Irish Examiner view: Tibet still a thorn in China’s side

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, is a focal point for the human rights struggle in his country

The Dalai Lama a day before his 90th birthday, in Dharamshala, India. Although insisting he is merely 'a simple Buddhist monk', the Dalai Lama is worshipped as a living manifestation of Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion. Picture: Ashwini Bhatia/AP

We are only too well aware that China likes to exert full control on all the territories and peoples over whom it claims authority. But, in the case of Tibet, the powers that be in Beijing have often been frustrated by the independent streak shown by its people and its leaders.

China annexed Tibet in 1950 and crushed an uprising in its capital, Lhasa, nine years later, forcing many natives to flee, not least of whom was the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and a focal point for the human rights struggle in his country.

As he celebrated his 90th birthday last weekend, the Dalai Lama, who now lives in the Himalayan town of Dharamshala, insisted that the search to find his successor would follow traditional practices and that China would have no say in the matter. This statement of intent was not warmly received.

Beijing had previously insisted it alone has the authority to approve the next Buddhist leader, a move seen as an attempt to exert further control over the country’s overwhelmingly Buddhist population.

Although insisting he is merely “a simple Buddhist monk”, the Dalai Lama is worshipped as a living manifestation of Chenrezig, the Buddha of compassion. He is the 14th person to hold the title in a tradition stretching back over 500 years.

He was thrust onto the Tibetan throne as a simple village boy in 1937 and is a god-king to his people, although he had to flee his native land after the Chinese annexed it. He escaped with thousands of his followers to India and established a government in exile there.

Tibetans have long insisted they had been independent for centuries and accuse China of trying to wipe out Buddhist culture and language. For their part, the Chinese say Tibet is part of China.

Many natives are insistent on full independence, but the Dalai Lama seeks only substantial autonomy and identity for his people and has advocated for a non-violent “middle way” of peacefully achieving their aims.

Although a Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1989, Beijing has consistently accused him of being “a wolf in monk’s clothing” and “the scum of Buddhism”.

Now, China wants to choose his successor and will not accept his view that his successor will be born in a free country. The Dalai Lama has long been a very public thorn in the side of the Communist Party and even now, at 90 years of age, he remains just that.

Time to take car industry to task

It is not before time that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) took the motor industry to task over its treatment of Irish motorists, particularly when it comes to the maintenance and servicing of cars.

For too long now, the industry has taken a cavalier attitude towards its customers, in many cases discouraging them from choosing where they get their cars serviced and what parts they use to maintain them.

All too often, when people purchase their cars from authorised dealers, there is small print contained in their protective warranties that they might not even notice, requiring them to only get their cars serviced or repaired by those dealers.

Should they not do so, the guarantees in their warranty could be voided.

However, as the CCPC pointed out in letters across the industry yesterday, such rules could break anti-competition law. It also advised that serious breaches of such laws could result in fines of up to €50m or 20% of a firm’s turnover — whichever is higher — on conviction by a jury.

The manner in which the industry railroads people into its preferred way of doing business has always been unsavoury, despite its claims of only doing so in order to guarantee the necessary quality of work.

That people have no choice in the matter is problematic, that they have no alternative to paying the often-extravagant costs imposed on them as a result is also unfair.

The CCPC’s antitrust department has highlighted how restrictions on competition between independent repairers and authorised ones “leads to higher prices and lower quality of service for motorists”.

Restrictive practices have long been part of the modus operandi in any number of industries, but those in the motor business have long stood out as being both unfair and harmful to consumers. The fact that manufacturers and their distributors can prevent independent garages from accessing the likes of diagnostic equipment is patently wrong.

These moves have been driven by complaints from consumers to the CCPC, which is a positive thing in itself, but the threat to act where illegal practices are identified, is truly good news for the customer.

A living city

The heart of any city is effectively a mirror of the character of the people who populate it but, in recent times, the absence of real people as residents of our city centres has denuded them of character and personality.

Cork city centre is a case in point and in recent decades the reduction in the numbers of people living there has become a grave concern to anyone who remembers a vibrant and lived-in cityscape. They rightly despair at what it has become.

That the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, has called on the taskforce assembled to study how the city can remain a busy commercial hub while also finding more residential space, is a step in the right direction for the regeneration of the city’s core areas. Having a thriving commercial heart by day and nothing other than largely deserted streets by night is in nobody’s interests. Business and communities alike need to be catered for together rather than separately and the taskforce needs to assess the needs of both if the city’s centre is to be
returned to being a living, breathing entity.

Cork needs that to happen.

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