The University of Sunderland posted a blog post about my research:

A C&T [computing & technology] student, who has spent the last nine years using his computing skills to support Tibetan democracy, claims that the freedom fighters are now facing online espionage on an industrial scale.

I've posted a few pieces on Nortel's GSM-R system along the Qinghai-Tibet railway & located a new tele-geography of security that parallels China's Western Development Strategy.

Lobsang Yeshi, takes up the theme; [“The only thing rising faster than China is the hype about China.”] . . :

The most precise location-tracking system GSM-R digital wireless communication network and surveillance system acquired from Canadian Nortel Networks Corp for the railway is believed to be meant for other strategic purposes.

Phayul had an article at the weekend that helps develop this theory:
Sabotage angst along Tibet Railway

Along the entire railway line, the Military Area Commands of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and Qinghai Province have reportedly deployed a security safety net with a contingent of up to ten thousand soldiers and civilians patrolling day and night. The Head Quarters of Qinghai Armed Police Force has assigned several branches of its force to safeguard the train throughout its journey.

Communication for security forces along the railway has been stepped up so that conversations on walkie-talkie are now possible on long distance. To this effect, China Telecommunication Company and China Railway Communication Company installed adequate communication equipment and communication stations every 6 kilometres along the whole railway line.

The report suggests that Chinese paramilitary forces are directly benefitting from the GSM-R installation along the railway.

Returned from Dharamsala, India .. ran into Oxblood and others. Xeni Jardin has a series of interesting articles for NPR and Wired:

Across the border from Chinese-occupied Tibet, the tech infrastructure in this high mountain village is a mess. But a former Silicon Valley dot-commer and members of the underground security group Cult of the Dead Cow are working with local Tibetan exiles to change that using recycled hardware, solar power, open-source software and nerd ingenuity. The volunteers are building a low-cost wireless mesh network to provide cheap, reliable data and telephony to community organizations.

[Check out the Air Jaldi summit later this year].

Y.P. Rajesh in GANGTOK, India (Reuters) - China plans to extend its railway linking Beijing to Tibet to a newly opened border point in India’s northeast [Nathu La] and possibly link it to its east coast, the Chinese envoy to New Delhi said on Friday.

Bhutan's Dept of Info Tech

While the promise of integrating the Dzongkha Unicode system, developed since 1998 at a cost of US$ 523,000, in Microsoft Vista may be out of the window locals have come up with a much cheaper but more advanced software for Dzongkha computing...Developed by the department of information and technology, with initial technical support from Sherubtse College and language support from dzongkha development authority, Dzongkhalinux, with the logo of a penguin draped in a monks robe, is a locally developed version of the free Linux operating system which supports Dzongkha computing for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, emailing , web browsing and chatting with all the interface commands and menus for the applications in Dzongkha.

The software was developed with assistance from PAN Localisation grant from International Development Research Centre, Ottawa in Canada administered through Centre for Research in Urdu Language Processing, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences in Pakistan. Developed at a cost of US$ 50,000, it is the most advanced Dzongkha computing software till date according to DIT. And it had the potential to grow further.

IFTF's Virtual China blog links to my post on the World Buddhist Forum & Internet Buddhism and highlights 'what is at stake in Virtual China'.

Pico Iyer reviews Lhasa: Streets with Memories in Time Magazine.

Lhasa: Streets with Memories, by Robert Barnett, is, on its surface, a meditation on the city's past and future (see Ma Jian's latest book) by a lecturer at Columbia University in New York, who draws heavily on such cultural icons as Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin and Italo Calvino. But underneath the high-toned exterior, it is something much more interesting: Barnett spends part of each year in Lhasa, and appears in no hurry to alienate his Chinese hosts; at the same time, he was one of the few foreigners to witness the demonstrations Tibetans staged in Lhasa in 1987, and so can understand the pain and fear that lie just below the city's ever more modern surfaces. His rumination on the capital of Tibet is the rare book that can draw tears just with its assemblage of neutral, entirely unpolemical facts.

[...]

And yet, in the face of these losses, Barnett reports that more and more Chinese visitors now give offerings to the Buddhas in the Jokhang Temple, adopt Tibetan names, and even seek out lamas to instruct them. Might Tibet creep into Chinese souls and consciences even as China takes over Tibetan streets? Barnett is too subtle and skeptical to concentrate on anything more than the silences that lie at the heart of many a Lhasa conversation, and the human realities that remain too complex for any simple right or wrong. In Lhasa: Streets with Memories, though, he shows us with overpowering restraint a city that, increasingly, has no memory at all.Memory —like history and culture and religion—is just one more redundancy pushed aside to make room for more skyscrapers.

Time Magazine

Dharamsala’s Tibetan Technology Center Partners With International Experts To Present the ‘Air Jaldi Summit’ And Extended Training Workshops

The Tibetan Technology Center (TibTec), a world leader in wireless mesh network development, announced that it will host the Air Jaldi Summit on wireless technologies in Dharamsala, India in October 2006.

TibTec has partnered with the Djursland International Institute of Rural Wireless Broadband (DIIRWB), the European leader in community-based WiFi development, and will join the World Summits on Free Information Infrastructure (WSFII) to deliver a conference and extended wireless training workshops in October. The conference proper will be held from October 22nd through 25th in Dharamsala, India. The training workshops will span a two-week period directly after the conference.

“We’re delighted to host such a significant event”, said Phuntsok Dorjee, Chief Information Officer with the Tibetan Technology Center. “As a result of developing the Dharamsala wireless mesh network, we were approached by global technology leaders to share our research, and one thing led to another. We accepted an invitation to host an international conference to bring the best and brightest wireless experts to Dharamsala. We’re really looking forward to the conference, especially the training workshops portion of the summit. This is going to be a fantastic event for the region, and for all of India”.

openDemocracy: The mass protest in Nepal against the royal dictatorship looks unstoppable – but making democracy will be hard, reports Maya G Kumar Anuj Mishra traces the bitter roots of a grassroots revolution in A breaking wave of democracy. "I want to be back on the streets, to be part of this history-making tide." Prominent Nepali editor Kanak Mani Dixit writes from a Kathmandu detention centre, & detained Nepali civil-society representatives pen an open letter to foreign ambassadors.

Civiblog partner Nepal Info continues to blog from Kathmandu, Nepal, as the current constitutional crisis unfolds . . BBC:

An alliance of opposition parties in Nepal has called for the biggest display of anti-monarchy protests in the capital, Kathmandu, on Tuesday, setting up a showdown with King Gyanendra.

Openflows has a thread that includes numerous backgrounder links largely focused on the ICT issues thrown up by the crisis.The BBC is also running special coverage on neighbouring Tibet:

As China prepares to open its first railway link to Tibet, the BBC News website looks at some of the dominant issues in this unique community.

Claude Arpi has a guest column on Rediff that looks at the Qinghai-Tibet railway's impact on Sino-Indian security. Arpi discovers China's version of RMA, the strategic implications of the railway for China's Second Artillery (rail based tactical nukes), the relevance of the latest QDR to Sino-American-Indian relations, and the infamous strategy of Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui. Interesting to see this in mainstream Indian publication, a wake-up call to South Block perhaps.

Geov Parrish introduces the world's proto-fascist superpower in Working for Change. Parrish notes that, "in the U.S., it is primarily ethnic Chinese, evangelical Christians, and hard-line conservatives -- not liberals -- who agitate over China's horrific human rights record". As if to reinforce that point he interviews PNAC fellow Ethan Gutmann.

. . .author of Losing the New China (essentially a memoir of U.S. corporate practices in Beijing), identifies Microsoft as one of the more influential U.S. companies now in China. "In terms of the Internet, foreign corporations are making the human rights situation worse. The problem is not censorship but surveillance equipment," Gutmann says, leading to Internet self-censorship, powerlessness, and fear among Chinese hoping to challenge the totalitarian practices of their government. Cisco Systems is the biggest purveyor of such equipment, but Microsoft is also suspected of colluding with Beijing on this item. . Beijing these days is anything but Marxist; Gutmann identifies it instead as "proto-fascist."

He's not alone in his prognosis. A number of pundits have characterised the fourth generation leadership in this way. Veteran BBC reporter, Tim Luard

This was where the tanks came in on that awful night. Or was it? Modern Beijing is like something out of science fiction: endless galaxies of ring roads, flyovers, vast intersections and gleaming monolithic tower blocks...as China becomes a bigger power in the world its government is becoming ever more fascist. In the run up to the Beijing Olympic games one can't help thinking of Berlin in the 1930s.

another veteran, Jamyang Norbu quoting

Jasper Becker, the Beijing Bureau chief of the South China Morning Post has published a detailed analysis of China's political metamorphosis in a recent article.3 This is his theory on the genesis of the transformation: "Realizing that the demise of communism deprived the CCP of an ideology and a reason to exist, Jiang (Zemin), Hu (Jintao), and their peers are quietly remaking China into a fascist state bearing a striking resemblance to its '20s predecessors... the kind of highly nationalistic right-wing dictatorship that emerged in the '20's and 30's in Germany, Spain, Japan, Romania, and most notably Italy. Since at least the late '80s CCP leaders have instituted economic programs recalling fascist ideas of "planned capitalism." To complement its economic policies, the CCP has developed a neo-fascist political program of mass rallies, nationalist indoctrination, and party control over private lives."

As for what I think, I haven't thought this one through properly, and its too early to tell. I mean, I carelessly stuck the 'neo-fascist' label on the CCP following China's accession the WTO in September 2001, but I'm not convinced that its all that helpful. I think I'll get hold of Giddens' Beyond Left and Right.

Hangzhou, China is hosting the World Buddhist Forum over the next three days. China's 'Panchen Lama' defended China's record on religion, but the other delegates are reported to have ignored him. Neither the Dalai Lama, nor the Karmapa were invited. There are, however, some interesting glimpses of future policy in articles & speeches available on the forum's website

An Husheng, for example: A Brief Discussion on the Dissemination of Buddhism in the Internet Age

The Internet Age has arrived; it has accelerated the process of globalization. The Internet is not only the most important technology in contemporary society, but also the most important way of culture dissemination in this society, and it will certainly become the new century's major cultural competition occasion. Whoever grasps the dominance of the network will be able to more effectively influence society and guide the public and can thus gain strategic advantage in the field of culture. Internet as the most effective new way to popularize and spread Buddhism, has realized our aspirations of showing the Buddha's land at the end of a hair and turning the wheel of the dharma in an atom as described by the Avatamsaka Sutra (Sk.), 華嚴經/Huayan Jing (zh). The age of Internet Buddhism has quietly arrived.

China's Huayan school is based on the Avatamsaka Sutra, which contains the famous vision of Indra's Net:

The Hindu myth of Indra's Net provides an allegory of this interdependent organization. This net exists in Indra's palace in heaven and extends infinitely in all directions. At each node of the net where threads cross there is a perfectly clear gem that reflects all the other gems in the net. As each gem reflects every other one; so are you affected by every other system in the universe.

As the threads of Indra's net bind the gems to the net so do our physical bodies bind our minds and other physical entities bind other systems to the universe. Through the threads we reach each other, passing information across the expanses of space. Yet how did this ballet of information ever come about? You see new systems constantly spring to life, arising out of near chaos creating a small pattern that presents a new random twist to that thread of existence.

Capra uses this metaphor in The Turning Point

The similarity of this image to the hadron bootstrap is indeed striking. The metaphor of Indra's net may justly be called the first bootstrap model, created by the Eastern sages some 2,500 years before the beginning of particle physics." Fritjof Capra --Chapter 8 of The Turning Point - Fritjof Capra (1982) via Metaphors

If it is the case, as An Husheng argues, that "whoever grasps the dominance of the network will be able to more effectively influence society and guide the public and can thus gain strategic advantage", then Hangzhou's most famous son, the rocket scientist Tsien Hsue-shen, & his disciples work on complexity and social systems - fused with Buddhism could be central to that objective. But, compare the sophistication of senior Tibetan lamas understanding of science, dialogues with India and the West -- with the Chinese technocracy's understanding of Buddhism. . if Beijing is serious about the Middle Way, isn't it about time the Dalai Lama was invited to the table?

I heard Mairead Corrigan speak last week. Inspiring, Christian witness, the Irish people have - for generations - been friends of the Tibetan cause,

Mrs. Takla last visited Ireland in December 2003 when she was invited for the launch of the Irish All Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet and to speak at the All-Party Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs’ hearing on Tibet. At the time she thanked the Irish government and people for all their support, and recalled “the years when Ireland took the initiative in sponsoring United Nations General Assembly Resolutions on the issue of Tibet. The then Foreign Minister of Ireland, Mr. Frank Aiken, who, in appealing to the United Nations General Assembly during its debate on Tibet in 1959, said: "Looking around this assembly, and looking at my own delegations, I think how many benches would be empty in this hall if it had always been agreed that when a small nation or a small people feel in the grip of a major power no one could ever raise their voice here; that once there was a subject nation, then must always remain a subject nation. Tibet has fallen into the hands of the Chinese People's Republic for the last few years. For thousands of years, or for a couple of thousand of years at any rate, it was as free and as fully in control of its own affairs as any nation in this Assembly, and a thousand times more free to look after its own affairs than many of the nations here.”

Phayul:

The Dalai Lama inaugurated the third Tibetan Children Village (TCV) students Peace Jam conference this morning at the TCV hall.

According to a Peace Jam mission statement "Peace Jam is an international youth outreach programme built around 12 Nobel peace laureates who work personally with youth to pass on the spirit, skills and wisdom they embody."

"The goal of Peace Jam is to inspire a new generation of peacemakers who will transform their local communities, themselves, and the world."

The Nobel laureate Betty Williams was the guest of honour at this conference. Betty Williams received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her work against violence between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. She shared the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow Northern Ireland peace activist Mairead Corrigan.

The Independent:

Quietly but nonetheless perceptibly a feeling is growing that the
half-century stand-off between Beijing and the Dalai Lama could be about to
be eased, starting with a visit by Tibet's spiritual leader to China.

To allow the Dalai Lama to visit the Buddhist holy sites in China while
keeping him away from Tibet might be a useful device for disarming China's
critics abroad, especially if the news could be announced just before the
visit of President Hu Jintao to Washington later this month. The central
conditions, Beijing insists, would have to be that he promised to declare
his acceptance of Chinese rule. . . .

That may be fine in diplomatic terms. The Dalai Lama abandoned his call for
independence in 1988 and has instead sought a degree of self-rule whin
Chinese control. But even that may be too much for a Chinese communist
government that has arrested monks [not to mention nuns], taken political control of monasteries,
poured in Chinese immigrants and completed a $3bn railway to open up
communications with the country, all in a clear effort to overwhelm a
separate Tibetan culture and religious faith. The Dalai Lama may be right to
try and open the door a little in the hope of using the leverage to open it
still further. But those who believe in a distinct Tibetan culture and
people should be wary of Beijing using the symbolism of reconciliation to
mask the reality of continued suppression.

Almost half a century after the Dalai Lama escaped into exile, Is China ready to welcome home the Dalai Lama? The Dalai Lama has expressed an interest in a pilgrimage Wu Tai Shan for sometime now [an archived link to a site i threw together when the current round of negotiations commenced in 2002, admist coordinated attacks on the TGIE's computer networks].

Yesterday Ye Xiaowen, head of China's powerful State Bureau of Religious Affairs, appeared to extend an olive branch when he said: "As long as the Dalai Lama makes it clear that he has completely abandoned Tibetan "independence", it is not impossible for us to consider his visit. We can discuss it."

Are Tibetans ready to negotiate with China? Samdup offered these reflections as he begins this new phase in his work:

After 20 years of lobbying Canadian politicians and raising public awareness, I have come to realize that this approach on its own, will not achieve peace in Tibet or in other areas of conflict around the world. Knowledge must be informed by wisdom, an ethical base that goes beyond self-interest. I truly believe that the basic principles for ethical living as promoted in the teachings of the Dalai Lama will find resonance with individuals and their communities. Ultimately this approach will contribute more concretely towards changing societies from within. In addition to supporting the DLF's mission of promoting education for ethics and peace, Samdup hopes to build a national peace coalition to advance concepts such as compassion and non-violence. He is currently working with City of Montreal officials to declare September 21st as an International Day of Peace, an initiative that parallels similar efforts at the United Nations. Montreal is well-suited to take the lead in this area. It is home to numerous diverse cultural communities and bears the proud motto Well-being through Harmony.

What's going on?

Some analysts believe Beijing could be prepared to engage in meaningful dialogue because there are fears that when the Dalai Lama dies, it could create a power vacuum which violent young separatists could try to fill. China is keen to ensure whoever succeeds the Dalai Lama is someone it can do business with. . .

An interesting paper by Dimitrios Delibasis, State Use of Force in Cyberspace for Self-Defence: A New Challenge for a New Century published in Peace Conflict and Development: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Issue 8, February 2006

Time can only tell how much of a threat information warfare will eventually prove to be. However, it has undoubtedly given a completely new meaning to the term ‘warfare’ and nullified traditional borders between States. In essence, it has set forth, for the first time in the history of the law on the use of force, several new regulatory challenges the successful answering of which calls for the creation of a new paradigm with regard to the legal norms relating to forcible action. This is an issue which sooner or later the international legal community will have no choice but to face. And before it finally does so, perhaps it should remember the words of James Thurbur: “In times of change, learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned are beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists”.

I hadn't given much thought to this question before reading Delibasis' paper. So, how do you regulate the use of non-kinetic force in international conflict? The Red Cross (ICRC) maintains a reference section on their website that includes documents that explain how parties to a violent conflict are limited in their choice of methods and means of warfare; the rules in force define permissible uses of weapons and military tactics. The ICRC defines IW

as operations to disrupt, deny, degrade, or destroy information resident in computers and computer networks, or the computers and networks themselves. The methods and means used are defined as predominantly information systems based or designed to specifically effect the information infrastructure without immediate traditional physical damage.

The work of Dr. Knut Dörmann, (Deputy Head of the Legal Division, ICRC, Geneva) provides a helpful conceptual framework for considering the implications of CNA to International Law, for example:

Computer network attack and international humanitarian law Extract from The Cambridge Review of International Affairs "Internet and State Security Forum", 19 May 2001, Trinity College, Cambridge, UK
& Applicability of the Additional Protocols to Computer Network Attacks

The cDc hereby commands that you print up t-shirts with this graphic and wear them with pride. Join our global campaign against Google's appeasement policy with China. Civiblog Central comments

If you feel outraged by Google's partnership with the Chinese government, make plans this Valentine's Day to boycott Google. Also, try a search engine comparison tool to see the difference made by blocked keywords.

For Joseph Khan, its all over anyway, So long, Dalai Lama: Google adapts to China . . .

Some apprehension communicated to me relating to this brief post the other day - Cybersatyagraha ... Gandhi needs to be reinvented in India today. ..er, no - not a call for "cyberterrorism" or "eJihad". Just what Nagarjunawould make of DDoS I'm entirely unsure, but even the most basic reading of Gandhian thought highlights an overriding commitment to communication - and to keeping channels of communication open: Basic Concepts of Satyagraha: Gandhian Nonviolence: (from the APT Nonviolence Trainer's Manual).

II. "Ahimsa" --- refusal to inflict injury on others.
A) Ahimsa is dictated by our commitment to communication and to sharing of our pieces of the truth. Violence shuts off channels of communication.

You'll find that same commitment in discussions around hacktivism: Hacktivism and Human Rights: Using Technology to Raise the Bar (July 14, 2001, DEF CON 9, Las Vegas).

. . I think it's important to make that clear right from the start. That we're not talking about cyberterrorism, we're not talking about information warfare, we're not talking about taking down the Chinese backbone. We're talking about more constructive, positive ways of dealing with human rights abusers. I think that's something we all agreed on, straight away.

der Derian's concept of Infopeace describes it beautifully:

Information peace (infopeace) is the production, application, and analysis of information by peaceful means for peaceful ends. Starting with Gregory Bateson's definition of information as 'any difference that makes a difference', infopeace seeks to make a difference in the quality of thinking about the global contest of will, goods, and might. Measuring information in terms of quality rather than quantity, and assessing quality by the difference it makes in the reduction of personal and structural violence, infopeace opens up possibilities of alternative thought and action in global politics. Unabashedly utopian and pragmatic, it counters a 'natural' state of war with a mindful state of peace.

A mindful state of peace posits the eventual abolition of violence as a global political option. Peace-mindedness ranges from the prevention, admonition and mediation of violence, to the outright disavowal of violence as a political option for the resolution of problems in the international arena. It draws on a long tradition of peace-thinking, exemplified in early Christian pacifism and Eastern philosophies, in which the need for peace begins internally and proceeds outwardly. It starts by embracing a wholeness of the individual, and expands to families, communities, countries, and beyond. The notion of Gaia, as a self-regulating biosphere, contributes to the rhetoric of peace thinking; but it is the networked reality of an expanding infosphere which makes peace an attainable and evermore vital necessity.

Infopeace seeks to prevent, mediate, and resolve states of war by the actualization of a mindful state of peace. Following Gilles Deleuze's insights about the virtual possessing a reality that is not yet actual, infopeace stresses the actualization of peace through the creative application of information and technology. Critical imagination is the best antidote to the kinds of technological determinism that increasingly circumscribe human choices.

Infopeace integrates a strategy in which difference, conflict, and antagonism are recognized as essential aspects of human relations. It aims to develop an awareness of how these aspects can be addressed by non-violent means. Infopeace accepts the Augustinian paradox that the actualization of peace might entail (limited) violence, yet seeks to apply alternatives means of securing the self, the group, or the state. In short, infopeace is utopian in intention, pragmatic in application.

Following revelations concerning evolving U.S. Information operations doctrine, Andrew Koch Contributing Strategic Editor for Jane's forsees computer network attacks as tomorrow's WMD (subscription required).

Biogenetically engineered super viruses, deadly chemical agents specially designed to hang in the air for hours and armies of autonomously operated malicious software programmes called 'Cyber Bots', represent only a handful of potential threats that will be technologically possible within a decade, say US intelligence and defence officials.

While attacks by every type of tomorrow's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) may not kill hundreds of thousands of people, each has the ability to cause catastrophic damage and disruption, whether through the destruction of economies, infrastructure or human life.

Hacking

Cyber attacks are far from what has traditionally been considered a WMD, yet with both civilian and military infrastructures increasingly reliant on computer networks to perform even basic functions, defence experts warn that terrorist and enemy states alike will have the ability to cause massive disruption if they can hack these networks.

"I worry we are creating an Achilles heel in our military structure. As we move toward the Global Information Grid and network-centric combat, what vulnerabilities are we creating that we are not protected against?" one defence official asked.

By some accounts, the development of cyber warrior tools is already well under way, with government-sponsored hackers in countries like China and North Korea preparing for a 'digital Pearl Harbor' if push ever came to shove in a conflict with the US military.

Hackers, who many US officials believe work for the Chinese government, have launched numerous cyber attacks against US military, defence contractor and other sensitive facilities in the past few years, with the aim of pilfering information.

These attacks, called 'Titan Rain' by US investigators, are likely the product of cyber spying by the Chinese military, Alan Paller, the director of the SANS Institute, an information security research and education organisation in the US, said in December. He noted that "we have a problem that our computer networks have been terribly and deeply penetrated throughout the US ... and we've been keeping it secret".

"In the rush of information technology, the human mind has lost its inner peace, which cannot be attained without spiritual growth," the Dalai Lama said in Himachel Pradesh on the occasion of 57th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination.

Mahatma Gandhi is more relevant today as people around the globe are finding his gospels of truth and non-violence more conducive to harmony and peaceful co-existence... There is a need to re-invent Gandhi at home in India in the present context," the Nobel Peace laureate said here on the occasion of the father of the nation's 57th death anniversary.

He said combined with its spiritual tradition, modern India could look forward to unprecedented development as it was the largest democracy "where a rule of law is in place".

Turning to Sino-Indian relations, he said "India and China are emerging as two of the most powerful economic powers in the world. Whereas India can take a cue from China in producing cheap goods of use becoming popular globally, China can learn from India to emerge as a strife-free society".

The Dalai Lama asked the country not to deviate from its ancient spiritual tradition despite materialistic progress and development, which also had its fallout.

Students for a Free Tibet, an advocacy network based in New York are currently engaged in a campaign against Google's decision to move into China with a self-censored search platform

Tibetans, their supporters, and Google users worldwide are outraged by Google's decision to join hands with the Chinese Government in its propaganda efforts. Google has launched a web search platform custom-built to the Chinese authorities' specifications that blocks access to information about Tibet, human rights, and other topics sensitive to Beijing. In doing so, Google isn't just helping the Chinese Government by censoring "sensitive topics." What Google is in fact doing is enabling the Chinese government's propaganda by returning search results tailored to Beijing's repressive policies. Searching for "Tibet" will bring up only official Communist Chinese disinformation on Tibet. Searching for "Dalai Lama" will only bring up sites portraying him as a "splittist."

India, China and Google seemed to dominate the discussion yesterday at Microsoft's breakfast discussion in Davos. Bill Gates and Tom Friedman debated their flat-world theory, the Chindia effect, hi-tech education and development agendas. Comparing India and China, Gates argued that the challenge for India was to take the latest technology being developed to the villages in the country. Bangalore also came in for comment, as Friedman recalled his experiences there. He said that Bangalore had its islands of high technology, but a few hours out of the city took you back several centuries. Friedman spoke about the education crisis in the US. Elaborating on what the Bill Gates Foundation was doing in this sphere in the US and referring to the quality of higher education improving in China, he said we could expect Beijing or Shanghai to be part of the top 25 education destinations in the future. He also referred to India's IITs.

Gates surprised tech industry participants when he said the majority of Microsoft’s research and development will remain in the United States 10 years from now. When asked about Google's business practices in China, the richest man in the world said that he thought the internet "is contributing to Chinese political engagement" as "access to the outside world is preventing more censorship".

PetroChina, the state owned operators of China's controversial West-East Gas Pipeline have chosen Nortel Networks to supply communications, both wired and wireless, along its 4,200-kilometre route. The pipeline is the longest in China, spanning nine provinces to transport natural gas from the rich Lunnan gas fields of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region all the way to the economic hub of Shanghai and other regions of the Yangtze River Delta. Nortel has been winning critical infrastructure network supply contracts with Chinese utilities: water, electricity and notably with China's railway networks. . & - like the Qinghai-Tibet railway

"This pipeline is being built more for political reasons than for economic reasons," said Dinakar Sethuraman, an analyst with World Gas Intelligence in Singapore. "Its prospects for profit are cloudy."

..

China's leaders have staked their credibility on the pipeline. It is a central component of the government's "Go West" initiative, pressed by President Jiang Zemin as a way to lift China's impoverished western provinces by pumping billions of dollars into the region.

The Go lounge at CCC   more »

Security experts have revealed tantalising details about a group of Chinese hackers who are suspected of launching intelligence gathering attacks against the US government.   more »

The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, York Zimmerman Inc. and BreakAway Ltd. have been collaborating on A Force More Powerful � The Game of Nonviolent Strategy, set for release in early 2006.   more »

Oct. 24, 2005 marks pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi�s 10th year under house arrest.   more »

Lu Banglie is alive and has been speaking to the BBC about his ordeal. The Beeb also has a good piece on local elections in a land without the rule of law. Benjamin Joffe-Walt and Jonathan Watts profile the popularly elected village chief (today is the anniversary of Gandhi's birth,

A film about Gandhi changed his life. He believes the aggression and hyper-control of the Chinese authorities can be combated only with dialogue, teaching, learning, petitions. Mr Lu studied the doctrines of non-violence to appreciate simplicity, to focus, to spread the word in the villages.

Martin Jacques, currently a visiting scholar at Renmin University, explains more about the background story: sharply increasing inequality and a flood of hundreds of millions of migrant workers sucked into the cities - totally unsustainable ..

In the early phase of Deng Xiaoping's economic reforms the farmers were the main beneficiaries, but by the end of the 80s the rural communities began to lose out to the cities, a process that has accelerated in recent years and is the single biggest cause of the alarming growth in inequality. The sense of rural injustice and grievance, fuelled by widespread corruption, is reflected in the huge increase in protests reported last year compared with previous years.

Stephen Bowen of Amnesty international writes,

The story of Lu Banglie and Taishi village is incredibly significant ('They beat him until he was lifeless', October 10) - a fork in the road at which the authorities can move towards human rights and democracy, or impunity for abusive officials. But, sadly, it is a far from isolated case. .

How democracy activist in China's new frontline was left for dead after a brutal attack by a uniformed mob   more »

"Climate change is wreaking havoc at the birthplace of China's mother river," said Greenpeace China climate change researcher Li Mo Xuan.   more »

Here�s an opportunity to participate in peacekeeping work in Sri Lanka!   more »

Randeep Ramesh reports from Gangtok on the on-going feud over the identity of the Karmapa.   more »

Photographic Essay: Tibet, Environmental Destruction   more »

The Burmese junta has dismissed as 'absurd' former Vaclav Havel and Desmond Tutu's 70-page report "Threat to the Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma".   more »

New Left or "Neo-Comm"? Capitalism or Social Democracy? Co-existence or Containment? The routes open are many - but no one, least of all China, seems to know which way it will go ...   more »

By Xiao Qiang :: 2005-09-30, 09:14 PM :: Human Rights
The Asian Wall Street Journal publishes Xiao Qiang's commentary on the recent Internet Regulations.   more »

Gangtok - China’s sudden decision to defer the opening of border trade through Nathu La pass has come as a jarring note in the improvement of relations on the Sino-Indian border.   more »

Oneworld: Recent investigations by wildlife organisations reveal that a new breed of wealthy Tibetans who prize tiger skins as trimmings for their traditional costumes pose the latest and biggest ...   more »

Dir. Muhammed Rum, USA, 2004, 110mins,
Cast: Edgar Oliver, Waleed Zuaiter, Hussam Hamadeh, James Arnold   more »