lotusinthemud

waterboarding: any of the bush administration want to try it?

::boing boing:

After Christopher Hitchens wrote a Slate article suggesting that waterboarding wasn't really torture, readers suggested that he try it himself. He did.

So what did it feel like? Hitchens recounts how he was lashed tightly to a sloping board, then, "on top of the hood, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose ... I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and - as you might expect - inhale in turn."

That, he says, "brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, flooded more with sheer panic than with water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal" and felt the "unbelievable relief" of being pulled upright.

The "official lie" about waterboarding, Hitchens says, is that it "simulates the feeling of drowning". In fact, "you are drowning - or rather, being drowned".

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california dreamin'

A dream well worth actualising, California and the rest of the world:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California on Thursday took a major step forward on its global warming fight by unveiling an ambitious plan for clean cars, renewable energy and stringent caps on big polluting industries. The plan, which aims to reduce pollutants by 10 percent from current levels by 2020 while driving investment in new energy technologies that will benefit the state's economy, is the most comprehensive yet by any U.S. state.

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anti dalai lama speech investigated

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is investigating a speech made by Tibet's Communist Party boss at the end of last weekend's Beijing torch relay leg in Lhasa in which he denounced the Dalai Lama.

But it was not immediately clear what the IOC, which is unlikely to resort to its ultimate sanction of withdrawing the Games from China, could do. It has said before it has "no political mandate" to instruct countries how to behave.

IOC communications director Giselle Davies said Beijing organizers (BOCOG) had been asked to provide the contents of Zhang Qingli's speech and said it "would regret very much" if media reports were accurate.

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allegation - china demolished mosque for not supporting olympics

It's just too convenient to label anyone who doesn't go along with you a terrorist. It's not just the Tibetans who are being treated this way If the chinese Government wants to drive the Uyghur people into the arms of al Qaeda this would be the way to do it:

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities in the restive far western region of Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of this August's Beijing Olympics, an exiled group said on Monday.

The mosque was in Kalpin county near Aksu city in Xinjiang's rugged southwest, the World Uyghur Congress said.

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china condemns dalai lama in tibet

By Chris Buckley

LHASA, China (Reuters) - Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of restive Tibet used the passing of the Olympic torch relay through the capital Lhasa on Saturday to defend their control and denounce the exiled Dalai Lama.

The torch procession ended under tight security below the towering Potala palace after having been run for just over two hours before a carefully-selected crowd, some three months after the region was convulsed by anti-Chinese protests.

"Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it," Tibet's hardline Communist Party boss Zhang Qingli said at a ceremony marking the end of the two-hour relay through strictly guarded streets.

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dalai lama hopes china talks will resume in july

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama hopes postponed talks between China and his envoys will resume next month, he said on Thursday, adding he supported China's desire for stability but that it must come "from the heart not the gun".

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civility can prevail between tibetans and han hinese

A couple of weeks ago, Tim Johnson wrote:

A good sign on Tibet issue

Civility can prevail between Tibetans and Han Chinese.

It didn’t seem that was possible just a few weeks ago. At university campuses across the U.S., students squared off into two distinct communities: those favoring greater independence for Tibetans and Chinese nationalists angry over anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa in mid-March.

On many campuses, tensions escalated into threats and witch hunts. The parents of one young Chinese woman at Duke University were forced to flee their home in Dalian, China, because of threats from people opposed to her daughter’s views.

But this week, there was a positive sign at Harvard University. On Monday night, a panel that included two Han Chinese and two Tibetans presided over a civil forum of 150 people.

::read more here plus interesting comments

tibetan dissident writer under cyber-attack

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Beijing-based Tibetan dissident writer who has been writing about the unrest there has come under cyber-attack to silence her, and possibly implicate her associates, her husband and activists said on Wednesday.

Hackers stole Woeser's Skype identity on Tuesday and impersonated her in instant message exchanges with her Skype contacts, apparently to trick her 170-odd contacts into revealing politically sensitive information which could then be used to trump up charges against them, Wang Lixiong told Reuters.

"It's a trap ... It's a big threat to Woeser, but it's an ever bigger threat to her friends," Wang, author of the 1990s bestseller "Yellow Peril", said by telephone.

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china: 52 buddhist nuns detained for refusing to condemn the dalai lama

Radio Free Asia, 2008-05-21-

In Tibet, Chinese authorities have cracked down again on a nunnery suspected of inculcating separatism. The move highlights the quiet but pivotal role played by Tibetan Buddhist nuns.

KATHMANDU— Chinese authorities in Tibet have raided a large nunnery in Sichuan province after its leader refused to condemn the Tibetan exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, Tibetan sources say.

Security forces are surrounding the Buruna nunnery in Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi], Sichuan province and have detained 52 of its nuns, the sources said. Security police raided the nunnery, and the 21 nuns left behind were kept inside the nunnery all day.

“They were restrained with tied hands and detained for the whole day. Then their hands were untied and they were released after being held for one day, but still they are not allowed to leave the nunnery,” one source said.

“The nunnery is surrounded. Many security officials have entered the nunnery and placed it under virtual siege.”

Buruna nunnery—destroyed in the 1959 uprising, but rebuilt in 1983 and expanded in 2000—is located on a hilltop near Kardze. Belonging to the Gelugpa sect, it usually has 89 nuns. Its leader is Tulku Phurbu Tsering, commonly called Buruna Rinpoche.

Nuns at Buruna “were forced to criticize His Holiness the Dalai Lama and their teacher, who is known as Buruna Rinpoche. He is respected and revered throughout the Kardze area. He founded both the Burunga and Lhatseg nunneries in the Kardze area,” another source said.

Another Tibetan source said Buruna Rinpoche was detained May 18 at 4 p.m., after he rejected the Chinese “patriotic education” campaign, which is aimed at stamping out suspected Tibetan separatism.

Nuns detained

“Today, Chinese officials came to our nunnery and tried to force us to condemn and sign criticisms of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and our Rinpoche, Buruna Rinpoche,” one of the nuns said on May 20.

“We refused, and 52 nuns went to Kardze town in two groups and protested, calling for the long life of Gyalwa Tenzin Gyatso [the Dalai Lama.]. They also threw protest leaflets and protested. Now, I have heard that 52 nuns who went to the protests were detained.”

“Right now, no one is being allowed in Kardze town. All shops were ordered closed. The town is full of security forces. I have only two wishes, and those are long life for Gyalwa Tenzin Gyatso and independence for Tibet.”

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meditation: the new psychotherapy

The patient sat with his eyes closed, submerged in the rhythm of his own breathing, and after a while noticed that he was thinking about his troubled relationship with his father.

"I was able to be there, present for the pain," he said, when the meditation session ended. "To just let it be what it was, without thinking it through."

The therapist nodded.

"Acceptance is what it was," he continued. "Just letting it be. Not trying to change anything."

"That's it," the therapist said. "That's it, and that's big."

This exercise in focused awareness and mental catch-and-release of emotions has become perhaps the most popular new psychotherapy technique of the past decade.

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