five or six meters away from our table, at my left, clearly looking to me, with very shining eyes, as he was little drunk.
His clothes were the same than the last time I saw him. The only difference was that he didn’t wear the New York’s cap. The waitress passed in front off me, and in the next second he was not there anymore.
This situation began to bother me a little.
3 comentaris:
First and foremost, I must congratulate you Jordi for rising to your self-imposed challenge to write in each of the languages you have learnt. You have indeed done well.
I wish to take the liberty of adding a few lines to your original reflection: on the plight of the Tibetan people, the hopes of Thubten Wangchen, the economic clout of China and the subjugation of human dignity to the opiate and panacea of the modern world; -money.
To make my points more succinctly, I have taken the liberty of quoting extracts from an article written by Lisa Abend and Geoff Pingree which appeared in The Christian Science Monitor.
When Thubten Wangchen was 4 years old, his mother died in a Chinese work camp. She was pregnant at the time, and according to Mr. Wangchen, the Chinese were rounding up pregnant women and working them to death.
"That was their way of limiting the Tibetan population," said Wangchen, a Tibetan refugee who has lived in Spain for 24 years.
Since the Chinese invaded Tibet in 1950, hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed, arbitrarily imprisoned, or forced to flee their country. But when the victims of what some call genocide finally get their day in court, it probably won't be in China. Instead, Spain -which is conducting a judicial investigation on the issue - is likely to hold the first trial.
Spain has become one of the few countries to exercise the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which gives countries the right to try individuals of any nationality for crimes committed outside that country's borders.
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the decision "ridiculous."
A spokesman at the Chinese embassy in Madrid, speaking anonymously
according to embassy policy, says, "It's absurd to expect that China is going to respond to the demands of another country." Referring to the case of a Spanish cameraman killed by US fire in Iraq, he adds,
"No one expects George Bush to stand trial for Jose Couso's death."
Although the case could incriminate former Chinese President Jiang Zemin,few here believe that the investigation will threaten China's status as Spain's most-desired trade partner, a relationship that has flourished in the last year. Not only did the two countries' prime ministers exchange visits in 2005, Spanish companies invested a total of 60 million euros in China that year, up from 46 million euros the year before. And in 2006,
Spanish investment in China is expected to double.
For Thubten Wangchen, that likelihood doesn't matter. "Just the fact that the National Court has agreed to take the case is a great success," he says. "Spain may not have sufficient power to force China to justice, but at least the Spanish people will know what Tibetans are suffering."
I think it is evident that international trade agreements and human rights don’t go hand in hand. Clearly, it is the principle of the case that matters. Yet it is frightening to think that the noble stance of the Spanish Court, which is in the vanguard of international litigation against crimes against humanity, must remain fettered by international indifference and the trading power of the business magnates such as China, Japan and the USA. It makes me wonder that perhaps if George Bush were made to stand trial for Jose Couso's death; it would be like lighting the candle of hope for countries like Rwanda, Chile, and Tibet to mention but a few.
Yo en castellano, te digo q si te apetecen unos deberes, ya sabes en mi glog ;)
Ei, gracias por hacerlo, te respondo aquí porque te he leído ahora, y eso que puse los comentarios recientes...
así que en la costa eh, la tramuntana bien? ;)
Con lo de tokio y las ramblas... urbanita al cien x cien ;)
Un saludo :)
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