[Buddha-l] FW: H-ASIA: Gandhi's Birthday

[Joy Vriens]

Joanna,

>Nehru's homage to the Mahatma after his murder. Gandhi tried very hard to 
>live a life of fidelity to dharma and non-violence. When I was a teen, he 
>was marching and preaching to attain the end of colonial bondage for India. 
>His fearlessness caught me and I never forgot him. Maybe politically he 
>didn't always do the right thing, politics being what it is, an evil empire, 
>but I think no one can challenge his sincerity, even if he wrestled often 
>with ambivalence. As don't we all. (For a touching tribute to the effect 
>Gandhi had on young people in India back in the day, read _Waiting for the 
>Mahatma_ by R.K. Narayan.) 
>Reading this eulogy brings perplexity and heartache as I see what the Indian 
>government is doing now about the uprising in Burma. Nothing. 

Christopher Hitchens seems to put all the control in China's mighty hands, China is pulling the strings.

Maintained in China
Burma's foul regime depends on Beijing. 
By Christopher Hitchens

"Meanwhile, everybody is getting ready for the lovely time they will have at the Beijing Olympics. If there could be a single demand that would fuse almost all the human rights demands of the contemporary world into one, it would be the call to boycott or cancel this disgusting celebration."
http://www.slate.com/id/2175047/

And talking about the Beijing Olympics, there is a graphic explanation of its logo circling on the net.
http://www.betapolitique.fr/Jeux-olympiques-en-Chine-le-01698.html

As for Gandhi, the influential French intellectual, Jacques Attali (former private secretary to President Mitterand) wrote a book on Gandhi, in which he says how essential Gandhi is for our times, especially his doctrine of non-violence. Gandhi is far from obsolete although most of India nowadays finds him an "embarassing icon". For an interview in French about Attali's book:

"Gandhi est-il important aujourd'hui? 
Oui, essentiel! Même si l'Inde l'oublie. Lors de mes premiers voyages là-bas, il y a vingt ans, j'ai été surpris de voir que très peu de gens s'intéressaient à Gandhi. Il est pour beaucoup une icône abstraite, embarrassante."
http://livres.lexpress.fr/entretien.asp/idC=12942/idR=5/idG=8 

Joy