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Progressive News & Views (since 1982)
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AP and Reuters assist in sacrilege
News readers should be on the alert for Beijing, AP, and Reuters "pulling a
big sham"
as Communist propaganda crosses the newswires
By John Kusumi
The meaning of words will be at issue today. Newswires are demonstrating
that they form an axis with the Communist masters of Beijing, China, and
they are trying to pull a big one over on you. You, me, and everyone are
confronted by an enormous fraud and deception today.
The Roman Catholic church has the Pope. No newswire is questioning whether
or not Joseph Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI. He is that.
Tibetan Buddhism has the Panchen Lama. No newswire should be questioning
whether or not Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is Panchen Lama XI. He is that.
The arrogance of journalism comes to the fore when some newswires arrogate
to themselves the decision making authority over who is a figure in Tibetan
Buddhism. The correct arbiter of same should be the Dalai Lama, not
Christopher Bodeen of the Associated Press. By the Dalai Lama, we already
know that Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is the eleventh Panchen Lama.
Today, I have read an article by Bodeen, and I want him to take that back
and apologize. More broadly, I want the AP and Reuters to issue retractions
and apologies from both newswires. The Tibetan people are the ones who are
the most directly violated by this state of affairs, but I am an American
and non-Buddhist, and I want an apology, personally!
Upon explanation, I feel that many of my fellow news readers will agree that
what is at hand is profoundly foul and offensive. They need not be
Buddhists. Simple, ordinary people with respect will understand that
religions are sacred things and should be inviolate. AP and Reuters have
crossed a line into sacrilege.
Some of my readers will need no explanation. There are hundreds of groups in
the cause to 'Free Tibet,' and they know well about the situation at hand.
AP and Reuters will also be getting howls of protest from such people as
Students for a Free Tibet; the International Tibet Support Network; the
Tibetan Youth Congress; International Tibet Independence Movement; the US
Tibet Committee; the Rangzen Alliance; Friends of Tibet; and the
International Campaign for Tibet.
Since 1995, it is true (as reported by the China Support Network and many
other sources) that "The Panchen Lama has become known as the world's
youngest political prisoner." He was abducted at the age of six, and is an
international celebrity for two reasons first, because the Panchen Lama is
a major figure in Tibet's Buddhist religion; and second, because Beijing
abducted him and an international campaign for his release continues to
scream his name and banner his picture.
However, Beijing rejects both the Dalai Lama and his choice of the boy for
Panchen Lama. No one in Beijing has the authority to choose a Panchen Lama,
but they have gone ahead and selected their own boy so that they can
"install" their own, pro-Beijing person to be a regime-friendly, pro-Beijing
person.
To kidnap the Panchen Lama was bad enough; per the China Support Network (in
an article of 2004), that was "a display of the brazen rape of another
people." I wrote then that "Brazen is one word. Flagrant, heinous, and
sacrilegious are three more words....his case clearly points out the
diabolical nature of China's Communist regime, as it readily violates not
just an individual, but a religious figure, and thereby the entire society
that cares about the Panchen Lama. Violated and raped are two more words,
and Tibet can understandably feel that way."
So, if the kidnapping was bad enough, then words begin to fail now, as we
consider (a.) the arrogated selection, by Beijing, of a Panchen Lama
impostor; and (b.) the fact that AP and Reuters today are reporting the
impostor as if he is actually the Panchen Lama. I believe clearly that this
is sacrilege, and that this is foul, faulty, and false reporting that serves
only to move along Communist propaganda, while a crime against humanity is
committed. Again, I am not Tibetan, and I am not Buddhist, but I can see a
religion being violated, and I can see journalists arrogating to themselves
something akin to the selection of the Pope.
What if it crossed the news wire that Jacques Chirac does not like the
selection of Joseph Ratzinger, and that Chirac appoints Pierre Z'Bumpkin to
be the Pope? Well, the world knows how Popes are selected, and that it
occurs in a conclave of Cardinals. So the world should be able to laugh or
to shrug off any such impertinency as in the example above.
Right now, the AP and Reuters are hoping that the world is ignorant of how
Panchen Lamas are selected. They hope that no one has ever heard of the
Dalai Lama. The only problem for the AP and Reuters is that we are not that
ignorant. History did not begin yesterday, nor did we fall off of a lemon
truck yesterday. (Boy, don't journalists wish? In my lifetime, journalism
has gone from "the first draft of history" to "the fictionalization of
history.")
Reuters began its article by saying, "Tibet's 11th Panchen Lama, anointed by
China's atheist Communists but not by the Tibet's Dalai Lama, took center
stage at the World Buddhist Forum on Thursday, defending China's record on
religion." (Hmmm. Why would China's record on religion need defending, if
Beijing were not offending?)
Reuters continued, "Gyaltsen Norbu, appointed in 1995 as the Himalayan
region's second most important religious figure after Beijing rejected the
Dalai Lama's nominee...." (Hmmm. Recall from above that the Panchen Lama is
named Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. The impostor, Gyaltsen Norbu, is being named
here. This is enough to make one wonder about Pierre Z'Bumpkin, posited
fictionally above as a suggestion for Pope. Do you suppose that AP and
Reuters can fill us in about him, too?)
The AP is in on this scam, too. Look at this quote from AP: "Gyaltsen Norbu,
16, is the second-highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism." AP described this
appearance as "an apparent sign that Beijing is seeking greater acceptance
for its choice of the Panchen Lama." However, we know from earlier that
Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was previously reported to be the Panchen Lama. Whether
the newswires agree this is sacrilege or not, a vast violation of estoppel
it certainly is.
A vast violation of estoppel is a change of story; a reversal; an
inconsistency. The AP did the same in 1989, when it reduced the casualty
figures from the Tiananmen Square massacre. (Newswires earlier reported
3,000 dead; they later said "hundreds" dead, and CSN believes that change
occurred at the behest of the propaganda minister in Beijing.) Beijing
cannot make the China Support Network say what it wants, nor report
Beijing's one-sided version of history. But apparently, Beijing can get the
AP and Reuters to bend over backwards, and into a pretzel shape, in the
course of their pandering, brown nosing, and general selling out to the
Chinese Communist Party.
The AP went so far as to refer to "That other boy, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima,"
taking note of the dispute. AP also said, "A spokesman for the Dalai Lama on
Thursday again rejected Beijing's right to make the final decision on
reincarnations. 'Reincarnation is a religious belief and it cannot be
decided by an administrative office,' Thubten Samphel said by telephone from
the Tibetan government-in-exile's headquarters in the northern Indian town
of Dharmsala." This means that the AP is openly admitting that "their man"
is an impostor, but they are reporting this story "the Beijing way," even
without authority from the Dalai Lama. One might think they could at least
have the decency to refer to the "Chinese Panchen Lama" as distinct from the
"Tibetan Panchen Lama," and perhaps "Chinese Buddhism" as distinct from
"Tibetan Buddhism." The rightful authority for Tibet and its Buddhism is the
Dalai Lama, and the AP and Reuters stories again mix and blur the distinct
concepts of Chinese versus Tibetan.
It's ugly, it's disgusting, it's slanderous, and it assists Beijing in
committing a crime against humanity. To any thinking intellectual, it is
obvious propagandizing, and it is offensive to be assaulted with Communist
propaganda while we Americans are merely sitting in our living rooms. Shame
on these two newswires! And, they should pull, retract, correct, or
apologize for these "Panchen Lama" stories today.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published April 13, 2006 by the China Support Network (CSN). Begun as the
American response group in 1989, CSN represents Americans who are "on the
side" of the students in Tiananmen Square -- standing for democratic reform,
human rights, and freedom in China. For dissident news; to support a
stronger China policy; or get more information, see
http://www.chinasupport.net.
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