Opinions

Early 2012 I had the opportunity to visit Singapore (population 5.1 million). It was fascinating to note that the country’s economic rise really started after their independence in 1965.

Firstly the increasing frequency of the self-immolations – 97 cases in Tibet (excluding 5 outside Tibet) so far (till December 11, 2012), out of which 1 in 2009; 12 in 2011 and 84 in 2012, 28 Tibetans self-immolated in November alone. Calls to stop self-immolations have not worked, nobody knows what to do

Commenting on my last few posts, some readers took me to task for raising the issue of Jigme Ngabo’s dismissal from RFA, thereby (according to them) diverting public attention away from the self-immolations in Tibet, especially when “… our nation is on fire” as one put it so graphically.

The brand new, upmarket Hotel Kempinsky in East Delhi has suddenly morphed into a Buddhist monastery -- though temporarily for four days this week. Its lobbies and convention halls are reverberating with Buddhist mantras,

The word made me flinch. ‘Sickness’. As she spoke, my Tibetan friend gestured towards her chest with a short sharp movement of her hand.

Around noon on Feb. 19, an 18-year-old named Nangdrol set himself on fire near the Zamthang Monastery in the northeast Tibetan town of Barma. In a note left behind, he wrote, “I am going to set myself on fire for the benefit of all Tibetans.” Referring to

When I was researching my “Free Radio Free Asia!” piece I came across more information than I could fit into the article. I also came across material which was troubling, and which I could not bring myself to include in the piece, though it would have bolstered the case I was trying to make.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in his closing remarks at the recently concluded Second Special International Tibet Support Groups Meeting, stated that the “younger generation of Tibetans in Tibet these days have much stronger determination as compared to earlier generations.”

In my last post I mentioned an instance of how Communist China was flexing its economic muscle to disseminate its propaganda in the USA, essentially through paying for pages of the China Daily to be inserted within the august recesses of America’s newspaper of record, the New York Times.

The New York Times expose on Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's close relatives having amassed assets worth more than $2.7 billion could not have come at a worse time for poor Mr. Wen.