Cattle hypocrisy

The government has finally given to the cattle
industry and allowed the Aussie cows to be shipped
to Indonesian abbotoires. When Four corners released
thier video on TV last month, it was a huge outcry
from everyone. Government had to appear to be doing
something. Correctly so. What bemused be was what they
did. They banned the entire cattle export, impromptu.
The knee jerk reation just seems to compound the public
sentiment that this govt has no idea about anything.
Simply the worst prime minister in Australian History.
I don't disagree. In my six yrs living here, I have seen
three of them, Howard, Rudd and Gillard. She is no
doubt the worst of the three.

But in case of the cattle saga, I cannot but feel amused at
the hypocrisy among the so called animal lovers. To start with,
what are the animals going to Indonesia for? For holidays?
No, they are going there to be slaughtered! Don't you know that??
Where does the beef you eat come from? Slaughtered animals probably??

And what about the halal and some other 'cruel' methods in
use in Australia??

Climate change and God.

Been a while since I have last udpated.
Lot has happened since, politically around the world,
in Australia, in lives of people I know..

One thing that has been a red hot is the Julia Gillard
climate change issue. She broke an election promise,
she says she merely had to do what was best
for the country irrespective of her personal view
at any given time.

Climate change, as someone unfamously said, is
like a beleif in God. Now, imagine your faith, the
trust in the Lord, regardless of religion. A hidden,
underlying hope is that because you beleived in him
when you were alive, that you prayed for him and
trusted him, you will be taken to heaven after you die.
If you beleived and your beleif was right, then after you
die you will be taken to heaven, end of the story.
But what if you do not beleive in God? You have no faith?
And you are wrong after your death?
You will be subjected to an enternity of hell.

At a bigger picture, climate change resembles the same.
People are arguing it could be right or wrong. If it is right
then we manage to avert our extinction, if we are wrong,
then we are truly doomed.

Choice is yours.

Pope fiasco

And pope is here for the last day today.
Anybody miss him?
The ones that would do so, half a million of them
presumably, are beginning to leave. I have been
hearing of the traffic logs and packed Sydney airport
on the FMs while on the way to work.
Fun times..kinda anti climax for Sydney siders.
Dunno why, I just can't beleive when they
try to feed us down from our throats,
the craps that are cruxed around the mystics of
of a dead man coming from out of nowhere (heaven??)
to save, well, only the chosen ones.
What would happens to non beleivers, to
billions of animals, plants and the Earth
itself? My purely simplistic curiosity gets
better of me when I try to look from thier eyes,
is God only for humans?? And in particular,
only them..how different is this from
any other in-tolerant religious beliefs?
This is why I choose to side with the fact
of natural law, and karma,
what goes around comes around.
That is God, nature.Can't help thinking
but the robes and hypocrisy surrounding all this
Papal mass and Christian fiasco is a bit
underwhelming to me, kinda too lame,
may be I am ignorant, may be I choose to
think for myself. May be people have too much
emptiness in lives, anything would fill,
anything that dulls your mind to give yourself
a false sense of fullfulment, 'belonging to
the Universe', false sense of enlightment. It
seems like a big creed, a cult and a mass hysteria to me.

Churches have always been fraught with
politics, sexual abuse of children, men and
women, greed and lust. Its all too familiar.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24076648-421,00.html

There was this bishop who in an open
press conference dared suggest a
family whose daughter was repeatedly
abused by a priest (a priest!!??? what's
going on here, isn't something terribly
stinky to ignore??) to basically shut up and
move on..'as the others have'!!
And a hollow and hurried apology from the
Pope was to follow, somehow too ringing,
somehow devilish. He even met the victim's
family today, but where does it hurt most?
Would this bring about the 'cleanup' in the
churches, something bizarre. Do we need
a church police? If the good of Christianity
is to be found, it can be found in the
peoples' hearts and kindness, openess and
tolerance, forgiveness and morality;
basics that are built into every human
being.

Why would we have to believe in this lesson of
tolerance and openness from these
self appointed servants of God?
To me its so twelvth century, backward
and sheepish; how could people turn
out for this so called 'pilgrimage'is beyond me.
Are we sure this is not a part of a big
power play? Isn't vatican comparable to
the clergy of Khomeini in Iran? Something
that controls the political and social
life of that country?

Sydney by itself is a beautiful city,
worth visiting, no need for a stupid pretex.
And a huge boost to brothels trade in
Kings Cross during this 'piligrimage'
is not a coincidence, as everyone knows.

ANZAC day

On a TV program this ANZAC eve, there was
a short report containing an interview with a frail
eighty something year old. His casual but humble
and honest expressions matched his watery, sad
looking eyes. On an occasion where he was explaining
how he and thousands of his mates were tortured by
the Japanese in Thai Burma rail works during the
World war, the interviewer asked him if he felt any
repulse of the Japanese today. This was at the back
drop of the event he was referring to, the Allied
PWOs, numbering around ten thousand, mainly from
Australia, UK, US and surrounding local countries,
were made to work almost eighteen hours a day, for
nearly two years thru the thickest forests. Most died
of diseases like malaria, open ulcers, hunger,
dysentery and anything imaginable that can kill.

There are picture of these POWs lying like skeletons,
resembling jews in Hitler's chambers in Auschwitz.

Thousands of mates of this old soldiers perished,
the brutality they were inflicted were
horrendous and unspeakable, like in China or wherever
Japan invaded. He came home at the end of the war,
lost and poor, shattered both physically and inside.
At the end, the Japanese surrendered, the prisoners
were now the masters.

He held back tears and remembered an incident that happened
in the jungle after the Japanese surrendered. He asked
a mate of his if he wanted to give the surrendering Japanese
the payback, the same torture and brutality, after all,
they had it all within their grasp now. He chocked for
couple of seconds, before recalling what his friend replied,
if a digger were to do the same, what's the difference,
between him and them, it was stunning, untainted greatness of a man.

Nepal,Tibet,China and myself 2

Tibet is a unique entity. Its location with world's
highest mountains as background, its plateaus that
are wonders in themselves, its beautiful skyline and most
importantly of course, its religious flair, culture,
serenity and colors. Its a land of all the peace, more
peaceful than all the peaces of the world combined.
The only living, ancient teachings and learnings about
Buddhism, philosophy, medicine, are done
in its monasteries, where oil lamps are still common.
This is the land of monks with red robes and shaven
heads, of beautiful chants and clear blue skies; of
stories of the caravans of people and yaks crossing
the mighty Himalayas in the thickest blizzards and
snow falls. Its truly, a paradise where people seem to
always smile and welcome you with their folded
hands and offer you their butter tea.

Tibet, needs to be kept alive, it needs to be saved,
from encroaching pollutions of haphazard constructions,
invasion of Han Chinese, the type of modernity it barely
needs. It needs a good standard of living, I don't oppose it.
But not at the cost of eroding its divine culture, peace
and immortal sense of higher life, something you cannot
find any where else, it seems. And like any other species,
this truly, is now at the verge of extinction. Once gone,
it won't survive long in the Dharmashala of India, and
meager Tibetan diaspora in the western world or Nepal.

Tibet is no doubt the last standing ancient civilization.
Tibet is a life, we cannot get it back if it dies.

Nepal,Tibet, China and myself 1

My earliest memories of school history books is the
constant politics, business, scholarly exchanges and wars
between Nepal and Tibet; and Tibet and China; and China
and her neighbors.

At that time, Tibet was a sovereign, free country,
like Nepal or Australia.

I wanna go back to where it all began.

In around mid sixth century, there was a Nepalese
princess, Bhrikuti, who was married off to a Tibetan Emperor,
Shreng Cheng Gampo, by the girl's father, Anshubarma,
to forge a diplomatic relation so that the wars between the
two countries would cease by virtue of this. The Nepalese
bride is thought to have spread Buddhism in that part of
the world. She is still known and revered as 'Green Star'
among the Tibetans. If not for her, there would have
been no Tibetan sect of Buddhism, no monasteries, no
monks and no Dalai Lama or any Lamas.

There is also a very touching story of a young teenage
sculptor named Araniko from Kathmandu who
was invited to participate in the decoration of Chinese
Capital, Beijing, upon invitation by the then Emperor of
China, Kublai Khan. One of the monuments Araniko himself
built still stands in downtown Beijing, by the name of Bai
Si Tha, or White Pillar. Today, hundreds of Nepalese youth
have been trained in China as Doctors, Engineers,
environmentalists, business experts and so forth.
The bond is ancient, modern and alive. Today the Chinese
companies dominate the building of roads, bridges,
and other massive structures in Nepal. I am here,
well and prospering in a way, powered by Chinese
education, Chinese food, Chinese love and care. I owe,
a huge part of my life to China, Beijing and a town
called Wuxi in particular.

At that time, Nepal was protected from Chinese invasion
by the buffer zone of Tibet, who had to bear the brunt of
the super power of the time. Kathmandu people, the
Newars, were the major tradesmen supplying goods and
commodities to Tibet. There still are various families in
Newar families of Kathmandu whose grand fathers or great
great ones travelled to Lhasa. Its no wonder the trade between
Nepal and Tibet is still one of the biggest revenue generators
for both states.

But today, fate has it, owing to Tibet, Nepal is still a free
country and not a part of China. Tibet is a region in
China, poor and backward. China on the other hand,
as everybody knows, is already a super power, slowly
consolidating her position in the world she rightfully
deserves, among the top nations.