Former Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama / South Africa and China

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama
Image Source

In the past I supported calls for South Africa supplying the Dalai Lama with a visa to visit South Africa. See here. My main motivation was the importance of freedom of religion and freedom of expression. The recent controversy leaves me slightly less sympathetic. The Dalai Lama was invited by former Archbishop Desmond Tutu to attend his 80th birthday celebrations. Tutu was born on 7 October 1931. My question must be, what was Archbishop Tutu thinking? He must have known that South Africa will again deny the Dalai Lama his visa, because of South Africa's strong ties with China. His invitation only brought humiliation on the Dalai Lama and put South Africa in a negative light. Or was that the purpose? The Dalai Lama gains much international sympathy from such China-related dismissals.

What I've mentioned thus far has probably been said by many other news analysts. So here are my two cents:

First, South Africa ought to give a clearer message as to why they are against the Dalai Lama's visit. At present we only look like a puppet of China, which, as the economic leader in Africa, we definitely do not want to come across as. Of course our camaraderie with China cannot be denied, but the government's media spin doctors can definitely come up with a better story. For instance, Tibetan Buddhism is surprisingly quite patriarchal and even misogynistic. Modern orthodox Tibetan Buddhism preaches that it is practically impossible for a woman to attain enlightenment. In future reincarnations they first need to be born as a male. Then there are the use of female sex “volunteers” by the highest level Lamas as part of their tantric practices. For more on this, read June Campbell's personal account as a Tibetan Buddhist insider. You can read an interview with Campbell here. If South Africa were to motivate its decision to deny a visa for the Dalai Lama on more grounds than just its ties with China, for example Tibet's religious subjugation of women, it would get much less backlash from the many South Africans who are looking favourably on the friendly Dalai Lama.

Second, it is not covered in the mass media, but on more than one account have I heard of military bases (at least two that I know of) manned by Chinese soldiers in South Africa. What is the purpose of two Chinese military camps on South African soil? One estimate that I recently heard of counts the number of Chinese soldiers in the thousands. Now this is something we South Africans ought to find much more disconcerting than South Africa's denial of the Dalai Lama's visa. Is South Africa in some greater Chinese grip, something much worse than mere economic relations, than most of us are aware of? This is the real story that needs to get media attention.

Things like Information Security Bill gets a much more sinister tone if scene with the aforementioned as a backdrop.

Manhunt International 2011 -- Seoul, Korea

Currently Gangnam, a district in Seoul where I used to live, is hosting their annual Gangnam Fashion Festival. Fashion shows ran this past weekend and will continue over next weekend. Part of last nights line-up was the peacock parade of "Manhunt International". I wasn't going to take pictures of this section, but the battery of my friend who went with me to the fashion show ran out, so she asked me to take photos for her. Well here are the pictures of the global male beauty stereotypes for your viewing pleasure. I wasn't able to snap a picture of all of them, but these are most of them. There are more photos at the official website, including mugshots of each contestant and an opportunity to vote for your favourite.

Honestly, some of these guys do not reflect the countries they are from at all. Take for instance the guy representing Kazakhstan--he is the one in the green jacket. He has blond hair and bright blue eyes. Not what I would think a representative of Kazakhstan's handsome dark haired and some what Asian looking men.

In the photos below the pageant contestants are seen in their national costumes. Honestly, some of these costumes were quite outrageous. I added captions for the countries that I can remember.

Australia

Angola

Costa Rica

China

England

France

Greece

Hawaii

Hong Kong

India

Japan

Kazakhstan

Macedonia

Mongolia

Pakistan

Singapore

South Africa

Thailand

Korea

The final pageant for Manhunt International 2011 will be held in Central City, Seoul, on 10 October.

Zahara's "Loliwe"

South African Xhoza singer Zahara performs her title song "Loliwe", from her recent album in the video below. The song is causing a lot of buzz in South Africa. In part because of its beautiful melody and Zahara's rich vocal quality. However, it is not only the aesthetics of the song that is causing the talk -- it is the confusing lyrics. The narrator in the song tells her audience to wipe the tears from their faces because the train is coming, the train is coming, "loliwe", but then the lyrics make a strange turn in the bridge, saying that heaven is only filled with Christians, so if you want to go to heaven you should pray.



Since the album is not a gospel album, it would seem that the lyrics are somewhat insensitive, even, hyper liberals can argue, politically incorrect as it clearly suggests that there is no salvation for anybody of a different faith. The lyrics are further confusing as the connection with the coming train and heaven is never made clear. Is the train a reference to the Second Advent in which the living in Christ and those that died in Christ are spirited away into heaven -- transited to heaven in a metaphorical train, like Elijah in a flaming chariot (II Kings 2:11)? The coming train is obviously meant to be good news, for it is the reason why they should wipe away their tears and stop crying. But why are they crying in the first place? Are they the one's that should pray? Are they crying because they are not going to heaven? If so, why should the announcement of the coming train be of comfort to them?

Any Xhoza readers or other South Africans of this blog that can help to decipher the song?


Update:

I just saw in the comments under another "Loliwe" related YouTube video one YouTube viewer translate the section in question as: "in heaven only the holy ones stay there so if you also want to stay [then you should] pray". Since it is a native speaker's translation, I assume it is much closer than my assumption that it was only Christians staying in heaven. But myself and others are still confused about the connections between the crying people, the coming train, and heaven.