Beyond Money
The hole was too deep; these words
couldn't fill it. But there they remain, floating on the regret, vibrant with
the possibility of a different kind of world. We've always been in the process
of building that world, but the process has lacked a central cohesion... a god,
if you will, to bless it and keep it. Antonis Perris, an unemployed musician
from Athens, found himself at age 60 living in a world where the love of his
community didn't matter and probably wasn't even noticeable: He had lost his
means to earn a living. Until Europe's economic crisis hit, he had sustained himself and his elderly mother
performing at local taverns. He had done well. Then business dried up. Finally,
he reached a point where he saw no way to keep on living. The brief story of
his death last May one more "economic suicide" was reported recently
in the Post:” The next morning, Perris took the hand of
his ailing 90-year-old mother. They climbed to the roof of their apartment
building and leapt to their death."Europe has had thousands of economic
suicides in the last few years. They always shock the community. In Greece,
which has been reeling in economic crisis for five years now, "The suicide
notes left in coat pockets or on desks," the Post writes,
"... are being passed around on the Internet and studied like the final
treatises of revered scholars."Everyone loved him," a local
café owner said. People would have helped him out, and helped his mother, who
suffered from Alzheimer's. But they didn't know how badly the two were doing.
Now their deaths are a gash across the community, across the country and
perhaps all of Europe and perhaps large parts of the so-called First World, where the middle class is
crumbling. The poverty and despoliation the dark side of capitalism are no
longer contained, relegated to the Third World and the Third World pockets of the First.The situation has gotten so bad that the idea of
debt forgiveness is gaining mainstream cachet. Erik Kain, writing last October
in Forbes, brought up "the old biblical idea of a jubilee a national cancellation of private debts.” In
many ways," he observed, "rather than creating a sustainable economy
built around steadily rising middle and working class wages, we've built an
unsustainable economy built on consumer debt. That debt has propelled the
growth we've seen in recent years, acting as a sort of perpetual Keynesian
injection into the economy. Now we're paying the price.” While I see debt
forgiveness as a move in the right direction -- an acknowledgment that debt
isn't simply a moral failing, and that the wealth of creditors, who have in so
many ways rigged the game in their favor, isn't all the matters I wince at the
provincialism of those who limit their concern to the American middle class, or
would do no more to fix the system than increase wages for the working and
professional classes. Better wages that are the result of devastated
environmental regulations or that come at the expense of the Third World or future generations? The economic
crisis is global in nature and the flaws of the system are deep and profound.
"The economy's only valid purpose is to serve life," David Korten wrote this month in Yes! Magazine. The economy should not be
an end in itself, an irresistible force that we fail to serve at our peril yet
that's the conventional attitude. The economic suicides of Europe and, indeed, of every country on
the planet, are testimony to the prevalence of this belief. We serve money as
though it were God. When it disappears from our life, the most honourable
alternative, as we stare into the abyss, is suicide. We live within an economic
system that is cruel and impersonal, divorced from gratitude, empathy,
compassion, love and nurturance. (Money, whatever else it is, is the root of
all cynicism.) This system is also voracious. It's eating the planet: eating,
i.e., privatizing and selling back to us, what was once the human and
environmental commons, the context of all life. "Real capital
assets," writes Korten in his excellent essay, "have productive value
in their own right and cannot be created with a computer key stroke. The most
essential forms of real capital are social capital (the bonds of trust and
caring essential to healthy community function) and bio system capital (the
living systems essential to Earth's capacity to support life). We are depleting
both with reckless abandon.” Trapped within the present economic system, so
many people have limited patience for what they value most deeply, e.g., the
happiness and loving growth of children, the glorious fecundity of the earth,
the peace that passes all understanding. Who has time? We all loved him,
but...As the system crashes; we have the opportunity to look beyond it. Let's
dig deeply to establish the foundation of its replacement.
How One Disappearance Case May Prove China's Commitment to Rule of Law Post-Transition
A key question about the Chinese
government's leadership transition later this year is whether as a rising power
China can achieve internationally agreed-upon standards to respect and
implement the rule of law for the benefit of its people. For all of the
attention paid to the Bo Xilai scandal and circumstances involving government
critics Ai Weiwei and Chen Guangcheng, one ongoing, largely unnoticed case may
serve as a barometer for China's future in this area.Gendun Choekyi Nyima was
just six years old in 1995 when he and members of his family were detained in Tibet and taken into "protective custody" by the Chinese
government. Earlier that year the Dalai Lama declared the child to be the
reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second-most influential leader in
Tibetan Buddhism, following the death of the previous Panchen Lama in 1989.His
whereabouts remain a closely guarded state secret. No reliable outside source
knows where he is or what his condition is, apart from a few cryptic statements
issued over the years by China's government, who most recently claimed Gendun
Choekyi Nyima now 23 is in mainland China and doesn't want to be disturbed.
"It's a reminder about how exceptionally efficient and capable the Chinese
state is when it has a security priority, when it wants to hide someone away or
keep something secret," said Robert Barnett, director of Columbia
University's Modern Tibetan Studies program. The Panchen Lama, like the Dalai
Lama, is a crucial figure to Tibetans, and plays a key role in identifying
candidates to be the next Dalai Lama. Lobsang Nyandak Zayul, the Dalai Lama's
representative for the Americas, expressed to me that the whereabouts and
condition of Gendun Choekyi Nyima "are of great concern to the Tibetan
people," whose right to interact with their spiritual leader has been
taken away. Soon after detaining Gendun Choekyi Nyima and his family, China's government
identified another Tibetan boy as the "official" Panchen Lama, whose
rare and carefully managed public appearances to date have been punctuated with
public statements supportive of China and state stability.
Why did the Chinese government, which is officially atheist, get involved in a
case of religious leadership succession? China views the Dalai Lama spiritual
leader of Tibetan Buddhism and, until last year, head of Tibet's government in exile
as a separatist threat. Less about religion, according to the Economist, "China has its eyes on a complex struggle that will play out" once the
current aging Dalai Lama dies. "With the endorsement of its own Panchen Lama, China wants to choose a
successor to the current Dalai Lama and seek to control him." Beijing is concerned that the
Dalai Lama and his exile supporters will support another candidate perceived as
Tibetans' spiritual leader. It’s a complicated story rooted in China's claims of historic
sovereignty over Tibet. The implications are enormous, but the basic facts are simple: The
Chinese government detained a six year-old and his family 17 years ago and
nobody has seen them publicly since. By virtually any national or international
standards this is illegal and morally outrageous. What does it say about the
rule of law in China if people can be disappeared so easily? Meanwhile, circumstances for
Tibetans worsen. Chinese authorities aggressively put down major riots in 2008,
and in the last 18 months 45 Tibetans monks, nuns, and ordinary people have
self-immolated in protest of China's harsh policies. Earlier this
year China installed government monitors in nearly
every monastery in Tibet in an effort to prevent separatist activities, and
last month Human Rights Watch reported restrictions on news and information accessible by Tibetans inside
China, to prevent views about the Dalai Lama and his followers not controlled
by the Chinese government. According to Columbia's Barnett, "This
is much deeper than just the issue of how to control the mechanics of
appointing the next Dalai Lama," explaining that in attempting to
establish stability in Tibet, on the one hand the
"Communist Party recognizes that it can't win over Tibetans just by
argument, ideology, or economic benefit. They believe they have to have a major
traditional or religious leader as a puppet figure who will endorse their
claims to the Tibetan people.” The greater political value for the Chinese
government in having a quasi-official Panchen Lama is that he can be paraded
around "not for Tibetan audiences but for Chinese audiences," Barnett
said. The government, ever concerned with stability, "can use the army to
control or suppress the six million or so Tibetans if they don't agree with China's choice for the
Dalai Lama, but they can't use an army to force a billion Chinese to agree.”
According to Michael Davis, visiting professor of law at Hong Kong University, China appears to believe
"the Tibet problem will just go away if they grind down the Tibetans." But
the unrest will continue because "Tibetans will continue to mobilize
opposition to the Chinese policies and China will continue to bear
foreign policy cost.” He added, "People figure if China treats its border
Tibetan community like this, how will it treat other neighbours it dominates?”
A spokesperson for China's United Nations
mission in New York did not respond to repeated requests for comment, and calls to Beijing's embassy in Washington, D.C. went unanswered.
While no one with whom I spoke had any information about the condition of
Gendun Choekyi Nyima, it is possible the Chinese government may view him as a
bargaining chip in stalled talks with Tibet's government in exile.”
It would be extraordinary for China not to realize that they need to have that
missing boy alive in order to get more concessions out of the exiles, if they
ever go so far as to have serious talks," said Barnett. "But at the
same time, they'll have to make some kind of compromise with the Tibetans'
Panchen Lama, which would mean recognizing him in some secondary role.” What’s
in it for China?” I think the upside is enormous," said Davis. The Dalai Lama, who
has called for autonomy for Tibet but not independence
from China, "is surely the most reasonable representative of the Tibetan
community they are likely to encounter," he said. "They should take
advantage of this while they can. The Dalai Lama is also peculiarly suited to
gain popular Tibetan support for any settlement.” From the exiles' perspective,
Lobsang Nyandak Zayul noted that "most of us have given up hope with the
present administration in Beijing." Reengagement with the Chinese government may be possible
"once they have established the next generation of leaders," he said.
If Gendun Choekyi Nyima is alive and well, one of the following moves by China post-transition could
send strong signals to its people, its neighbours, and to outside powers:
Unconditionally release Gendun Choekyi Nyima, as the Dalai Lama's
representatives have called for. Or at least allow a neutral party to actually
meet with him and verify his well-being. The new leadership in China could seize an
opening and signal a policy shift on talks with exiles, and quietly raise
whether Gendun Choekyi Nyima could be released as a possibility in any talks.
Of course, sustained media focus on the case could make China consider reputation
impacts abroad. Broader factors involved in China's treatment of its peripheral
communities unsettles China's neighbours, as well as powers like the United
States and the EU, so the status quo seems to carry significant costs. If China is ready to assume
its role as a major power on the world stage, with new political leadership it
should accept the associated responsibilities -- including respect for the rule
of law at home. China can start with credible information about Gendun Choekyi Nyima.
