Police Shoot Tibetan Monk Who Set Self on Fire - washingtonpost.com

Police Shoot Tibetan Monk Who Set Self on Fire - washingtonpost.com

A young Tibetan monk was shot by Chinese police after he set himself on fire Friday, the third day of the Tibetan New Year, at a market in Sichuan province’s Aba prefecture, Tibetan activist groups said, citing eyewitnesses.
Chinese authorities, determined to avoid a recurrence of the violence, have sharply increased security patrols, detentions and so-called reeducation campaigns. They are especially nervous about March 10, the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, which Chinese troops forcibly suppressed shortly before the Dalai Lama fled into exile and Beijing imposed its own government in Tibet.

…a monk in his 20s named Tapey came out of the monastery, took out a homemade flag bearing a photograph of the Dalai Lama and at 1:40 p.m. walked to a nearby street market. He had doused himself with oil by the time he reached an intersection in the market, where he set himself on fire, the activist groups said.

Witnesses said police then fired three shots at Tapey. At the first shot, he fell, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet, and officials removed him from the scene.

Eyewitnesses said they believed he was dead, but his condition has not been confirmed.

Hold on. Is there irony going here that I’m just not getting? Some sort of horrific “MY god! He’s on fire! Shoot him!”? This comes right on the heels of China denouncing the US for Human Rights Abuses: “eijing released its own report on the US, saying crime is a threat to many Americans and racial discrimination prevails in social life across the US.” I’m not going to defend the US at all, but in context? I’m flummoxed by the notion that countries can make these sort of statements and take these sort of actions and want to maintain a modicum of sham dignity. I can say that the US has moved on with Obama… can’t wait to see China move on.

Fluffy Toilet Paper Said to Be Worse for Environment Than Hummers

This is from FOX new: Fluffy Toilet Paper Said to Be Worse for Environment Than Hummers

That super-soft toilet paper you’re fond of using? It’s an ecological disaster, environmentalists say.

Millions of trees are harvested throughout the Americas – including rare old-growth forests in Canada – to sustain the United States’ obsession with quilted, ultra-soft, multi-ply toilet paper, the New York Times reported.

Although toilet paper manufacturers could produce products from recycled materials at a similar cost, the newspaper reported, the fiber taken from standing trees are necessary to help give the tissue its fluffy feel.

The United States is the largest market for toilet paper in the world, the newspaper reported, but tissue from 100 percent recycled fibers makes up less than 2 percent of sales for at-home use among conventional and premium brands. People from other countries throughout Europe and Latin America are far less picky about what they use to wipe.

“This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous,” Hershkowitz told the Guardian newspaper, which cited the chemicals used in pulp manufacturing and process of cutting down forests.

“Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age,” Hershkowitz said. “Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution.”

However, hope is on the horizon, if Hollywood is any indicator. The Times reported the Academy Awards ceremony last weekend used 100 percent recycled toilet paper at the Kodak Theater’s restrooms.

What’s in your bathroom? Hope it’s not a hummer.

Hands up - Disabled kids show host draws criticism, praise

My friend Katheryn at RyHigh has an interesting blog post, Hands up, where she talks about Disabled kids show host draws criticism, praise - CNN.com. Here’s a snippet from the CNN post

A children’s show host who was born with one hand is facing criticism from parents over her disability. The BBC is receiving complaints about kids’ show host Cerrie Burnell, who was born with one hand. BBC spokeswoman Katya Mira said the corporation has received at least 25 “official” complaints recently about Cerrie Burnell, new host of two shows on the BBC-run CBeebies television network, which is aimed at children younger than 6. The official complaints do not count the dozens of negative comments lodged in Internet chat rooms, Mira said. In one chat room, a father lamented that Burnell being on the show forced him to have conversations with his child about disabilities.

Kathryn goes on to say:

What I am sure is typical of the latter perspective, a comment on the CNN article said “It’s very hard, as a parent, to have every social issue jammed down the throat of your kids before they even hit first grade. Kids need a certain level of emotion maturity and understanding to be able to MAKE SENSE of the things they see. Otherwise they can’t categorize it properly in their minds.”
I know exactly what they mean. It was so difficult to explain to my young daughter why some people did not use sign language like we did.

Really, jamming a social issue down their throats? As a parent, here is how I see the conversation going.

“MommyDaddy, why does that lady have no hand?”
“Most people have hands but some have one hand and others have no hands.”
“Why?”
“That’s just the way it is.”
“Oh.”

The most interesting comment she makes is:

Sometimes kids will mimic the difference. Maybe they’d tuck their hand up their sleeve to experiment with having one hand. Most of the time, they’ll be satisfied with their little experiment and move on. As a two-handed person, I don’t speak for those with one hand, but I feel confident as a person with a disability to say that no one thinks your kid is a creep or you’re a bad parent for letting your kid do this. At that point, the child isn’t mocking; they are rehearsing in order to understand and empathize. After an ugly parental scolding “stop doing that. Don’t make fun of the handicapped,” or worse, “stop doing that. Do you want people to think you’re handicapped?” they start internalizing the value that it isn’t just different, it’s bad. And then, someday, when they’re looking to insult a classmate on the playground, they won’t call them one of the other ugly slurs based on race, nationality, gender, orientation, religion, or athletic ability, they’ll call them retard, or spaz, or gimp, or dummy.

I wish more parents thought this way.