Fuck China Olympic Games... Free Tibet

Yesterday, 07.08.2008, the Olympic Games started in China... yesterday Tibetans and supporters lighten up candles in pacific protest all around the world.

So we did, we went and manifest ourselves in Mcleod Ganj with many other Tibetans and supporters.
Everything went smooth with a couple of speeches about the current situation and the Olympics from Tibetan representatives perspective, the national anthem (which was quite powerful) and a film about the march to Tibet realized early this year.
As more knowledge I get from the Tibetan issue, and believe me, I can be quite impartial in this political issues with my biologist view, more I see the injustice and the repression of a people that deserves much more and can actually be an example for the humankind.

At most, the Tibetan issue is a terrorism act against the evolution of human civilization based on non-violence behaviour.
Anyway… for sure I will not watch or participate in any event related with the Olympic Games.

Free Tibet !!!

Tashi Delek

Crows, Slugs and a River of Trash

Plastic bottles, metal cans, plastic bags, boxes, rests of food, wasted clothes… anything goes directly to the ground or to the river, as if it would be a natural process of recycling (maybe related with some analogy with Buddhism which I’m still trying to understand). But guess what, the things don’t go anywhere. At most they flow a couple of meters down the river to gather maybe for eternity (depending on degradability times) in some nice small pond. There they all show their beautiful colours for a while, as if we would be talking about Tibetan preying flags. The problem is that the colours don’t last so long, and the impacts on the river streams, soils, and anywhere else are immense, from visual to permanent contamination of waters, from smelly to poisoning to the native animals.

There’s not such a thing as garbage disposal facilities, collecting or waste treatment… or anything at all regarding waste care. I think they burn or bury some stuff sometimes.

Considering life priorities, well-being, and surviving instincts, of course I’m not naïf to the point that I would thing that people that are so worried about surviving every single day, would be worried about environmental issues… but at the same time, aren’t those behaviours becoming real life-threatening and worth about?

Contaminated water = diarrhoea, cholera, giardia, parasites
Contaminated soil = plant diseases, non-fertile soils, human contact diseases
Plastic waste = pets, cows, wild life eats them and get serious health problems or death

Etc, etc, etc, …

I guess I feel disappointed from the fact that I see Buddhism (and I’m not a follower) as something related with every single day life of Nature as a whole and I would expect that people that preach all along this religion would see and be concerned about this SHIT.
Maybe it’s just a different cultural issue… which can also be used as an excuse for many problems that occur in our days all around the globe, and affects every single living being. :)

Anyway, there is a small environmental centre which I think has some action around here… small but maybe a good way to start!

For sure this region, along with many others in India require an environmental action… otherwise it will not last longer.

Teachings by the Dalai Lama

This last days the Dalai Lama has been giving some teachings to any interested person that is around McLeod Ganj (Dharamsala).
A lot of believers and curious are attending the teachings, from tibetean monks, hindus, tourists, etc.
Beeing an atheist, but also a curious about budhist philosophies it was interesting to be in the first day and listen to his teachings. Even though, listening to translations in a FM radio, with lots of delay and a bit repetitive, may be a bit too much for my impatient mind :)
Many of the teachings were about existence, consciousness, birth, life and death, and what budhism and some scriptures would have to say about it, relating also with some other main religions.
It was nice for the experience, but I guess a bit to heavy for most of the lay people that attended the lectures. So in the afternoon I decided to go experiment a bit of Yoga. Nice to keep the body also in place.

No photos of the Dalai Lama, of course, since the security was strong... maybe one of this days when we both go for a dinner together :) ... but there is a photo of a himalayan monkey :)

Tashi Delek

... and here I go back to my dissertation writings :)