16th December 09 – Walk Against Warming

We went to the Walk Against Warming in Sydney last weekend and it was great.  The speeches were good & very inspiring, particularly the speech by the 12 year old girl who spoke of her fears for the future.  The kids sang a wonderful song about climate change that was the winning song of a competition held by NSW schools.

Walk Against Warming Sydney 2009

The police estimated crowd numbers to be around 15,000.  However, we arrived late & so did many others.  By the time the march had been going for 45 minutes, we stopped by the roadside to have a rest & to take photos.  We both thought the numbers had swelled to around 20,000 people.

What I found interesting was that the crowd was quiet, almost sombre.  Small pockets chanted save the planet type of slogans & Greenpeace had a group of really good drummers who made a lot of noise, but on the whole, people just walked quietly.  There was not even a hint of violence.  I have never been on such a quiet walk.  This was also the impression of friends who I spoke with after the event.

That the march was quiet was not a problem, it simply demonstrated that others felt as we do, very worried about climate change & this was reflected in the mood of so many people.

Crowd listening to Walk Against Warming speeches

People of all ages attended & I could not say any one age group dominated the crowd.  The march took us all to the Botanic Gardens which was a nice destination.  Although traffic was obstructed, most of the route left vehicles unaffected.

The NSW Conservation Foundation organised this march & they did a good job of organising & choosing a route that allowed older or not very well people to be able to participate.  There were many placards, which also showed commitment to getting the message across.  90,000 people walked against global warming in Australia last Saturday & there have been hundreds of candle-light vigils held across the country as well.

Over all it was a great experience.  We are determined to be able to honestly say that we did all we were could as individuals to stop runaway climate change.

If you have been following Copenhagen this past week you will know that things have not been going smoothly.  100,000 people did their own walk through the streets of Copenhagen.  Their walk took 6 hours or so & a group at the tail end of this very peaceful march used the opportunity of darkness to start hurling rocks through the windows of banking establishments.  Naturally there were many arrests & naturally, this is primarily what the news focused upon when they were reporting.  Most who had done the march were unaware there had been any violence.  I very much suspect the mood was much the same as Sydney’s march, until the end, that is.

The more I read about what is happening in Copenhagen, the more despondent I become.  The climate sceptics are coming out of the woodwork & posting many articles refuting climate change saying it is a natural process.  People are leaving hundreds of comments mostly hateful & suggesting that the process of Copenhagen is an attempt to turn us all into communists, to have a one world order & to give our hard-earned money to undeserving poor people the world over who are just going to rip us off.  Oh, it’s sad stuff.

There seems to be three groups: the politicians who have massive responsibility & have to juggle their economy as well as ensure they will be re-elected next time around, the NGOs who desperately want the underdeveloped countries to be given a hand because they are already feeling the effects of global warming, who are trying to save animals from starvation & extinction & who are trying to save the world’s last remaining forests & then there are the countries who will be the first to go if the oceans rise such as Tuvalu.

Outside, we have those who are waiting an average of 8 hours to get into the conference & often are unsuccessful, though they are doing a great job of keeping us all up to date with what is happening.  Then we have the outer ring of climate change sceptics all over the world using internet communication to spin their tales.

I very much hope that we humans can get it together & stop runaway climate change before it occurs.  If we don’t, it is likely that we will experience mass deaths, mass starvation, forced migration due to lack of water, war because people will want to guard their turf & will believe there will not be enough food & water to go around if they have to share.  Already, ABCs Lateline has interviewed politicians about nuclear proliferation.  Weapons, not power.

If we can all be responsible for doing as much as we can to not waste energy & resources in our own lives, this is a good start.  I personally think it is a waste of time to argue whether climate change is real or not.  95% of scientists believe that it is real & that it is happening at a much faster rate than expected.  If we are not careful, we will create our very own hell on earth.

3rd December 09 – Fortunate enough to attend teachings given by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

I have just spent 2 days listening to teachings on Nagarjuna’s Commentary on Bodhichitta given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Needless to say the teachings were wonderful & I am very pleased I went.  Just over 5,000 people attended & a show of hands at the end of day 2, indicated that around 90% of the audience identified as Buddhists.

His Holiness Dalai Lama seated under the Jade Buddha

On the stage was the famous Jade Buddha, which I had not yet seen despite having been on an extended tour around Australia.  What a beautiful Buddha it is.  Apparently, the Jade Buddha is sculpted from a single piece of Jade.  When His Holiness first entered the stage, he stood on his throne & looked upwards towards the Jade Buddha.  He was dwarfed by the sheer size of the Jade Buddha.  No wonder everyone I speak to is excited about it.  I believe it will be considered one of the most beautiful statues in the world.

Day 2 started a little late because His Holiness was meeting with a 200 strong delegation of Chinese people.  No one minded & I think, like myself, they were pleased to know that peaceful meetings with the Chinese & the Dalai Lama had happened.  It gave hope for the future of Tibet & for the Tibetan people.

At the lunch break on day 2 we walked out of the Entertainment Centre to see an area cordoned off with red ribbon material.  Inside this space stood around 50 demonstrators of Chinese origin wearing red t-shirts & waving red Chinese flags.  They delivered some speeches denouncing the Dalai Lama & started shouting at the onlookers who shouted “Free Tibet” back at them.

A couple of things about this group of demonstrators surprised me.  They were angry.  Very angry.  Also, around 10 of the protesters came close to the perimeter to film the small crowd who had wandered over to see what the fuss was about.

I can understand filming the activity & there certainly appeared to be news reporters filming the event, but I was surprised to see the protesters moving close & filming those who were watching.  This is the first time I have seen this happen.  I guess this is ‘intelligence’ to be poured over & scrutinised later.  Looking for what, who knows.

While His Holiness made the news, this demonstration did not.  Inside the auditorium we were learning about compassion, tolerance & forgiveness & outside we were greeted with hatred.  I found this sad.

Tight security meant there was a km long line-up to get into the teachings

I carried my camera for day 1 & left it at home for day 2.  As is always the case, the day I left my camera at home was the day when there were interesting things to take photos of, so unfortunately, no photo of the demonstration.

At the end of the lunch break I came across some young Tibetan girls dressed in traditional dress.  One particular girl was obviously excited.  She ran on the spot for a few seconds all the while laughing.  Then she realised I was watching her & she broke into a huge grin.

When we were seated this young girl & about 30 other Tibetans walked past where I was seated & towards the stage.  Before the teachings commenced, these Tibetan people sang & danced for His Holiness.  Oh, I thought, this is why she was so excited & nervous.

I found the dancing very touching & found myself tearing up.  We could see the dancers on the big TV screens, but they were out of our sight because they were dancing on the floor below the stage.  They were dancing for His Holiness, not for us.  For just a moment, it was easy for me to realize how disconnected one feels in a forced Diaspora.  Here was their beloved Dalai Lama & they were dancing & singing him home into their hearts & showing them they still remembered how to dance the traditional dances & sing the traditional songs even from the bottom of this world so far away from Tibet.

May His Holiness the Dalai Lama continue to have good health & have a long life.  May he live in safety for the remainder of his life.  May the people of Tibet gain freedom soon.  May the 14th Dalai Lama be able to return to Tibet.  May peace reign in Tibet.

25th November 09 – Twitter #gadhimai page crashes

An e-mail arrived this morning containing eye-witness descriptions from very brave animal welfare workers & other observers who are currently present at Gadhimai Festival.  It makes for heart-wrenching reading.  It’s not a long e-mail, but it’s truthful.  I am sure they wrote far less than what they could have written.  I want to give people a choice whether they read this or not so I have made a page called ‘What happens at Gadhimai?’  The link is on the left hand column of this site.  If you click on the words, it will open the page for you.

Thank you to those people who have gone to witness & report on Gadhimai.  I respect you immensely for doing this.  You have enormous bravery.

Now some good news on this very black day – the Twitter hashtag page #gadhimai crashed last night very soon after the news was released that the Gadhimai Festival had started.  This tells me there is significant world-wide concern about this issue as even Twitter couldn’t cope with the number of tweets pouring in.

While I was watching the tweets come in I saw an account called  @StopGadhimai  The Bio of @StopGadhimai states they are – “Dedicated to stopping live animal sacrifice at Gadhimai Jatra Festival in Nepal where 500,000 animals are sacrificed over a 2 day period.” It’s easy to see their intention.  A lot of  ‘followers’ will not only send a message to the Nepal Government as well as to any media which are interested in the subject that many people world-wide oppose animal sacrifice at the Gadhimai Festival, but it will also keep awareness of the issue alive.

For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter, it is a free service that in my experience has no catches.  You are not bombarded with e-mails or spam for instance, nor do they want money after a while.  Twitter is not just for young people tweeting on about celebrities or what they just had to eat.  Most organisations & NGOs have a Twitter account & social networking has real validity.  Even the Australian Prime Minister has a Twitter account, as do many politicians.

If enough people tweeted about Gadhimai, it could become one of Twitter’s ‘trending topics’ & knowledge about Gadhimai could spread like a virus around the world.  Powerful stuff & a very easy way to have big impact as an ‘armchair activist.’

I am going to follow @StopGadhimai and I ask that you do so as well & help spread the word.

If you have a Twitter account you know how to find them.  If you don’t, a google search of  – Twitter @StopGadhimai will bring them up.

This morning I sent an e-mail to Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal. info@opmcm.gov.np I will write to him or his successor every week until he & his government bans animal sacrifice at Gadhimai Festival & hopefully, animal sacrifice in Nepal. That will be a total of 260 e-mails until the next Gadhimai Festival is due to occur.  If 10 people sent a weekly e-mail, Nepal’s Prime Minister would receive 2,600 e-mails a year about Gadhimai.  You see where I am going?

The Government of Nepal expects a public outcry in the lead up to Gadhimai, but I imagine they also expect interest to die down after the festival is over. Let’s make the topic an itchy boil that never quite goes away.  Collectively we have the power to change things for the better.  However, there needs to be enough of us involved to create this change.

Finally, I am not trying to take over the wonderful work about Gadhimai done by the animal welfare organisations in Nepal & elsewhere.  I hope these kinds of actions actually support them.  KD

 

 

 

 

 

 

24th November 09 – Nepal’s Gadhimai blood-bath is beginning soon (ever hopeful) HAS BEGUN

I feel so sad at the moment.  Since I found out about the Gadhimai Festival haven’t really been able to forget about it.  (see post dated 3^rd November) monitored the internet news, hoping the wonderful work of Animal Welfare Network Nepal & the Anti-Animal Sacrifice Alliance would bear fruit, but no, this monstrous event is going ahead.

The Prime Minister of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal, his Government & organizing committee chairman Shiva Chandra Kushwaha have ignored pleas from around the world begging them to stop the animal sacrifice.  Gadhimai’s Chief priest Mangal Chaudhary  said, “This age-old tradition would not be stopped at any cost.”  They can’t believe in karma.

Please feel compassion for the five hundred thousand animals (500,000) that will be sacrificed over the next 2 days, including 20,000 Buffalos.  Please hold them in your thoughts & prayers.

Their death will not in any way humane.  They are not ‘put to sleep’ like in the west, nor are they stunned unconscious.  250 drunk men will kill them.  They will do this by stabbing them & slitting their throat amongst other things which I can’t bear to write about.

Because the men are very intoxicated, they often don’t do a good job.  With what little I can bring myself to read, I understand that the devotees believe the longer it takes the animal to die, the happier the goddess is.

The noise of screaming, bellowing animals must be unbearable.   Not just the animals being sacrificed, but also those animals who can see & smell it & know they are next.  The psychic atmosphere must be thick with terror.

Apparently the ground is so saturated with blood that people have to move away from the district for months because of the stench of death.

I applaud the Animal Welfare Network Nepal, the Anti-Animal Sacrifice Alliance, Animal Nepal, Brigitte Bardot  & every other organisation & person who has tried to stop this animal sacrifice.    I applaud Jagdish Aarohi who wrote an eye-witness account & has worked to stop Gadhimai ever since.  Please read his eye-witness account which was published in Republica below.  Poor fellow just went to take some cultural photographs.  Little did he know he was walking into a hell-realm on Earth!  Working in the field as such is far different & intense than for me writing in my lounge room.

Gadhimai Festival happens every 5 years.  The goddess must have realised human beings would probably kick up a stink if it were happening yearly so she ordered just enough time for people to forget about it before they were required to do it again.  I feel sick to my core that human beings do such cruelty in the name of religion.

I described in an earlier post how learning about Gadhimai was a turning point in my life.  Now I feel my life has changed completely.  I will spend the next 5 years (or until Gadhimai animal sacrifice is banned) telling as many people as I am able about the Gadhimai Festival & encouraging them to support the organisations working to stop Gadhimai & animal sacrifice in Nepal.  I will do this with my speech, with my pen and with my keyboard. The internet is an amazing tool for disseminating information & I am often surprised just how far my words travel.

Please join the Animal Welfare Network Nepal , Animal Nepal& the Anti-Animal Sacrifice Alliance.  Support them in whatever way you can. Support all the poor animals that have lost their life in such a horrendous manner in this & past Gadhimai Festivals by speaking up about this barbaric practice & don’t shut up about it.  If it’s the people of Nepal’s right to sacrifice half a million animals using particularly cruel techniques, then it is our right to talk about it.

If you tell everyone you know about Gadhimai Festival & the brutal sacrifice of 500,000 animals, knowledge about Gadhimai can spread like a virus around the world.  Use Twitter & blogs to spread the word as well. Most people really care about animals & will be horrified when they realise what is happening in a country most people think of as ‘peaceful.’ They will want to support the organisations which are working on the front line in Nepal to help innocent animals.  There is much power in being an ‘armchair activist.’  You have the ability to enormous good.

Consider other ways in which you can motivate the Nepal Government to ban animal sacrifice, not just at Gadhimai Festival, but throughout the whole country.  They banned the very popular Widow Burning so we know they do respond to reason & public outcry when significant enough.

I know we don’t want to be thinking about this subject.  It’s horrible.  It’s painful.  But animal sacrifice must be stopped.  The animals need your attention.  They desperately need your help.  They need you to speak up for them.  They need you to fight for them.  How much they rely on you to help them cannot be conveyed in words.  This can be your practice of compassion.

Make the death of the animals which were sacrificed, their unspeakable pain & enormous terror they felt leading up to & being killed worth it by doing what you can to prevent it happening again.  The animal sacrifice at Gadhimai must never happen again.

A few contacts which I will add to my blogroll.

Animal Nepal - http://animalnepal.org/

Animal Welfare Network Nepal –  awnnepal.blogspot.com & http://gadimai.blogspot.com/

Anti-Animal Sacrifice Alliance -

Office of the Prime Minister of Nepal - http://www.opmcm.gov.np

Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal - email: mailto:info@opmcm.gov.np

21st November 09 – Eye witness account

I want to share an article written by Jagdish Aarohi - jagdishaa@gmail.com & published on 21^st November 09 in Repubica, a web-site reporting news in Nepal who has the bi-line - in pursuit of truth.

There is nothing more powerful than the words of someone who has been there, witnessed something. Far better than the words of myself who makes loud noise from far away.

Beastly instincts written by JAGDISH AAROHI

Twenty years ago, I first visited Gadhimai Jatra, a festival that is held every five years in my native Bara district. I was interested in photography and wanted to take some good pictures of Nepal’s indigenous culture. I did not fulfill my mission. Instead, I became a tireless campaigner for the abolishment of animal sacrifice.

I was not born a campaigner. I was born in Kalaiya, headquarters of Bara, in a vegetarian, quiet, middle-class farming family. I mainly worked as a farmer but enjoyed doing a little bit of social work in my free time. I never thought I would be the one to carry placards and distribute leaflet to devotees at the world’s largest killing fields of sacrificial beasts.

Three to four days after the massacre, people start fleeing the Gadhimai venue because of the nauseating smell that starts to emit.

The first thing I witnessed at Gadhimai was the killing of five different kinds of animals as in panchabali: Buffaloes, goats, pigs, roosters and rats. The animals’ throats are slit with a knife. It is not done quickly. The animals die a slow and extremely cruel, violent death while the priests sprinkle the blood across the image of the deity and its surroundings. Legend has it that the longer it takes for the animal to die, the happier the goddess will be.

The whole affair stunned and nauseated me. I never knew that such kind of cruelty existed. But the worst was yet to come. Right after the completion of panchabali sacrifice comes the buffaloes’ turn. Drunken slaughterers—they are made to drink as a sane person cannot do such a task—enter the fenced yard where around 20,000 buffaloes are kept. Wielding swords, axe and khukuris, the men start randomly hacking the buffaloes’ necks.

The sword-bearers cannot chop off the buffaloes´ heads at one go because of the thick size of its necks. To make their task easier, the hackers first cut the buffaloes’ hind legs after which the animal falls on the ground. They then start hacking the neck until the head is separated from the body. It takes 20 to 25 swing of the sword to annihilate a big buffalo. The suffering the animals go through is unimaginable.

After witnessing the Gadhimai carnage, I started having terrible nightmares. I would see blood wherever I turned to look.

After I regained my senses, I vowed to campaign against such killings at all cost. Come what may, I would not give up. True to my vow, I have been campaigning and voluntarily working to improve the conditions of animals for the past 15 years.

If the Gadhimai organizers have their way, one can encounter the horrendous scenes on November 24 and 25. This time, the organizers want to set a world record by killing half a million animals. The unfortunate animals will include 20,000 buffaloes, goats, pigs, chickens, ducks and pigeons as well as mice and rats. According to the rules of the Gadhimai festival, all creatures that are brought here must be killed within two days.

The last Gadhimai festival held in 2004 saw 20,000 buffaloes sacrificed. Interestingly, the Gadhimai committee keeps the record of the number of sacrificial buffaloes because the devotees have to pay to get their animals beheaded. This year, the committee expects this number to cross the 25,000 mark. The committee, however, does not keep records of other animals or birds because of the sheer overwhelming numbers.

No sane person can endure such barbaric killings. But that is not all. Three to four days after the massacre, people start fleeing the Gadhimai venue because of the nauseating smell that starts to emit. Cars, rickshaws and cyclist start taking alternative routes. It is the people living in nearby localities who suffer the most. While the temple area turns into a breeding ground for disease, many fall sick. It takes months for the smell to go away.

I think there is hardly any other country that can be compared with Nepal when it comes to gruesome killings and bloodshed of animals. The extreme cruelty has been going on unabated. There are many other smaller-scale festivals like Gadhimai where panchabali and mass sacrifice is practiced. These are not even reported in the media.

The government’s apathy towards activists’ repeated pleas to stop animal sacrifice comes at a time when Nepal faces outbreak of diseases like swine and bird flu. Only recently, tens of thousands of chickens and ducks were culled in eastern Nepal because of bird flu. What’s more, Gadhimai’s gathering of over two million people itself can invite looming pandemics. Considering the lack of public health and sanitation facilities at the venue, a national calamity could be imminent.

Why is the civil society keeping mum about the issue? Where are the role models who stop animal sacrifice in their own family, clan or neighborhood? Should we let our leaders get away by letting them say: ‘Gadhimai is too sensitive an issue to address’?

Animals cannot speak for themselves. Until now, it has been the priests speaking for them: Bring more, kill more animals. Few seem to realize that the Gadhimai organizers plan to raise millions through tenders and beheading fees. Animal sacrifice is a big business. For how long will we remain mute and let this inhuman killings in the name of religion continue?

To read the original on Republica, click on the following link -

http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=12011

4th November – Worth reading

Great article from The Times of India – The Burden of Being Dalai Lama

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/The-burden-of-being-Dalai-Lama/articleshow/5183939.cms

3rd November 09 – Nepal’s Gadhimai Festival: a bloodbath of cruelty

Stupid, stupid naïve me!  I did not know that animal sacrifice still happened in this day & age.  Well it does and it happens in Nepal.  This barbaric & horrific practice goes under the auspices of ‘religion’ & ‘tradition.’ It is called the Gadhimai Festival & is held every 5 years. It will happen this year on 24^th -25^th November 2009.

This is what happens at the Gadhimai Jatra festival:

• Around 700,000 people,
• more than half of them from bordering Indian states like Bihar & Uttar Pradesh, travel to the the Gadhimai Temple.

• The organizers plan to sacrifice 500,000 animals, including 20,000 buffaloes.

• According to the rules of the festival, all animals must be killed in the first 2 days.
• innocent creatures are killed en masse in an unorganized & unregulated manner.
• The buffaloes are killed by drunken devotees who enter the temple area with khukuri knives to cut off the heads of the terrified animals.

You can just imagine the stench of death.  There will be screaming, bellowing animals, fecal matter & urine everywhere & of course, blood.  Lots of it.  Rivers of blood.

Having smelt a legitimate, legal abattoir from a distance of a kilometer away, I know that death has a smell.  It sends other animals wild with fear.  Imagine those animals corralled within the temple grounds.  Imagine their terror.

Do women participate?  Do they still love & respect their husbands, uncles, grandfathers, brothers & sons when they return?

This barbaric act has been happening for centuries. ‘The Nelapese government has provided 4.5 million rupees (US$ 60,000) to Gadhimai for so called disease control because they are worried the unhygienic practices of slaughter & animal sacrifice will spread disease amongst humans & other animals.  This is nothing more than blood money & sanctions this sport dressed as religion.

Nepal’s Director General Dr Prabhakar Pathap of the Department of Livestock Services said during a press conference on 1^st November 09 at the  Reporters’ Club that he does not have the mandate to address the issue of Gadhimai but, frankly admitted that the festival is a major cause for health concerns.

He said, “In 1994, Gadhimai brought Goat Plague or Pest des Petite Ruminants PPR to the country. The government invested already one crore rupees to try to fight this disease.  In fact, China has asked the Nepal government to address the problem as the disease can easily travel to neighbouring countries.”

He said further that there is only 1 quarantaine office in Bara district & not a single animal traveling to Gadhimai passes through this office.

“The border is porous & we would need major resources to make sure no sick animal ends up in Bara.”  Yet they have enough ‘resources’ to stop Tibetan refugees from crossing the border from Tibet!

Two organisations, the Stop Animal Sacrifice Alliance & Animal Welfare Network Nepal have joined with other Nepalese animal rights campaigners & submitted a petition with nearly 3,000  signatures to the Nepalese President, Prime Minister & Deputy Prime Minister, as well as the Minister of Agriculture.

They are calling for an end to the extreme cruelty taking place at the the Gadhimai Festival, the world’s largest animal sacrifice.

Nepal has abolished a number of ‘traditions’ in the past, including human sacrifice & widow burning.  It is time they stopped this heinous ‘tradition’ as well.  They need to do it this year, 2009.

In a country where they are familiar with the concept of  karma, it is unbelievable this gross activity is going on.  It’s like play-time for the psychopaths.  There is no justification whatsoever for the Gadhimai Festival & to call it a festival is obscene.

Most people can remember a turning point where their life changed. This is one such turning point for me. I will join my voice to the many who are working to stop this intensely cruel, evil & barbaric practice as much as I can until it is stopped.

Animal Welfare Network Nepal together with Anti-sacrifice Alliance have a petition addressed to the Ministers of Tourism, Agriculture, Peace & Law & Justice.  One voice, your voice does count.  You can make an impact by doing this simple action.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-gadimai/sign.html#se

For more information about the festival go to http://animalnepal.org/campaigns_wwc.htm

May all beings be happy & this includes the animals. May we be successful, not only for the benefit of the poor, poor animals, but also for the benefit of those human beings who organize & participate & enable in some way. They deserve our pity & our compassion because they are so misguided & they have lost their humanity.

26th October 09 – Mega-pollution in China

I just found an absolutely amazing series of photos on a web-site called China Hush.  The photos were taken by Lu Guang, a freelance photographer from People’s Republic of China. Lu Guang says he concentrates on documentary photography & often photographs “social phenomena & people living at the bottom of society.”

On 14^th October 2009, he deservedly won the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his documentary project “Pollution in China.”

Photo by Lu Guang of sewerage in the once mighty Yangtse River. How can a Government allow this to happen?

His photographs tell so much more than what can ever be done with words. They show beyond a doubt the high cost of rapid industrialization on the environment as well as the suffering of those people who are unfortunate enough to live in such an environment.  The photos also serve as a warning to the rest of us who do not live in China as they show us what can happen to our environment if we follow the same path of ‘growth at all costs.’

Many of Lu Guang’s photographs are of the Yangtse River which originates from glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau & is the third longest river in the world. It travels almost 4,000 miles to the ocean at Shanghai & provides drinking water for one third of the population of China.  After you see these photographs, you will wonder how.

Here is the link.  It is highly recommended.  http://ow.ly/wtA2

22nd October 09 – China wants the town of Tawang in India for its own

May Tibet be free!

I have just read a concise article about the history of the invasion of Tibet by China in 1958.  The article also explains why China has been so aggressive about the town of Tawang in the Indian state of  Arunachal Pradesh.

The article Why the Chinese are so upset about  Tawang was written by Claude Arpi & I found it on Phayul.com  I highly recommend you read this article.  http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=25780

15th October 09 – Climate change is turning off Asia’s water supply

Today is Blog Action Day.www.blogactionday.org. I registered, which means I undertook to post something about climate change.  More than 7,000 other bloggers are posting on this subject today, indicating strong grass-roots concern about this issue.

I am passionate about climate change.  Because I am also interested in Tibetan politics & human rights issues in this region, I have also become aware of the major issues surrounding climate change in Tibet.  Tibet is called Asia’s Water Tower for the reason that it is the source of 7 major rivers from Pakistan, India & across to South East Asia.  The following rivers are sourced from Tibet: the Yellow River (which is so polluted, it is undrinkable), the Yangtse River, the Mekong, the Salween River, the Brahmaputra River, the Ganges & the Indus River.

Billions of people depend on these rivers as they currently provide water for 47% of the world’s population.  Should these great rivers dry up completely, many of these people will become environmental refugees joining the 20 million already in the world today.  Human beings can live without oil (petrol), but they can’t live without water, so there is a likelihood of war developing over this vital commodity.  Building desalination plants may remedy some of the problem, but our world’s oceans are becoming acidic & scientists have estimated they will be so acidic within 10 years that crustaceans will have trouble surviving because their shells will be dissolving.  Can we drink water like this?

Scientists have stated recently that 70% of the earth’s surface will be desert by 2025 due to loss of water & prolonged drought.  The Tibetan nomads are recognising that there is more desertification in the Tibetan Plateau.  Crops are now hard to grow, as the dirt has become sandy & dry.  Traditional grasslands are producing much less grass & with a lesser nutritional value.  Their grazing animals are having trouble finding sufficient food & where they had calves every year, they now only have one every few years.  Before long the remaining topsoil may blow away into the sea or to other countries below, just like the topsoil from the Northern Territory in Australia blew half way to New Zealand last month in a storm.

Like the world’s underground water tables that are increasingly running low or dry, the permafrost of Tibet is melting.  The permafrost contains so much water.  The thought that it will disappear has frightening consequences.  The glaciers of Tibet are also disappearing at an alarming rate.  They are joining other glaciers in the world that are retreating so fast that time release photography is able to record this.  While other glaciers are retreating, the glaciers of Tibet are not only retreating, they have stopped producing at the source of the glacier.  Of 612 glaciers in Tibet 95% of them are retreating.  This region is actually running out of water.  What this means is the source of water for most of Asia is being turned off.

To understand the impact of rivers that have their source in Tibet, I researched one river, the Yangtze.  The Yangtze River rises in the mountains of Tibet & flows 6,300km finally arriving at Shanghai & exiting China at the East China Sea. This one river provides 40% of China’s freshwater supply, more than 70% of the country’s rice production, 50% of its grain production, more than 70% fishery production, and 40% of the China’s GDP. (Source: Claudia Delpero, Communications Manager with WWF’s European Policy Office)  To lose just this one river will have a catastrophic impact.

I believe we need to educate ourselves about climate change.  If the scientists are correct, our world & way of life is going to change dramatically in as little as one generation.  Weather related catastrophes, such as what has happened recently in South East Asia & in the Pacific, will occur more frequently. There will be loss of life of many humans, extinction or near extinction of many more animals, insects, plants & sea creatures.  Suffering will be exacerbated. We can’t sit back & do nothing.  If we do, we will have to bare the consequences of choosing to do nothing while we had the chance.  This is not the time to be like an ostrich & put your head in the sand.

Atmospheric Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are currently at 350.84 parts per million.  350 ppm is regarded as the upper level we should aim to return to. Scientists think if we carry on with what we are doing, CO2 levels will keep rising & when they reach 430-480ppm, the planet will tip into climate crisis.  This is a dire situation for living beings if this is allowed to happen.

On the 24^th October 09, next weekend, there will be global action by ordinary people aimed at convincing our leaders to stop delaying about climate change.  In December this year the world’s leaders will meet at Copenhagen to discuss & hopefully reach an agreement on atmospheric CO2 levels as well as agree on methods & interventions to deal with it.  You can participate in this community global action by going to www.350.org.  Once at the site, you can read more of the science, which they have made very reader friendly.  You can look at the global actions happening in countries across the world & choose 1 or 2 in your area to participate in on October 24^th.  Some of them can be done from the comfort of your home.  Others are actions on the streets & beaches.  All are peaceful.

Lastly, a web-site I recommend is China Green – Centre on US-China relations. They have a very good 10 minute video titled Tibetan Plateau in Peril which will allow you to get a good understanding & see the areas talked about for yourself. They also have a number of other short videos if you want to explore the issue further.  http://sites.asiasociety.org/chinagreen/origins-of-rivers-omens-of-a-crisis/

I hope humans can stop climate related crisis, but all of us need to take action now & in every area of our life.  May all beings be happy.