G. Annandale

Trevor, he who now that the chips are down, cannot recognise a recession when it jumps up and bites him on the backside is now a clairvoyant. So ANC are blessed. They have Jesus Zuma, Tokyo the Witchdoctor and now Trevor the Clairvoyant.

He can unequivoically accuse the Dalai Lama of planning to subvert the Chinese Government from SA soil. The little Tibetan is as devious as Tutu, Tambo and others who subverted the SA government from foreign soil.

Steve

SA President apologizes for shoddy quality of Dalai Lama lies

Dave

That’s pretty funny – all the better were Trevor to actually read it!
Cheers

Eli Jikelele

Trevor was an important member of the struggle in the Western Cape but, alas, he has become just another piglet at the ANC trough trying to impress the big fat pigs!

Skodide Goodfella

Well said Eli.
I would though really like to know who put TM up to spitting out nonsense like that.
On the other hand, there may generally speaking even be a little truth in what is said,BUT did ANC not use countless other pulpits in order to doom this country to the fate which we all have inherited???

Eli Jikelele

He was getting all riled up in a public debate in Cape Town with Ryan Coetzee of the DA, I think!

Larry Goodfella

Clever Trevor is not so clever faced up with a DA opponent.

Delia Riordan

Well done, Ray!

I am shocked at the statement from Trevor Manuel. Tibet was not a ‘part of China’ in 1948 when the Chinese began to infiltrate Tibet. Tibet was not ‘a part of China’ in 1950 when China’s full-scale military invasion took place. To compare Tibet and Taiwan is disingenuous at best. The Taiwanese have had US political and military protection (and billions in trade!) since the end of WW2. Tibet never enjoyed such status.

Let’s get some perspective on feudalism’ whilst we are at it. Tibet was the most remote and isolated nation in the world until the last 50 years. Before the advent of Buddhism, Tibet had a brutal, primitive, warrior culture. But under the influence of Buddhism and the scholarly lamaism that grew out of it, Tibetans transformed their violent society into one of the most peaceful and philosophically sophisticated cultures the world has ever seen! To ridicule or minimise that achievement by reducing Tibet to a footnote in the history of China is despicable!

Yes, Tibet had a feudal structure–during the exactly the same period that Europe had a feudal structure and during the same period that China was in thrall to a succession of ‘MMORTAL’ EMPERORS WHO ACUALLY WERE WORSHIPPED AS GODS! THE DALAI LAMA HAS NEVER CLAIMED TO BE A GOD–NO MATTER WHO WANTS TO CALL HIM THAT. There is a good reason for this: BUDDHISTS DO NOT BELIEVE IN ‘GOD’.

LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN: BUDDHISTS DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD. BUDDHISM IS A PHILOSOPHY. In an effort to build understanding with other cultures, the current Dalai Lama describes Buddhism as a ‘religion’ but it is a religion without a ‘God’.

Tibetan Buddhism overcame the shamanic religion that preceded it and–AS CATHOLICISM DID–incorporated elements of the old rituals into its public character. In a largely illiterate culture, the highly abstract concepts of Buddhism were beyond the understanding of the majority of Tibetans during the early feudal period.

However, those aspects of native shamanism that were NOT at odds with the primary tenets of Buddhism survived. The costumes, masks, dancing, music, and folk tales adapted themselves to the structure of Buddhism to produce a unique culture: spiritual but not religious and less ‘martial’ than its nearest cousin, Taoism.

Tibet evolved into the most civilised society (along with pre-European Bali) that the world has ever seen. A society which views what we call ‘evil’ as ‘ignorance’. If people realised that every action has
consequences beyond the immediately observable, they would not commit evil acts. Name any other society based on the universal principle of refraining from inflicting harm on any living thing. There isn’t any other. Tibet WAS IT–until the Chinese invaded.

And talk about feudal societies! They don’t come any more FEUDAL THAN CHINA, Trevor. Feudalism survived longer there than anywhere else in the world! Mao was indistinguishable from the Emperors in every respect except sartorial! Mao was a

Temujin

I love the ignorance here. Tibet WAS a part of China since the Qing Dynasty. It was and has been a part of China longer than the United States has existed, so please don’t make uneducated comments. Just because it maintained independence within half a century during the time China was pillaged by various foreign powers does not make it entirely independent itself.

And honestly, Tibetans were little more than serfs for the Dalai Lama, so how is that any better than being under communist rule which – aside from alleged suppression which is vastly exaggerated by western media.

Not to mention in the end, you just proved Manuel’s point. “To say anything against the Dalai Lama is, in some quarters, equivalent to trying to shoot Bambi.”