Politlyrik: HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff, Freiburg-Kappel)

(c)satisshroff,germany 2009

(c)satisshroff,germany 2009



HAUNTING HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff, Freiburg-Kappel)

The King Who Was Expelled (Satis Shroff)

King Amanullah returned
Ecstatic,
From a tour to Europe
And the Near East.
He ordered the modernization
Of Afghanistan,
Along the lines
Of Kemal in Turkey.
His majesty said:
'I want monogamy,
European clothing,
Abolition of women's veils.'
The people rejoiced
In the streets of Kabul.
The Mullahs revolted.
The king was expelled.
That was 1928.

* * *
They Shot the King (Satis Shroff)

General Nadir Shah
Became the King of Afghanistan,
With a little help,
From his British friends.
He brought reforms.
They shot him in 1933.

* * *
Pakhtunistan Dreams (Satis Shroff)

Mohammed Zahir became
The next king of Afghanistan.
'I have a dream
Of a Pakhtunistan,
A bigger country which can rule
The Pathans in Western Pakistan.
To the west of the river Indus.'
The Pakistanis weren't amused,
And politely refused it.

* * *

THE HINDUKUSH (Satis Shroff)

It's Volkstrauertag
Death through war,
Gewaltherrschaft,
Go through your mind.
It's 2009,
Peace at last?

The victims of wars,
Memorials with mourning choirs,
Weeping war widows, orphans,
Wreaths and flowers for the dead.
The fire brigade stands at attention.
Uniforms,
Stiff humans
With eyes moving,
To take in the mourning.
In Freiburg-Kappel we sing
A Russian song,
To remember
The sons and husbands of Freiburg-Kappel
Who didn't return.

Ninety years ago,
The Constitution of Weimar.
Germany's Fundamental Laws,
Proclaimed sixty years ago.
The ugly Berlin wall
Fell twenty years ago.
The Second World War,
Began seventy years ago.

Alas, young Teutonic widows
Still cry today
In Germany,
For young husbands
Who died
And still die,
In the killing fields
Of the Hindukush,

There's a war
In far off Afghanistan.
The grandfather died
For a totalitarian regime.
The grandson dies today
For a democratic idea.

We Germans train the police
In the Hindukush.
What happens when they run
Over to the Talibans?
Islam binds the people
In the Hindukush.
What have we to offer?

Is war capitulation,
Against the forces of evil?
People who are beaten, tortured
When their ethnicity
And genes differ,
When people with illness or disability,
Are meted injustice,
Stamped as 'unworthy of life.'
There are those who faced
A firing squad,
When they defied
The rule of power,
Clutched to their beliefs,
Their pure conscience.

You can't change the past.
What has happened,
Has happened.
Don't close your eyes
To the hoary past,
Lest you be blind
To the present,
And the future.

It's not the Third World,
Where ideologies,
Fundamentalists,
Terror
Find their breeding grounds.
Rightist ideology
Is still mushrooming,
In the streets of Berlin,
Vienna and Bern.
The 'others' are still
Being terrorized,
Beaten, stabbed and kicked
In broad daylight.

Freedom and forgiveness,
Within and without,
Where art thou?
He who searches
Finds hope,
Tolerance,
Empathy
And dignity,
For there are enough
Righteous, honest,
Spiritual people with integrity
Who care about others.

* * *

TWITTERS FROM THE BLACK FOREST (Satis Shroff)

The Talibans have persuaded
The Pathans, Pashtoons,
And other warring tribes,
To ignore their differences,
And unite to fight the infidels
From the West.
US citizens say:
'America can't afford
Obama's Afghan war.
Hey Big Spender, Obama,
Thirty-five billion dollars
To blow up.
Don't Americans
Need the money
Back home?

* * *
I'll Bring You Back (Satis Shroff)

The faces of the rookie cadets
At Westpoint
Look tired.
'30 000 only' says Obama,
'Till May 2010,
And I'll bring you back.'
The question is:
In a coffin
Or as a hero?

***
Understanding Afghanistan (Satis Shroff)

What happens
When Obama, Merkel
And the Nato have left Kabul?
It wasn't America's war anyway.
Is it the Nato's future war?
Bin Laden's at large.
The enemy is invisible.
Airstrikes kill
Only women and children.
Do we really understand
Afghanistan?
Or is it only
Our thought
Of what Afghanistan
Ought to be.

* * *
Under the Shadow of the Hindukush (Satis Shroff)

John Mc Cain wishes
To break the will
Of the Talibans.
That's how wars are won,
From the Westpoint view
If you announce
When the troops will leave,
The Talis will just wait
And drink Darjeeling tea
Under the shadow
Of the Hindukush.

* * *
No Soldiers, Please (Satis Shroff)

Germany's Guido Westerwelle,
Praised the decision to withdraw
From the Hindukush.
'Police officers for Afghans
Is okay,'
Says Birgit Homburger FDP,
'But no soldiers, please.'

* * *
Party Crashing In the White House (Satis Shroff)

You mean you can
Party crash
Right up to Obama
In the White House?
Mark Sullivan and his men
Were blended
By a charming blonde
Socialite.

To me
It was like in Bonn,
Where an elderly German lady,
Dressed up like a Baroness,
Cut an excellent figure,
Till the chief of the Bonner police
Confided to me,
She was a commoner,
A pensioned lady,
Out for a tete´-a-tete´
With King Birendra
Of Nepal.

Where there's a will
There seems to be
A way.


Ach, Helvetia you've Done it Again (Satis Shroff)

The Bairam celebrations
Are long over,
And Helvetia has caught
The Islamic world
By surprise.

The Swiss folk have dismissed
The minaret 'missile' issue.
Building churches are still forbidden
In many Muslim countries.
The Catholic Swiss have spoken
And won the day.
If more countries would listen to
And respect their own folk.
Ach, Helvetia,
You've done it again.

* * *
The Word of the Year (Satis Shroff)

Härtzen is the word of the year
In good olde Germany.
It means:
To be jobless,
Hanging around,
Loitering
Without much money
In your purse.
It comes from Hartz Four,
A program
For the jobless
And the poor.

But if a blonde German girl says:
'You're bam,'
Take it easy.
It means you're cool.

In case you're a banker
And someone calls you a 'Bankster,'
It isn't a compliment.
It implies
The speculative bank business
You've been doing.
A banker
Who's a gangster.

BOMBAY BURNING (Satis Shroff)

Munjo Mumbai!
Bombay’s burning.
All Muslims are not terrorists,
Although some Muslims are.
Not all Hindus are honourable,
But many are.

Whether one is a terrorist,
Lies in the eyes of the observer.
Are the eyes
Those of Hindus or Muslims,
Jains or Sikhs,
Christians or Parsis,
Buddhists or Bahais,
Animists or atheists
Or the Dalits of the Hindu society?

Are the 130 million Muslims of India
To be judged by the Hindus,
Because Bombay’s Taj Mahal Hotel blew up
At the hands of the ‘Deccan Mujahidin?’
The ghost of Osama’s al-Qaida
Makes the rounds again.

India’s liberal, secular status
Is at stake,
When anti-Muslim resentiments
Are fired
By emotional Hindu nationalists.
Is it Hafiz Saeed versus Babu Bajrangi?
There’s more to it
Than meets the eye.

The USA can bomb
Al-Qaida and Taliban
Hideouts in Pakistan.
But India cannot follow suit.
The wounds in the consciousness
Of Indians and Pakistanis,
Caused by the division of the subcontinent
Haven’t healed yet.
The Babri mosque,
The slaughter of Muslims in Gujerat,
The war in Kashmir
Still linger in the memories
Of the Pakistanis.
An attack would only
Open old clots
And trigger a nuclear war.

Have not the Muslims
Of this subcontinent
Shown solidarity and loyalty
When China waged a Himalayan krieg,
When India freed the people of East Pakistan,
When India fought against the Nizam of Hyderabad?

Hindus and Muslims
Can be friends,
Just as Buddhists and Christians.
Let not communal strife
Pollute our minds.
Let us live
And let live.
Togetherness,
Miteinander,
Should be the cry of the day,
Not bloodshed and mayhem
In the name of Allah, Shiva or Christus.

It is humans,
Fanatical humans,
Who create crimes,
Injustice and folly
On human souls.
Gewalt breeds only Gewalt.

Hush, read the holy Koran,
Bible, Vedas and Upanishads
Between the lines,
And struggle for more words of love,
Understanding, tolerance, dignity
Of humans and animals
In this precious world.
Shanti!
Shanti!

· * *
Cocktail Klatsch (Satis Shroff)

A cocktail party is an intermittent dance,
With champagne glass in the hand,
And a blonde’s waist in the other.

Dodging and negotiating
Between sips and slips,
Small talk.

With zeitgeist music,
As a psycho-barrier,
When confronted by
Ladies and gents,
You don’t prefer
To exchange niceties,
Personal secrets
Or somatic secretes
With.

* * *

Dancing Eyes (Satis Shroff)

The dance floor,
A heaven to those
Who know how to dance:
The salsa, samba, tango,
The fox and the waltz.

How many shoe soles have I danced,
How may souls have I conquered?
Here I am,
Longing for a dance,
A paraplegic dancer.

I dance now
With my eyes,
Even when I seem
To gaze in the distance.

I hear wonderful melodies
From the Spring of my life.
I dance now
In my mind.

* * *

Isolation (Satis Shroff)

She had a small soul
And little education.
She gave,
But sought
Something else in return.

She loved her husband,
Pampered him in society,
For all to see.
Did she love him,
Or his wallet?
And things money can buy?

She shielded him from his friends,
With whom he’d fought
In the trenches of Stalingrad,
Cornered together like rats,
And prayed when Stalin’s Orgel
Screamed murderously over them.

He needed love and care
After the trauma of war.
Woke up in sleep
With nightmares of the krieg.

He gave up his camarades,
For a wife who said she loved him.
They had sauerkraut and spätzle,
Watched tennis and thrillers on TV,
And had no time for others.
Lonesome pensioners,
In self-inflicted isolation.

What came was depression
Sans eyes,
Sans friends.
Failing senses
Varicose veins,
Cerebral sclerosis,
Alzheimer and strokes.
The light went out.
Was someone out there?

* * *

The Feud (Satis Shroff)

The feud I fought
Was not whole heartedly.
I handed it to a lawyer,
Who made a hash of it,
And a judge who was subjective.

I had to pay a heavy loss.
Would it have been better,
Had I put my heart
Into the feud?

Can I forget it,
But not forgive?
Can you forgive,
But not forget?
Questions that still
Torment my soul.

* * *

Surya at Benaras (Satis Shroff)

My eyes and mind were fading
Under the rays of the scorching sun.
I was at Benaras,
Standing in the polluted
But holy river.

Half naked,
With a sacred thread,
Greeting Surya,
The child of dawn,
The great source of light
And warmth:
The Sun.

You are the nourisher,
The brilliant light-maker,
The eye of the world,
The witness of men’s deeds.
Oh, you king of the constellations,
You,
Who possesses a thousand rays.

I was mumbling a Sanskrit litany,
I’d learned from my dear Mom :
Hara, hara Gungay,
Saba paapa langay.
May all the sins of this world
Be washed away
By the Ganges.

Glossary:
Gungay: Holy Ganges of the Hindus
Saba: all
Paap: sin
Benaras: Old name for Varanasi

* * *

Wine (Satis Shroff)

He who drinks sings,
He who sinks drinks,
You say.

He who drinks
Drops and spills
His wine,
His self,
His Ich
His life.

And when it’s spilt,
Can you still drink?
Is it you
Or is it the wine
That spilt your life?

* * *
Glossary:
Ich: German word for Id (Freud), I, me

Seduction (Satis Shroff)

Why do you run after me?
You are seduced by my voice,
My style and verse.

Follow your heart,
Your own words.

Till then,
We go different ways.
We follow different paths,
Though we hear the same rhythm.
And in doing so,
We meet again.
Aufwiedersehen,
Arrividerci.

* * *
The Whiteness in the Zone of Death (Satis Shroff)

The best view of the world
Is from the top of the highest mountain,
The Abode of the Gods.

‘The best way to climb a peak
Is not to give it
A single thought.
Think of a thousand other things,’
Said the climber from abroad,
To the sherpa.

Suddenly it became stormy,
The dreaded whiteout came
With howling, biting winds,
Tons of snow everywhere.

The sahib had only a single thought.
‘Hilf mir, O Gott!’
And cried like a new born baby,
Scared of the wilderness,
Scared of the whiteness
That surrounded him.

He found the sherpa,
Who said:
‘ Here, where you stand,
Is almost the summit, Sir.
Welcome to the Abode of the Gods.’
‘The abode of what?’
‘The Gods,’ said the sherpa.

The climber turned around:
Whiteness in the death zone,
As far as he could imagine.

A step to the right,
A step behind,
And a blood-curdling scream.
Swallowed by a treacherous crevice.

The half-frozen sherpa mumbled,
‘Om mane peme hum,
Vajra guru
Peme siddhay hum!’
Till sunrise.

He opened his eyes,
Thanked the Gods of the Himalayas
For saving his life,
Felt sorry for the sahib,
And descended
With a heavy heart.

* * *
Manjushri and the Heart of the World (Satis Shroff)

The green fields in the Vale of Catmandu
Shuddered as the heavens parted,
Revealing the secrets of the Himalayas.

Manjushri appeared with his mighty sword,
At this very place where you now stand,
For here was once a lake,
With turquoise waters.

The people hid behind their house-walls
And ornate windows.
They peered with awe
At what unfurled before them.

The Sanskrit and Nepalbhasa they spoke,
Left them wordless,
For Manjushri was there
To release their hearts,
To create a fertile land,
Below the barren hills.

The warrior from the East,
Raised his sword
And cut a gorge,
Where now the Chovar stands,
With its century old sediments.

Lo and behold!
The turquoise water became
A foamy, swirling, spiralling,
Circling mass with music
Rising to a crescendo.
It left Catmandu Valley
With incessant roars.

What remained was a fertile valley,
Rich in alluvium.
From the centre bloomed a lotus
And became
The heart of the world.

* * *

A White Page (Satis Shroff)

On a white page,
I’m searching for you.
I cannot bear to lose you.
Where have you been,
My lovely?

I remember the day
You entered my life.
Your soft gaze
With deep blue eyes.

We drank white wine at the bar,
Went home laughing,
Tipsy and joyful.
I thought it would last forever
And a day.

We were intoxicated
With love,
I thought.
Skins that sweat
And whispered
From the pores.
A never-ending longing
For you.

I heard the screeching of an owl,
Ach, where tenderness was uncovered,
When the clouds slithered past the moon.

I humoured you,
I reeled under the silence
Of the years.
There were distant cries,
But I heard only you.
I had to bear with you,
But you remained
A white page
In my life.
Adieu.

* * *

Souvenirs (Satis Shroff)

They come from lands afar
In search of impressions,
Kitsch or treasures,
For their designer cupboards,
Back home in western countries.

Busloads of them stream out,
Digital cameras, camcorders
Mobiles with cameras
And take shots of the village people,
Dilapidated huts,
Ornate windows, tattered clothes.
Guerrillas with guns,
Children with running noses,
For Mom is down in the vale,
Chopping wood for the hearth.

They click and store the temples,
Shrines, pagodas, palaces,
Gigabytes of global images
For family albums,
Power-point presentations.
Slide-shows for all and sundry,
The intimate images
Of a foreign country.

Will the tourists tell,
When they reveal
What they’ve stored,
Of how hard it is to survive,
In the foothills of the Himalayas?
Where the sun shines at day
And Himalayan winds and wolves
Howl at night.

Where the monsoon brings
Torrential rain and death
From June to September,
And where the earth is dry,
Barren in winter.
Where the waters of the lake Phewa
Mirror the snows of Annapurna
And the fish-tailed one,
Like in a pretty post-card.

* * *
The Music of the Breakers (Satis Shroff)

I remember the beautiful music
From the streets of Bombay,
Munjo Mumbai,
Where I spent the winters
During my school-days.

Or was it musical noise?
Unruhe, panic and flight for some,
It was the music of life for me
In that tumultuous,
Exciting city.

When the sea of humanity was too much for me,
I could escape by train to the Marine Drive,
And see and hear
The music of the breakers.
The waves of the Arabian Sea
Splashing and thrashing
Along the coast of Mumbai.
Your muscles flex,
The nerves flatter,
The heart gallops,
As you feel how puny you are,
Among all those incessant and powerful waves.

'The manner in which Satis Shroff writes takes the reader right along with him. Extremely vivid and just enough and the irony of the music. Beautiful prosaic thought and astounding writing.
'Your muscles flex, the nerves flatter, the heart gallops,
As you feel how puny you are,
Among all those incessant and powerful waves.'
“Satis Shroff's writing is refined – pure undistilled.” (Susan Marie, www.Gather.com

Satis Shroff teaches Creative Writing at the University of Freiburg. He’s a lecturer, poet and writer and the published author of three books on www.Lulu.com: Im Schatten des Himalaya (book of poems in German), Through Nepalese Eyes (travelogue), Katmandu, Katmandu (poetry and prose anthology by Nepalese authors, edited by Satis Shroff).
His lyrical works have been published in literary poetry sites: Slow Trains, International Zeitschrift, World Poetry Society (WPS), New Writing North, Muses Review, The Megaphone, Pen Himalaya, Interpoetry. He is a member of “Writers of Peace,” poets, essayists, novelists (PEN), World Poetry Society (WPS) and The Asian Writer.

Satis Shroff is based in Freiburg (poems, fiction, non-fiction) and also writes on ecological, ethno-medical, culture-ethnological themes and lectures at the University of Freiburg. He has studied Zoology and Botany in Nepal, Medicine and Social Sciences in Germany and Creative Writing in Freiburg and the United Kingdom. He describes himself as a mediator between western and eastern cultures and sees his future as a writer and poet. Since literature is one of the most important means of cross-cultural learning, he is dedicated to promoting and creating awareness for Creative Writing and transcultural togetherness in his writings, and in preserving an attitude of Miteinander in this world. He lectures in Basle (Switzerland) and in Germany at the Akademie für medizinische Berufe (University Klinikum Freiburg) and the Zentrum für Schlüsselqualifikationen (University of Freiburg). Satis Shroff was awarded the German Academic Exchange Prize.

What others have said about the author:
„Die Schilderungen von Satis Shroff in ‘Through Nepalese Eyes’ sind faszinierend und geben uns die Möglichkeit, unsere Welt mit neuen Augen zu sehen.“ (Alice Grünfelder von Unionsverlag / Limmat Verlag, Zürich)
Satis Shroff writes with intelligence, wit and grace. (Bruce Dobler, Associate Professor in Creative Writing MFA, University of Iowa).
“I was extremely delighted with Satis Shroff’s work. Many people write poetry for years and never obtain the level of artistry that is present in his work. He is an elite poet with an undying passion for poetry.” Nigel Hillary, Publisher, Poetry Division - Noble House U.K.
'Brilliant, I enjoyed your poems thoroughly. I can hear the underlying German and Nepali thoughts within your English language. The strictness of the German form mixed with the vividness of your Nepalese mother tongue. An interesting mix. Nepal is a jewel on the Earth’s surface, her majesty and charm should be protected, and yet exposed with dignity through words. You do your country justice and I find your bicultural understanding so unique and a marvel to read.' Reviewed by Heide Poudel in WritersDen.com 6/4/2007.

Dalai Lama's Realpolitik of Peace, Tolerance, Dialogue

Commentary on Tibet:
Dalai Lama’s Realpolitik: Gold Medals versus Human Rights (Satis Shroff)

The Chinese poet Dong Guanfu writes in his blog: “We cannot win the heart of the Tibetans if we only develop their economy. If we cannot manage to understand this, then many other conflicts will follow. There’s no denying that one of the reasons of staging the Olympic Games is that we want to make money. But the greater value of the Games is to strengthen and rejuvenate the spirit of a nation. How many spiritual values can we convey by way of the Olympic torch? This is a question that has to be weighed by the whole Chinese folk, especially the ruling part members (in Beijing). ”
The Dalai Lama has threatened to resign as the political leader of the Tibetans in Tibet and the diaspora (USA, India, Nepal and Switzerland), but the protests within Tibet has been rising although Tibet has been hermetically sealed for foreign journalists, and the nabbed demonstrators have been put to show as terrorists, their own outmoded arms on display (Royal Enfield rifles from World War II), knives and a few cartridges. A young monk was shown on TV welcoming and thanking the Chinese Army soldiers as ‘saviours’ by putting the traditional khada scarves on their heads.
Never before was a farce staged so badly. It was sickening to watch it, propaganda at its worst. The foreign journalists were obliged to leave Lhasa so that the Chinese propaganda could function without democratic impediments. And the views that have emerged through Xinhuan and Chinese TV are conspicuous through their slanted reporting to the benefit of the rulers in Beijing. The selected foreign-press was invited to Lhasa but this time the younger generation of Tibetan lamas were shown in tears with the words in their mouths, “Tibet is not free!” You could only feel a numbness and a lump in your throat.
The world knew already in 2001 that Peking put not only the Tibetans under pressure but consequently cracked down on intellectuals and other Tibetan people, and went even so far as to hang them en masse as political criminals. It is ironical that the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to Beijing. One hopes that this will be a lesson to the Olympic Committee, if they are ever in a dilemma of staging the Games in similar countries, where the rights of the individuals are suppressed, and human rights are trampled upon. This goes against the Olympic spirit. But the question of morality and ethics doesn’t seem to arise when political lobbyists are at work, and economic and commercial gains are also a part of the game, in this case, Games. The privileged party elite of Peking and the organisers of many western countries seem to have a common opinion as far as the Olympic Games are concerned, and they all come up with: how could be punish our own sportsmen and women by not letting them take part in the competitions? Think of the gold medal possibilities that might be lost.
A sportsman with ethos and integrity would be ashamed to take part in the competitions. Most of the organising and participating nations are against boycotting the Games “because it would damage the sport and the contestants (sic).” On the one side, we have competitors wanting to take part in the Games no matter what it costs. On the other side, there are the one-party organisers in Beijing who see the Tibetans as disturbing elements led by the Dalai Lama clique, although they know very well that this is a cheap lie, fabricated to suits their purpose. Thanks to the Olympic Games 2008, the Chinese elite are in the international limelight, and have been ignoring the critical views of the rest of the world’s leaders and world organisations, and using them for their own purposes. The march of the Chinese troops in Lhasa has shown the real face of China.
What are gold medals worth in terms of humanity? A dark shadow has been cast upon the Olympics 2008 and August is nearing, but Peking is adamant. It’s still playing the olde, hackneyed melody, instead of listening to the Tibetans and the conscience of the world that are demanding equal human rights and justice, tolerance and respect for China’s minorities. The sportsmen and women have got nothing to lose their fame in the form of gold medals and money from future sponsors, but the Tibetans and the Chinese have a lot to win in terms of human values, tolerance, compassion and togetherness---a Miteinander.
I met an old German lady yesterday on my way from downtown Freiburg and she said, “Herr Shroff, you should have seen the film about the Lhasa-Peking train in Fernsehen. It was fantastic. They even have oxygen-masks, like in the Airbus, for the passengers who feel weak. How thoughtful of them!”
It is a fact that China has opened to the economic benefits of the western world, but in the jurisprudence sector, China this big Asian giant, is still an underdeveloped country and more paragraphs on human and individual rights have yet to be added before China’s Communist Party can speak of equal rights like others in the comity of nations. China’s leaders have been keeping its own Han-folk in the dark through the usage of propaganda by treating the Tibetans who protest in public as criminals. But the worst part of this propaganda war is that the Han-Chinese have become gullible and actually believe the theatre that has all the while been presented by Xinhua and CCTV. Moreover, the Han-Chinese believe that they freed the poor Tibetans from slavery and feudalism. The reality is, however, complex, because the Tibetan folk have their own script, scriptures, their own history of development, their mentality, psyche, religion, traditions and rich culture. When you see a Tibetan monk or youth throwing stones, it is a metaphor of a David who is trying to raise his hand against a Goliath (Han-Chinese), and this protest has nothing to do with criminality in the ordinary sense of the word. The real crime was committed when Han-Chinese overran the Tibetan Plateau and robbed the Tibetans of their religion, language, culture and outlawed them after the principle: A good Tibetan is a Han-Tibetan.
There was a time when the Dalai Lama was a welcome guest, as the spititual and temporal ruler of Tibet, and he was feted by rich and poor alike, by academicians and statesmen. Even the town of Freiburg showed that we were in solidarity with him, his folk and his cause. Now we are silent when Tibet needs us. The Olympic spirit and Machtpolitik should not be allowed to go hand in hand. We have had parallels in Berlin in 1936 and Moscow in 1980. The International Olympic Committee has made a terrible mistake in awarding Peking, at this stage of its power-politics, the privilege of staging the Olympic Games.
Come August and the Games are really staged in Beijing, this will be the unkindest cut for the people of Tibet, the peace-loving Dalai Lama, the man who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in Stockholm, lest we forget, by the western world. The Dalai Lama has been all along constantly following a pragmatic Realpolitik, for the only way to bring China to reason is through the practice of patience, far-sightedness, pragmatism and non-violence in the spirit of Gandhiji and Martin Luther King.
The Dalai Lama has been quoted as saying that China’s re-settlement policy is a “demographic aggression” and that China is a Police-State with “the rule of terror.” How are the Europeans reacting to all this? The EU Commissioner Ferrero Waldner threatened with an Olympia boycott and the EU foreign minister demanded that Peking should carry out a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. According to the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, the EU foreign ministers want to invite the Dalai Lama to Brussels. The EU parliament has already extended its invitation to the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet. China’s Jiang Yu from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs naturally protested.
Tibet and China are an unequal brotherhood sealed by fate, destiny, kismet, history. Tibet was ignored for centuries but globalisation has caught up with Peking after the Han-Chinese marched into Lhasa and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee or face imprisonment.
It can only be hoped that the Beijing government gives up the path of brutal confrontation, does a bit of soul searching and turns to the peaceful path of conflict solution through dialogue at the same eye-level, and not from above-to-below with its minorities. Since the Chinese and Tibetans (government in exile at Dharamsala) obviously are not in a position to carry out talks together, it would be better if Beijing consented to talks with UN mediators.
There is no denying that the Olympic Games are a competitive festival of sports and cultures, but how can people of different cultures celebrate when war-tanks and the Chinese Army are holding the Tibetan folk back in Lhasa, “Jhokang-market, and people in the provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, Tongren (Rebkong) in the province Qinghai? The situation is similar to 1989 when ten thausand Tibetans demonstrated against the Chinese regime.In those days Perking imposed military rule over Lhasa, and sent its People’s Army to the streets. Hundreds of monks were imprisoned, many were shot.
Today, a new generation of monks and Tibetan angry youth have grown up and are only trying to fight for their human rights, as members of Homo sapiens. Even the Dalai Lama spoke of more autonomy, mind you, within the framework of the Chinese constitution. What the Tibetans want are equal rights and freedom from the cultural domination of thousands of Han Chinese, who have been re-settled by Beijing’s policy makers with the result that the Tibetans have become a minority in their own country. This is certainly not what the Tibetans and the western world understand under ‘autonomy.’
For centuries Tibet was the ‘autonomous region’ of China. But the Tibetans have been deprived of their very autonomy with the creation of a Chinese governor. China has in the past regarded the Himalayan countries as its phalanx, and has fought fiercely against India in 1962 over the border areas. There’s a Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai atmosphere, as the two big South Asian powers vie with each other for economic and commercial gains and cooperation, as evident newly between the Indian and Chinese troops that took part in military exercises. I remember a similar military exercise at the invitation of the Indian Army. A Chinese general had been invited and the Indian Army demonstrated its fire-power. The Chinese general applauded the firepower of his neighbour, then added: “Wonderful, but can you produce this same firepower under Himalayan conditions?” And truly enough, in 1962 the Chinese troops had a better fire-power than the Indians and were no match for the thoroughly trained mountain divisions of China.
The Lingua franca of Tibet is not Tibetan now but Standard Chinese, for the Han Chinese are out to develop Tibet and its people culturally, economically, socially and psychologically after the motto: there’s no better culture than the Han culture.
In the Kindergardens and schools of Tibet most of the lessons are held in Chinese, and not Tibetan. If one speaks Tibetan, one risks losing one’s job. When the Tibetan parents speak with the teachers they are obliged to do so only in Chinese, even though they are Tibetans. If this isn’t cultural imperialism, then what is it?
Even though some athletes are showing character and personal integrity by protesting as individuals spontaneously, the majority, however, do want to take part in the Games. Like for instance the German spear-thrower Christina Obergföll who said: “The boycott would steal the chance of a lifetime.” The manager of Sabine Spitz (mountain-bike discipline) said: “The boycott will only punish the athletes.”
Beijing has to listen to the Dalai Lama and his followers in the West, and in Tibet, and take to dialogue, instead of playing the hardliner and condemning and slandering His Holiness and his ‘so-called clique.’ The former spiritual and temporal ruler of Tibet has serious and sincere intentions as far as the future of Tibet is concerned The communist politicians in Beijing have to realise that the only way to peace and stability in this former poverty-stricken country of monks, farmers and nomads is not through the use of force (Gewalt) but through well-meant consessions through dialogue, and by raising the status of the Tibetans to that of the Han-Chinese, and letting and encouraging them to develop Tibet together, and not by regarding Tibet’s wonderful culture and religion as something inferior and exotic. We can all learn from Tibet’s rich culture. Beijing has more to gain if it follows the path of peace, tolerance and Miteinander (togetherness) instead of using cheap propaganda to stage a Peking Opera with Tibetans as the culprits, which no one with a conscience, character and integrity wants to see. The scenario is well-known in the western world and no propaganda in this world can help the Chinese government in this particular issue.
The Han and other Chinese have the chance to prove to the world that they can practice social welfare and social development by giving the Tibetans the same autonomy, same status as the other Chinese. Otherwise, Beijing’s political goals remain a farce, reminiscent of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’: all animals are equal, but some are more equal than the others.
The Ocean of Wisdom (Satis Shroff)
Tenzin Gyatso, the spiritual and former
Temporal ruler of Tibet,
Came to a town in the Black Forest
And conquered the hearts of the Freiburger.
A lama in a back limousine,
Applauded by hundreds of Europeans and Asians.
You could feel the goose-pimples in your body,
Tears of joy came to your eyes.
His Holiness prays and blesses
The Tibet Kailash Haus,
A thousand Tibetan prayer flags
Flutter merrily in the wind,
Carrying the mumbled words to Himmel.
At the Freiburger Town Council
Says the lama:
‘Nations, races, social classes
Even religions are secondary.
What is important is that
We are all human beings.
Even the sun breaks through the clouds
When Tenzin Gyatso folds his hands,
Smiles from the balcony,
And throws flying kisses
To the German masses.
Even Petrus seems to be smile in Heaven.
The Ambassador of Peace
Hopes for a peaceful change,
In Tibet, the Roof of the World,
Where the economy booms
Under the control of the Chinese,
But where democracy and human rights
Are still stifled.
I remember seeing His Holiness
As a child in the foothills of the Himalayas,
As he fled across the Abode of the Snows.
Crowds thronged with snow white khadas,
To greet the Dalai Lama.
And here was I in Germany
With my humble prayers,
And there His Holiness,
Blessing us all,
The personification of the Ocean of Wisdom.
A seventy-two year old monk,
With the charisma and spontaneity of a child.
A message which said:
‘Whether you are a Christian, Buddhist or atheist,
If you have compassion for humans,
You can’t be wrong.’
What counts are the inner values
Within us:
Love, forgiveness, tolerance and self-discipline.
Religions help us to make these values even stronger.
Like the inner love and dialogue,
Between a mother and a child,.
To create a Century of Dialogue.