David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.


12 March 2009

"Whether we look at it ...

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China denounces Dalai Lama and says Tibet is earthly paradise
Beijing
March 12, 2009

CHINA'S state media has declared Tibet an earthly paradise, rejecting the Dalai Lama's claims that it had become a "hell on earth", and heaped scorn on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The vitriol in the official media came a day after the tense anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising passed in Tibet amid a Chinese security lockdown...
(click to read this article)

Fifty years on, Tibet's cause is weaker but not crushed
Editorial, THE AGE
March 12, 2009

China is guilty of cultural genocide in the Buddhist nation.

FOR those who thought his public career was ending with a whimper, not a bang, the Dalai Lama has confounded expectations. This week the exiled Tibetan leader marked the 50th anniversary of his flight from his native land by declaring that during the past five decades Tibetans had experienced "hell on earth". The consequence of continual violent repression by the country's Chinese rulers, the Dalai Lama said, was that Tibet's religion, culture, language and national identity were nearing extinction. He did not call for independence, but renewed his long-standing demand that China grant Tibet "meaningful autonomy". Working for the cause of Tibet was the responsibility of every Tibetan, he said, and "whether we look at it from the global perspective or in the context of events in China, there are reasons for us to hope for a quick resolution of the issue".

That view of what might happen was emphatically rejected in Beijing, where a Foreign Ministry spokesman accused the Dalai Lama of lying, as Chinese Government spokesmen have so often done in the past. Then the spokesman launched into another familiar line: since its military occupation of Tibet in 1950, China had undertaken a comprehensive program of modernisation, culminating in the "widest and most profound" democratic reforms in Tibetan history...

"Whether we look at it from the global perspective or in the context of events in China, there are reasons for us to hope for a quick resolution of the issue."..Dalai Lama
(click here to read full statement by Dalai Lama)