Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Prayers for the downfall of Evil Empire code-named Babylon. REVELATION. Chapter 18.
On Wednesday, April 29, 2020, I offer my prayers for the downfall of Evil Empire code-named ‘Babylon’. Historically, life on planet Earth is impacted by collision events as celestial objects can unleash vast amounts of destructive power within a short duration of time. The LORD God Creator is aware of the man’s evil actions and they will never go unnoticed.
This Day in My Life – July 26 – My CIA Connection. In Man’s Plan, I exist as a mere Pawn used in the War on Communism, Legacy of Cold War Era Geopolitics. What is God’s Plan?
Mile-wide asteroid to zip past Earth on Wednesday
Mile-wide asteroid to zip past Earth on Wednesday, April 29, 2020.
Brian Lada, AccuWeather• April 28, 2020
A giant asteroid from the depths of our solar system will fly by Earth at midweek. This is the largest space rock to zoom past the planet since the start of the year.
Estimated to be a little over a mile wide, asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 will make its closest approach to Earth on Wednesday, April 29; this is the closest it has come to the planet in over 100 years.
There is no chance that it will collide with the planet on Wednesday as it will safely glide by at a distance of around 4 million miles. To put this into perspective, this is about 16 times farther away than the moon is from the Earth.
Space rocks fly past the planet on a daily basis but according to Earthsky, this one in particular is the largest to zip by the Earth so far in 2020.
This animation was created using a series of delay-Doppler images taken on April 18, 2020. (Arecibo Observatory / NASA / NSF)
Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Prayers for the downfall of Evil Empire code-named Babylon. REVELATION, Chapter 18.
Although it poses no threat to hitting the Earth this time by, asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 has been classified as a “Potentially Hazardous Asteroid.”
“Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid’s potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth,” NASA said.
By definition, any asteroid that is larger than 500 feet across and is projected to come within 4.6 million miles of Earth is called a PHA.
At over 5,000 feet wide, 1998 OR2 would cause some serious damage if it were on a crash course with the planet.
On June 30, 1908, an asteroid estimated to be around 262 feet across exploded over an uninhabited area of Siberia while entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion had a force equivalent to that of the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, flattening 500,000 acres of forest. This is known as the Tunguska event.
However, it pales in comparison to the asteroid that is believed to have caused the dinosaurs to go extinct, which is estimated to have been around 6 miles across.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Prayers for the downfall of evil empire code-named Babylon. REVELATION, Chapter 18.
English: Asteroid 1998 OR2 as imaged by the Arecibo Radar on 18 April 2020. Some observers have noted that the asteroid appears to be wearing a face mask of its own in images. (Arecibo Observatory / NASA / NSF)
At 4 million miles away, the one-mile-wide rock may seem like it is too far away to see, but observers with a decent telescope may be able to spot it from their backyards, as long as Mother Nature cooperates.
Onlookers will need a telescope with a primary mirror of at least 6 or 8 inches that is pointed to the southern sky near the constellation Hydra, EarthSky said. At first, it may just look like another star, but over time, it will slowly drift in a different way than the stars around it.
After Wednesday, asteroid (52768) 1998 OR2 will not swipe past the Earth again until May 18, 2031.
Similar to this week, this next flyby will post no risk of collision as it will be more than 45 times farther away than the moon, according to NASA.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020. Prayers for the downfall of Evil Empire code-named Babylon. REVELATION, Chapter 18.
Modern-Day Involuntary Servitude and Slavery signed into Public Law by President Bill Clinton. The Clinton Curse of 1996 Compromised the Ability of Americans to Fight Coronavirus With Compassion.
In my analysis, ‘The Clinton Curse’ of 1996 compromised the ability of Americans to fight Coronavirus with Compassion. President Bill Clinton’s “A New Beginning” reintroduced Slavery in America by taking away the Rights sanctioned by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
The Clinton Curse of 1996 Compromised the Ability of Americans to Fight Coronavirus with Compassion.
The CARES ACT of 2020 may reflect upon the economic might of the United States to fight the Coronavirus. However, the manner in which the economic relief is dispersed clearly demonstrates the American inability to respond with Compassion.
‘Prayer Is Not Enough.’ The Dalai Lama on Why We Need to Fight Coronavirus With Compassion
The Clinton Curse of 1996 Compromised the Ability of Americans to Fight Coronavirus With Compassion. Photo image credit. Ruven Afanador for TIME
BY DALAI LAMA APRIL 14, 2020 5:23 PM EDT
Sometimes friends ask me to help with some problem in the world, using some “magical powers.” I always tell them that the Dalai Lama has no magical powers. If I did, I would not feel pain in my legs or a sore throat. We are all the same as human beings, and we experience the same fears, the same hopes, the same uncertainties.
From the Buddhist perspective, every sentient being is acquainted with suffering and the truths of sickness, old age and death. But as human beings, we have the capacity to use our minds to conquer anger and panic and greed. In recent years I have been stressing “emotional disarmament”: to try to see things realistically and clearly, without the confusion of fear or rage. If a problem has a solution, we must work to find it; if it does not, we need not waste time thinking about it.
We Buddhists believe that the entire world is interdependent. That is why I often speak about universal responsibility. The outbreak of this terrible coronavirus has shown that what happens to one person can soon affect every other being. But it also reminds us that a compassionate or constructive act—whether working in hospitals or just observing social distancing—has the potential to help many.
Ever since news emerged about the coronavirus in Wuhan, I have been praying for my brothers and sisters in China and everywhere else. Now we can see that nobody is immune to this virus. We are all worried about loved ones and the future, of both the global economy and our own individual homes. But prayer is not enough.
This crisis shows that we must all take responsibility where we can. We must combine the courage doctors and nurses are showing with empirical science to begin to turn this situation around and protect our future from more such threats.
In this time of great fear, it is important that we think of the long-term challenges—and possibilities—of the entire globe. Photographs of our world from space clearly show that there are no real boundaries on our blue planet. Therefore, all of us must take care of it and work to prevent climate change and other destructive forces. This pandemic serves as a warning that only by coming together with a coordinated, global response will we meet the unprecedented magnitude of the challenges we face.
We must also remember that nobody is free of suffering, and extend our hands to others who lack homes, resources or family to protect them. This crisis shows us that we are not separate from one another—even when we are living apart. Therefore, we all have a responsibility to exercise compassion and help.
As a Buddhist, I believe in the principle of impermanence. Eventually, this virus will pass, as I have seen wars and other terrible threats pass in my lifetime, and we will have the opportunity to rebuild our global community as we have done many times before. I sincerely hope that everyone can stay safe and stay calm. At this time of uncertainty, it is important that we do not lose hope and confidence in the constructive efforts so many are making.
The Dalai Lama is the Supreme Leader of Tibetans and a Nobel laureate
This article is part of a special series on how the coronavirus is changing our lives, with insights and advice from the TIME 100 community.
The Economic Fallout of The Clinton Curse. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator. The Clinton Curse of 1996 Compromised the Ability of Americans to Fight Coronavirus With Compassion.
The Coronavirus Disease. Old solutions cannot resolve the new crisis.
The health care crisis caused by the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) is getting much attention for its fallout includes an economic disaster, the extent of which is still unknown. The US invested nearly $2.5 trillion dollars to provide economic relief to both individuals and business entities. In my analysis, the health care interventions and the economic interventions may not provide adequate relief. Firstly, the term health has to be correctly defined. Health is about the well-being of man. To define the term health, the Medical Science has to define the term man. What is Man? The singularity commonly viewed as man is indeed a spectrum of seven colors or dimensions. The physical, the mental, and the social dimensions of the man are well understood. However, the Science refuses to include the moral, the spiritual, and the rational dimensions of the man. The interventions do not work unless they recognize the man as a spiritual, moral, and rational being. I am using the term ‘spiritual’ not in the context of a religious faith or doctrine. The term ‘spiritual’ refers to the experience of peace, harmony, and tranquility in the living human condition. The man experiences the condition called ‘happiness’ if his living condition is consistent with the operation of peace, harmony, and tranquility. The plan to spend enormous amounts of money will only aggravate the problem of the debt burden as the US government relies upon deficit spending to operate its routine activities. Without the moral, spiritual, and rational constraints, the response to the pandemic remains inadequate and insufficient.
The Coronavirus Disease. Old solutions cannot resolve the new crisis. There is no Hearing without Healing.
The Real Economic Fallout of COVID-19
Apr 8, 2020
DENNIS J. SNOWER
The Coronavirus Disease. Old solutions cannot resolve the new crisis.
Dennis J. Snower, President of the Global Solutions Initiative, is a professor at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, Senior Research Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University, a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution, and President Emeritus of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Regardless of how long the current pandemic lasts, the existing organization of economic activities needs to change fundamentally. In particular, governments must support the shift in employment from physically interactive to physically disjointed activities.
BERLIN – Governments around the world are pursuing extremely expansive monetary and fiscal policies to combat the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. But such largesse is appropriate for an old-style depression, not for this public-health crisis.
We currently face a tradeoff between social triage and economic collapse. That is because much economic activity involves physical interactions among people, including in the retail trade, restaurants, tourism, live entertainment, and most forms of office work. With social distancing being enforced, such activity comes to a halt.
Worse, COVID-19 is the first pandemic to have struck a thoroughly integrated global economy. Most goods today are products of global supply chains, where physical interactions in one location are connected to physical interactions elsewhere. Stop the physical interactions in one place, and the economic fallout is felt in many others.
Higher government spending, lower taxes, and rock-bottom interest rates may keep people afloat in the short term, but do not stimulate productive activity when people cannot work. Nor will supplementing the incomes of the newly unemployed necessarily shore up consumption when most shops are closed and delivery services are unable to meet the exploding demand.
The problem is not a generalized drop in aggregate demand, as was the case during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Rather, it is a dramatic fall in the production and consumption of goods and services that rely on physical interactions, combined with an equally dramatic rise in the production and consumption of goods and services that don’t involve such interactions.
That is why business is currently booming for Amazon and Netflix, but slumping for hotels and restaurants. Infact, the pandemic has caused a Great Economic Mismatch: Many sectors that depend on existing production and distribution processes are shedding workers, while others are unable to hire enough.
Many governments have announced fiscal measures to mitigate the pandemic’s economic impact, such as paying much of the wages of furloughed workers (as in the United Kingdom) or sending taxpayers a stimulus check (as in the United States). Canada, Denmark, France, and others are paying large parts of company payrolls so that firms remain intact.
But such initiatives aim to preserve the income from jobs that have disappeared, rather than generating income from jobs that have yet to be filled. While policies like these are appropriate for combating an economic depression or covering a temporary shortfall in aggregate demand, they will not help to address the Great Economic Mismatch.
Indeed, it would be irresponsible for governments to formulate policy on the assumption that the current pandemic is a temporary, one-time occurrence. Policymakers should not think that it is enough to give employers and employees some money to tide them over before the prompt return of economic normality.
No one knows how long the pandemic will last. If it turns out to be lengthy, then the Great Economic Mismatch should induce governments everywhere to plan for a persistent structural change. Supporting incomes from non-existent jobs will cease to be an option, so helping people to find new jobs must become paramount.
If the pandemic is reasonably short, then governments must ensure that they are never again caught as unprepared as they are now. That will mean strengthening the economy’s resilience to pandemic shocks, by ensuring that people have the skills to perform new jobs.
So, regardless of how long the pandemic lasts, the organization of economic activities needs to change fundamentally. But thus far, governments have not risen to this challenge.
In order to understand the underlying problem and identify the policy solution, we need to devise new categories of economic activity. In particular, we need to divide production and consumption into physically interactive (PI) and physically disjointed (PD) activities.
The pandemic is dramatically restructuring global supply chains and consumption behavior to the detriment of PI activities and in favor of PD activities. Consequently, the primary job of governments is not to make up for a shortfall in aggregate demand, but rather to finance the adjustments needed to overcome the Great Economic Mismatch.
It is not enough to provide income support to people without jobs; governments must also give them access to essential goods and services such as food and medical care, as well as to PD support for mental and physical health. Nowadays, this access is far from assured in many countries, leading to widespread anxiety and despair.
Employment services can play a vital role by identifying the rapidly proliferating PD jobs and conveying this information to people engaged in PI activities. Finance and labor ministries, meanwhile, should subsidize relocation and training expenses.
To promote the movement of workers from vanishing PI jobs into readily available PD positions, governments should provide hiring subsidies. These are far superior to payroll-tax reductions, which aim to preserve old jobs rather than overcoming the mismatch.
Furthermore, a pandemic is a public bad, and individuals do not have to pay the full cost of the damage they cause to others by transmitting the virus. Because the free-market system cannot deal efficiently with this problem, testing and treatment must be financed by the government. This is accepted as a matter of course in some countries (such as Germany and South Korea), but woefully ignored by others (such as the US).
True, subsidizing the adjustment costs generated by the Great Economic Mismatch will be expensive. But the amounts involved would be small compared to the sums that many governments are currently planning to spend in response to the economic fallout of the pandemic.
The fallout is not slumping demand, but rather the abrupt and rapid shift in our production and consumption activities. Instead of desperately applying old solutions to a new problem, governments everywhere must help economies adjust to this change.
For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. Three things they were failing to do—see, hear, and understand with the heart. Two blessings for all believers: Conversion, a change of direction, a new walk with God. Physical healing, a change of health, a new health in God. Even in this small group we have seen people come and visit, tell us how much they enjoyed it, but never return for more.
In God We Trust. The Uncaring Action of The CARES Act of 2020.
The fiscal policy of the United States must reflect the official Motto of the Nation. In my analysis, the Uncaring Action of The CARES Act of 2020 truly speaks of the Clinton Curse of 1996 that scorched the compassionate heart of the United States.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment
In God We Trust. The Uncaring Action of The CARES Act of 2020.
Millions of Taxpaying Immigrants Won’t Get Stimulus Checks
In God We Trust. The Uncaring Action of The CARES Act of 2020. In 1996, US President Bill Clinton scorched the compassionate heart of the nation.
Roughly 4.3 million mostly unauthorized immigrants who do not have a Social Security number file taxes using what’s known as a taxpayer identification number (ITIN)
In this April 3, 2020, photo, house painter Jose Martinez stands on his front porch in Greenfield, Mass. Martinez said a pandemic stimulus check could have helped cover at least a month’s worth of expenses, if he had qualified. The 34-year-old Mexican crossed the border illegally about 15 years ago and lives near the Vermont state line with his 4-year-old American-born daughter. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
The $2.2 trillion package that Congress approved to offer financial help during the coronavirus pandemic has one major exclusion: millions of immigrants who do not have legal status in the U.S. but work here and pay taxes.
That includes Carmen Contreras Lopez, a 48-year-old housekeeper who, though she earns low wages, files a tax return each year. Since the virus took hold, she has lost most of her clients and is getting by with help from her oldest son. But she won’t see a penny of the money promised to most Americans in response to the pandemic.
“It’s hard because to the government, we don’t exist,” said Contreras Lopez, who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years and has four grown children who are U.S. citizens.
The government expects to begin making payments to millions of Americans in mid-April. Anyone earning up to $75,000 in adjusted gross income and who has a Social Security number will receive $1,200. The payment steadily declines for those who make more. Legal permanent residents, or green card holders, are expected to benefit.
Roughly 4.3 million mostly unauthorized immigrants who do not have a Social Security number file taxes using what’s known as a taxpayer identification number, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Many say they pay federal taxes because they hope it will one day help them achieve legal residency and because they feel it’s the right thing to do.
“We made that decision because we’re living in a country that’s welcomed us with a lot of love,” said Ingrid Vaca, a house cleaner in the Washington, D.C., area.
Vaca said immigrants take care of communities, children, the elderly and homes, but they will not receive any help themselves. Also left out are the workers’ 3.5 million children, many of whom are American citizens.
“This is a nightmare to me and many of my colleagues,” Vaca said, lamenting the lack of income for rent and basic necessities. “We need for us to be respected.”
Asked how immigrants without legal status will survive the pandemic’s economic toll without any aid, President Donald Trump acknowledged the difficulty but said many citizens without work need help first.
“It’s a really sad situation, and we are working on it. I will tell you I’m not going to give you a hard and fast answer because I just want to tell you it’s something I think about,” Trump said.
Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation last week in the House and Senate that would allow immigrants to access relief funds.
“COVID-19 does not care about your immigration status, so neither should our response,” U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, said in a statement.
Maria Zamorano, a day laborer in the Los Angeles area, has also been left without work. Until recently, she worked seven days a week cleaning houses, earning roughly $700 weekly. But all of her employers canceled services. After she did an interview with The New York Times about her situation, two of those employers decided to keep paying her, she said, but she doesn’t know for how long. She’s still short on cash for food, rent and bills.
“Like thousands of others who don’t have legal status, we are left empty-handed in this crisis,” Zamorano said. “I pay taxes, but the government doesn’t consider that we should get help.”
In rural Massachusetts, Jose Martinez said a pandemic stimulus check could have helped cover at least a month’s worth of expenses, if he had qualified. The 34-year-old Mexican crossed the border illegally about 15 years ago and lives near the Vermont state line with his 4-year-old American-born daughter.
Martinez, a house painter, says work has dropped off during the pandemic. His boss still owes him more than $500 for recent jobs, and the restaurant where he washes dishes part-time has also been temporarily shuttered.
“The check would have given me the opportunity to stay at home, avoid sickness and keep my family safe,” Martinez said, referring to the stimulus money. “But I have to keep looking for work and exposing us to risk. I don’t know what else to do.”
Luis Jiménez, a 35-year-old Mexican who takes cares of calves in New York, near Canada, said he feels forgotten by the government even though his work is vital to feed Americans.
“We are essential to the economy and to feed this country, but we don’t get any help or support,” said the father of three, who has lived in the United States without legal status for 16 years.
Jiménez, who lives with his kids and spouse, said he makes about $38,000 a year and pays about $6,000 in taxes annually. He has been paying them since 2005, he said.
“Every day we go to work and we are exposed to everything. In the farm, there are hardly any protection measures” against coronavirus, he said.
___
Marcelo reported from Boston. Torrens reported from New York. Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant in Houston, Regina Garcia Cano in Washington and Anita Snow in Phoenix also contributed to this report.Copyright AP – Associated Press
In God We Trust. The Uncaring Action of The CARES Act of 2020.
The economic fallout of ‘The Clinton Curse’. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator
I reviewed the opinions of nine global thinkers on the issue of the economic fallout of the Coronavirus pandemic. None of the nine global thinkers mentioned about the need for the Blessings of the LORD God Creator. In my analysis, no man, and no nation can ever hope to be self-reliant. Both the individual entity, and the national entity will only exist if and only if the existence is granted by the LORD God Creator’s Mercy, Grace, and Compassion.
The economic fallout of ‘The Clinton Curse’. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator.
How the Economy Will Look After the Coronavirus Pandemic
The economic fallout of ‘The Clinton Curse’. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator: In this graphic, Julie Peasley shows how many one-dollar bills it would take to stack up to the total U.S. debt of $31.4 trillion.Americans will give attention to my words after they fail to resolve the Economic Crisis through either Liberal or Conservative Spending Plans to revive the National Economy.The economic fallout of ‘The Clinton Curse’. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator. Americans will give attention to my words after they fail to resolve the Economic Crisis through either Liberal or Conservative Spending Plans to revive the National Economy.The economic fallout of ‘The Clinton Curse’. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator.Whole Dude – Whole Plan: Americans will give attention to my words after they fail to resolve the Economic Crisis through either Liberal or Conservative Spending Plans to revive the National Economy.The Clinton Curse. America in Crisis. No Economist can Save the US from the present day economic downfall. Americans will give attention to my words after they fail to resolve the Economic Crisis through either Liberal or Conservative Spending Plans to revive the National Economy.
In my analysis, the Economic Policy of President Bill Clinton is fundamentally flawed for it violated the principles of Natural Law that make America a proud and prosperous nation in the world. The economic downfall of the United States is relentless and is almost unstoppable. There can be no healing and no recovery without the Blessings promised by God and living up to the Official Motto “IN GOD WE TRUST.”
THE CLINTON CURSE. THE RETURN OF ORIGINAL SIN. THE UNITED STATES IS CURSED TO RUN ITS GOVERNMENT WITH BORROWINGS FROM FOREIGN NATIONS.
The pandemic will change the economic and financial order forever. We asked nine leading global thinkers for their predictions.
BY JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, ROBERT J. SHILLER, GITA GOPINATH, CARMEN M. REINHART, ADAM POSEN, ESWAR PRASAD, ADAM TOOZE, LAURA D’ANDREA TYSON, KISHORE MAHBUBANI APRIL 15, 2020, 5:10 PM
BRIAN STAUFFER ILLUSTRATION FOR FOREIGN POLICY. The Clinton Curse. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator.
After many weeks of lockdowns, tragic loss of life, and the shuttering of much of the global economy, radical uncertainty is still the best way to describe this historical moment. Will businesses reopen and jobs come back? Will we travel again? Will the flood of money from central banks and governments be enough to prevent a deep and lasting recession, or worse?
This much is certain: The pandemic will lead to permanent shifts in political and economic power in ways that will become apparent only later.
To help us make sense of the ground shifting beneath our feet, Foreign Policy asked nine leading thinkers, including two Nobel-Prize-winning economists, to weigh in with their predictions for the economic and financial order after the pandemic.
We Need a Better Balance Between Globalization and Self-Reliance
by Joseph E. Stiglitz
Economists used to scoff at calls for countries to pursue food or energy security policies. In a globalized world where borders don’t matter, they argued, we could always turn to other countries if something happened in our own. Now, borders suddenly do matter, as countries hold on tightly to face masks and medical equipment, and struggle to source supplies. The coronavirus crisis has been a powerful reminder that the basic political and economic unit is still the nation-state.
The coronavirus crisis has been a powerful reminder that the basic political and economic unit is still the nation-state.
To build our seemingly efficient supply chains, we searched the world over for the lowest-cost producer of every link in the chain. But we were short-sighted, constructing a system that is plainly not resilient, insufficiently diversified, and vulnerable to interruptions. Just-in-time production and distribution, with low or no inventories, may be capable enough of absorbing small problems, but we have now seen the system crushed by an unexpected disturbance.
We should have learned the lesson of resilience from the 2008 financial crisis. We had created an interconnected financial system that seemed efficient and was perhaps good at absorbing small shocks, but it was systemically fragile. If not for massive government bailouts, the system would have collapsed as the real estate bubble popped. Evidently, that lesson went right over our heads.
The economic system we construct after this pandemic will have to be less shortsighted, more resilient, and more sensitive to the fact that economic globalization has far outpaced political globalization. So long as this is the case, countries will have to strive for a better balance between taking advantage of globalization and a necessary degree of self-reliance.
This Wartime Atmosphere Has Opened a Window for Change
by Robert J. Shiller
There are fundamental changes that happen from time to time—often during times of war. Though the enemy is now a virus and not a foreign power, the COVID-19 pandemic has created a wartime atmosphere in which such changes suddenly seem possible.Though the enemy is a virus and not a foreign power, the pandemic has created a wartime atmosphere in which fundamental changes suddenly seem possible.
This atmosphere, with narratives of both suffering and heroism, is spreading with the disease. Wartime brings people together not only within a country, but also between countries, as they share a common enemy like the virus. Those who live in advanced countries can feel more sympathy with those suffering in poor countries because they are sharing a similar experience. The epidemic is also bringing us together in countless Zoom get-togethers. Suddenly the world seems smaller and more intimate.
There is also reason to hope that the pandemic has opened a window to creating new ways and institutions to deal with the suffering, including more effective measures to stop the trend toward greater inequality. Perhaps the emergency payments to individuals that many governments have made are a path to a universal basic income. In the United States, better and more universal health insurance might just have been given new impetus. Since we are all on the same side in this war, we may now find the motivation to build new international institutions allowing better risk-sharing among countries. The wartime atmosphere will fade again, but these new institutions would persist.
The Real Risk Is Politicians Exploiting Our Fears
by Gita Gopinath
Over only a few weeks, a dramatic chain of events—tragic loss of life, paralyzed global supply chains, interrupted shipments of medical supplies between allies, and the deepest global economic contraction since the 1930s—has laid bare the vulnerabilities of open borders.People may self-assess their individual risks and decide to curtail travel indefinitely, reversing 50 years of rising international mobility.
If support for an integrated global economy was already declining before COVID-19 struck, the pandemic will likely hasten the reassessment of globalization’s costs and benefits. Firms that are part of global supply chains have witnessed firsthand the risks inherent in their interdependencies and the large losses caused by disruption. In future, these firms are likely to take greater account of tail risks, resulting in supply chains that are more local and robust—but less global. In emerging markets, whose embrace of globalization included a steady opening to capital flows, we risk seeing capital controls being reimposed as these countries scramble to shield themselves from the destabilizing forces of the sudden economic stop. And even as containment measures gradually come off worldwide, people may self-assess their individual risks and decide to curtail travel indefinitely, reversing half a century of rising international mobility.
The real risk, however, is that this organic and self-interested shift away from globalization by people and firms will be compounded by some policymakers who exploit fears over open borders. They could impose protectionist restrictions on trade under the guise of self-sufficiency and restrict the movement of people under the pretext of public health. It is now in the hands of global leaders to avert this outcome and to retain the spirit of international unity that has collectively sustained us for more than 50 years.
Another Nail in the Coffin of Globalization
by Carmen M. Reinhart
World War I and the global economic depression in the early 1930s ushered in the demise of a previous era of globalization. Apart from a resurgence of trade barriers and capital controls, an important explanation for this demise is the fact that more than 40 percent of all countries at the time entered default, cutting many of them off from the global capital markets until the 1950s or much later. By the time World War II ended, the new Bretton Woods system combined domestic financial repression with extensive controls of capital flows, with little resemblance to the preceding era of global trade and finance.Pandemic-induced recessions may be deep and long—and as in the 1930s, sovereign defaults will likely spike.
The modern globalization cycle has faced a series of blows since the financial crisis of 2008-2009: a European debt crisis, Brexit, and the U.S.-China trade war. The rise of populism in many countries further tilts the balance toward home bias.
The coronavirus pandemic is the first crisis since the 1930s to engulf both advanced and developing economies. Their recessions may be deep and long. As in the 1930s, sovereign defaults will likely spike. Calls to restrict trade and capital flows find fertile soil in bad times.
Doubts about pre-coronavirus global supply chains, the safety of international travel, and, at the national level, concerns about self-sufficiency in necessities and resilience are all likely to persist—even after the pandemic is brought under control (which may itself prove a lengthy process). The post-coronavirus financial architecture may not take us all the way back to the pre globalization era of Bretton Woods, but the damage to international trade and finance is likely to be extensive and lasting.
The Economy’s Preexisting Conditions Are Made Worse by the Pandemic
by Adam Posen
The pandemic will worsen four preexisting conditions of the world economy. They will remain reversible through major surgery but turn chronic and damaging absent such interventions. The first of these conditions is secular stagnation—the combination of low productivity growth, a lack of private investment returns, and near-deflation. This will deepen as people stay risk-averse and save more following the pandemic, which will persistently weaken demand and innovation.
Second, the gap between rich countries (along with a few emerging markets) and the rest of the world in their resilience to crises will widen further.Economic nationalism will increasingly lead governments to shut off their own economies from the rest of the world.
Third, partly as a result of flight to safety and the apparent riskiness of developing economies, the world will continue to be over-reliant on the U.S. dollar for financing and trade. Even while the United States becomes less attractive for investment, its attraction will increase relative to most other parts of the world. This will lead to ongoing dissatisfaction.
Finally, economic nationalism will increasingly lead governments to shut off their own economies from the rest of the world. This will never produce complete autarky, or anything close to it, but it will reinforce the first two trends and increase resentment of the third.
More Than Ever, the World Looks to Central Bankers for Deliverance
by Eswar Prasad
The economic and financial carnage wrought by the pandemic could leave deep scars on the world economy. Central banks have stepped up to the challenge by tearing up their own rulebooks. The U.S. Federal Reserve has bolstered financial markets with asset purchases and provided dollar liquidity to other central banks. The European Central Bank has declared “no limits” to its support of the euro and announced massive purchases of government and corporate bonds, and other assets. The Bank of England is financing government spending directly. Even some emerging-market central banks, such as the Reserve Bank of India, are considering extraordinary measures—all risks be damned.Central bankers, once considered cautious and conservative, have shown they can act with agility, boldness, and creativity.
Fiscal stimulus by governments, on the other hand, has proved to be politically complicated, cumbersome to implement, and often difficult to target where the need is greatest.
Central bankers, once considered cautious and conservative, have shown they can act with agility, boldness, and creativity in desperate times. Even when political leaders are unwilling to coordinate policies across borders, central bankers can act in concert.
Now and for a long time to come, central banks have become entrenched as the first and main line of defense against economic and financial crises. They may come to rue this immense new role and the unrealistic burdens and expectations it will impose on them.
The Normal Economy Is Never Coming Back
by Adam Tooze
As the lockdowns began, the first impulse was to search for historical analogies—1914, 1929, 1941? Since then, what has come ever more to the fore is the historical novelty of the shock we are living through. There is something new under the sun. And it is horrifying.
The economic fallout defies calculation. Many countries face a far deeper and more savage economic shock than they have ever previously experienced. In sectors like retail, already under fierce pressure from online competition, the temporary lockdown may prove to be terminal. Many stores will not reopen, their jobs permanently lost. Millions of workers, small-business owners, and their families are facing catastrophe. The longer we sustain the lockdown, the deeper the economic scars, and the slower the recovery.
The longer we sustain the lockdown, the deeper the economic scars, and the slower the recovery.
What we thought we knew about the economy and finance has been radically disturbed. Since the shock of the 2008 financial crisis, there has been a lot of talk about the need to reckon with radical uncertainty. We now know what truly radical uncertainty looks like.
We are witnessing the largest combined fiscal effort since World War II, but it is already clear that the first round may not be enough. There are few illusions about the unprecedented acrobatics that central banks are performing. To deal with the accumulated liabilities, history suggests some radical alternatives, including a burst of inflation or an organized public default (which would not be as drastic as it sounds if it affects government debts held by central banks).
If the response by businesses and households is risk-aversion and a flight to safety, it will compound the forces of stagnation. If the public response to the debts accumulated by the crisis is austerity, that will make matters worse. It makes sense to call instead for a more active, more visionary government to lead the way out of the crisis. But the question, of course, is what form that will take and which political forces will control it.
Many Lost Jobs Will Never Return
by Laura D’Andrea Tyson
The pandemic and subsequent recovery will accelerate the ongoing digitalization and automation of work—trends that have eroded middle-skill jobs while increasing high-skill jobs during the last two decades and contributed to the stagnation of median wages and rising income inequality.Many low-wage, low-skill, in-person service jobs, especially those provided by small firms, will not return with the recovery.
Changes in demand, many of them accelerated by the economic dislocation wrought by the pandemic, will change the future composition of GDP. The share of services in the economy will continue to rise. But the share of in-person services will decline in retail, hospitality, travel, education, health care, and government as digitalization drives changes in the way these services are organized and delivered.
Many low-wage, low-skill, in-person service jobs, especially those provided by small firms, will not return with the eventual recovery. However, workers providing essential services such as policing, firefighting, health care, logistics, public transportation, and food will be in greater demand, creating new job opportunities and increasing the pressure to raise wages and improve benefits in these traditionally low-wage sectors. The downturn will accelerate the growth of nonstandard, precarious employment—part-time workers, gig workers, and workers with multiple employers—leading to new portable benefits systems that move with workers and broaden the definition of employer. New low-cost training programs, digitally delivered, will be required to provide the skills required in new jobs. The sudden dependence of so many on the ability to work remotely reminds us that a significant and inclusive expansion of Wi-Fi, broadband, and other infrastructure will be necessary to enable the accelerating digitalization of economic activity.
A More China-Centric Globalization
by Kishore Mahbubani
The COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate a change that had already begun: a move away from U.S.-centric globalization to a more China-centric globalization.
The COVID-19 pandemic will accelerate a change that had already begun: a move away from U.S.-centric globalization to a more China-centric globalization.
Why will this trend continue? The American population has lost faith in globalization and international trade. Free trade agreements are toxic, with or without U.S. President Donald Trump. By contrast, China has not lost faith. Why not? There are deeper historical reasons. Chinese leaders now know well that China’s century of humiliation from 1842 to 1949 was a result of its own complacency and a futile effort by its leaders to cut it off from the world. By contrast, the past few decades of economic resurgence were a result of global engagement. The Chinese people have also experienced an explosion of cultural confidence. They believe they can compete anywhere.
Consequently, as I document in my new book, Has China Won?, the United States has two choices. If its primary goal is to maintain global primacy, it will have to engage in a zero-sum geopolitical contest, politically and economically, with China. However, if the goal of the United States is to improve the well-being of the American people—whose social condition has deteriorated—it should cooperate with China. Wiser counsel would suggest that cooperation would be the better choice. However, given the toxic U.S. political environment toward China, wiser counsel may not prevail.
The Economic Fallout of The Clinton Curse. The United States needs the Blessings of the LORD God Creator.
The Clinton Curse vs Universal Basic Income. Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang advocated the introduction of a Universal Basic Income.
A universal basic income is a government guarantee that each citizen receives a minimum income. It is also called a citizen’s income, guaranteed minimum income, or basic income. The intention behind the payment is to provide enough to cover the basic cost of living and provide financial security.
The Clinton Curse vs Universal Basic Income.
In my analysis, the problem of ‘The Clinton Curse’ will not allow the United States to embrace the concept of a Universal Income. The social inequity, the unfair, and the unjust Welfare Reform Act (PRWORA) introduced by President Bill Clinton in 1996 must be revoked, repealed, replaced, abrogated, and abolished to save the country from the bondage of foreign indebtedness. The US is living on a slippery slope.
THE CLINTON CURSE. THE RETURN OF ORIGINAL SIN. THE UNITED STATES IS CURSED TO RUN ITS GOVERNMENT WITH BORROWINGS FROM FOREIGN NATIONS.
By Ishaan Tharoor with Ruby Mellen
The pandemic strengthens the case for universal basic income
The Clinton Curse vs Universal Basic Income. People wait in line to file for unemployment benefits in Fort Smith, Arkansas, on April 6. (Nick Oxford/Reuters)
Just a year ago, the argument for “universal basic income” (UBI) still seemed a fringe theory. It was the pet project of a coterie of libertarian academics and some left-wing activists, and the subject of an economic experiment among a small group of people in Finland. The idea that governments should cut a monthly check to every citizen was largely scoffed at by mainstream conservatives ideologically opposed to handouts (that is, at least, to average citizens) and rankled left-leaning intellectuals, who were wary of diverting resources from already cash-strapped, means-tested programs for the poor.In the United States, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang made UBI the cornerstone of his electoral bid, arguing that, in an era of technological disruption and increasingly precarious labor markets, governments needed to provide people more of an immediate cushion. Despite a cult following, Yang remained an outlier in the race and suspended his presidential campaign in mid-February.
Then came the coronavirus. Pandemic-induced lockdowns and stay-at-home orders have sent economies into free-fall. On Wednesday, the World Trade Organization warned that some projections for the ongoing drop in global trade could mean a new Great Depression. More than 17 million Americans have filed jobless claims in the past four weeks — a staggering, unprecedented figure. International humanitarian advocacy group Oxfam warned in a new study that the pandemic may force 500 million people around the world into poverty if urgent government action does not alleviate their plight.
As governments plot stimulus measures, UBI has become a central part of the discussion. “Across the globe, businesses are going to the wall; jobs are being lost; the self-employed are without work; mortgages are being defaulted; savings are being run through; and rent cannot be paid,” noted an open letter signed by more than 500 academics around the world, which called on governments to look beyond “traditional welfare policies” in this time of crisis. “Societies where a large majority of the population works in the informal sector will be hit especially hard — beyond earnings, there is next to no safety net.”
This week, Spain’s center-left government became the first to unveil plans regarding some form of guaranteed income to a large segment of its population. Though details remain unclear, with one report suggesting monthly payments of around $475, Spanish officials believe there’s broad legislative consensus behind the effort. And there also appears to be political will to ensure that payments continue beyond the passing of the pandemic.
“We’re going to do it as soon as possible,” Nadia Calviño, Spain’s minister of economic affairs, said in a radio interview Sunday. “So it can be useful, not just for this extraordinary situation, and that it remains forever.”
In the United States, elements of Yang’s platform have in the space of two months gone from being dismissed out of hand in Washington to winning broad bipartisan agreement. At the heart of the $2 trillion stimulus passed by Congress last month was a commitment to cut checks of around $1,200 to Americans below a certain income bracket, though many Democratic critics, including Yang, argue that a one-off payment is insufficient for the crisis. Though a permanent and universal monthly payment is not yet on the table, the political appetite for it may be building.
“All of a sudden, the cost of a UBI isn’t nearly as big a worry as it was even a month ago,” Matt Zwolinski, director of the Center for Ethics, Economics and Public Policy at the University of San Diego, told NPR’s Marketplace. “Americans across the political spectrum are calling for the government to spend very large sums of money to keep families on their feet, to keep small business afloat, and to keep the economy from collapsing. And there is a growing recognition that cash grants do that in a way that provides maximum flexibility in a time of drastic uncertainty and rapid change.”
For Yang, — who has given a flurry of interviews over the past few weeks — it’s an unfortunate, if not unexpected, reckoning. “We are in a generational public health and economic crisis and universal basic income or a version of it is going to become the obvious solution to getting money into the hands of Americans and people around the world,” he told Today’s WorldView. “What seems to some to be marginal or overambitious is going to become common sense pretty quickly.”
Yang argued that such measures were especially necessary in Washington. “The coronavirus is more lethal and devastating to people who have preexisting conditions and vulnerabilities,” he said in a Thursday phone interview. “And it turns out that the U.S. had a set of preexisting conditions that made us more vulnerable: A dysfunctional government, a polarized media, inaccessible health care and pervasive financial insecurity and need.”
He also insisted that UBI, or at least programs that guarantee income to those in particular need, shouldn’t be seen as a panacea, but a baseline government effort that “improves Americans’ day-to-day lives.” In the long run, he believes issues of health care, housing and climate change will require more sweeping political solutions.
“Much of northern Europe has been ahead of the U.S. on providing health care for their citizens, on having a strong, robust safety net, on having people feel if their job is eliminated that they’re not going to be left high and dry,” he said. “We should be moving toward having a much more solid safety net here in the U.S. beyond universal basic income.”
The pandemic is not a great leveler. What links Yang with a growing body of commentators and politicians elsewhere is a shared understanding that the ravages of the virus have only intensified the pain felt by those already at a disadvantage in societies where inequality is rife.
In a widely circulated Wednesday evening segment, BBC presenter Emily Maitlis gestured at the need for some form of UBI or other ambitious social spending amid the pandemic.
“This is a health issue with huge ramifications for social welfare, and it’s a welfare issue with huge ramifications for public health,” she said, before asking: “What kind of social settlement might need to be put in place to stop the inequality becoming even more stark?”
Yang’s answer, or modified versions of it, could be what many governments elect to pursue. On Thursday, Yang said he doesn’t have any regrets about suspending his campaign, but added that, “certainly, it seems that the energy around the ideas of my campaign has just shot up dramatically.”
The Clinton Curse vs Universal Basic Income. December 19, 1998. President Clinton was impeached for the wrong reasons.The Clinton Curse vs Universal Basic Income.
March 31. Chakrata Karma. The Beginning of Life in Exile.
On March 31, 1959, I was living in Danavaipeta, Rajahmundry, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India. I was a student of Danavaipeta Municipal High School which is renamed as Danavaipeta Municipal Corporation High School. On March 31, 1959, I was blissfully unaware of the fact of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama’s arrival in India. However, my Destiny started making the preparation for my Journey to Chakrata.
March 31. Chakrata Karma. The Beginning of Life in Exile.
The event of March 31, 1959, the Beginning of the Dalai Lama’s Life in Exile did predetermine the Beginning of my own life in Exile. I am a Refugee. Who is My Refuge?
March 31. Chakrata Karma. The Beginning of Life in Exile. The Dalai Lama was received by India at the very first Indian post at Chuthangmu, north of Tawang, then part of the Kameng Frontier Division.
The Dalai Lama, fleeing the Chinese suppression of a national uprising in Tibet, crosses the border into India, where he is granted political asylum.
Born in Taktser, China, as Tenzin Gyatso, he was designated the 14th Dalai Lama in 1940, a position that eventually made him the religious and political leader of Tibet. At the beginning of the 20th century, Tibet increasingly came under Chinese control, and in 1950 communist China invaded the country. One year later, a Tibetan-Chinese agreement was signed in which the nation became a “national autonomous region” of China, supposedly under the traditional rule of the Dalai Lama but actually under the control of a Chinese communist commission. The highly religious people of Tibet, who practice a unique form of Buddhism, suffered under communist China’s anti-religious legislation.
After years of scattered protests, a full-scale revolt broke out in March 1959, and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee as the uprising was crushed by Chinese troops. On March 31, 1959, he began a permanent exile in India, settling at Dharamsala in Punjab, where he established a democratically based shadow Tibetan government. Back in Tibet, the Chinese adopted brutal repressive measures against the Tibetans, provoking charges from the Dalai Lama of genocide. With the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China, the Chinese suppression of Tibetan Buddhism escalated, and practice of the religion was banned and thousands of monasteries were destroyed.
Although the ban was lifted in 1976, protests in Tibet continued, and the exiled Dalai Lama won widespread international support for the Tibetan independence movement. In 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in recognition of his nonviolent campaign to end the Chinese domination of Tibet.
March 31, 1959. Chakrata Karma. The Beginning of Life in Exile.March 31. Chakrata Karma. The Beginning of Life in Exile. My Life’s Journey to live in Exile took me across this Railway Bridge during July 1970.
The Great Tibet Problem. The Balance of Power. 1. The King vs The Priest, or 2. The Man vs Mother Nature
In Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment, I am often identified as the Doom Dooma Doomsayer. The concept of Doom,Apocalypse, Calamity, Catastrophe, or sudden Disaster is shared by people of various cultures apart from Tibetans.
The Great Tibet Problem. The Balance of Power. 1. The King vs The Priest, or 2. The Man vs Mother Nature.
The Great Tibet Problem is not about balancing the power of the King or the Priest. Tibetans enjoy a sense of Freedom, a gift granted by Mother Nature. Over thousands of years, Natural Forces, Natural Factors, Natural Causes, and Natural Conditions shaped the Tibetan Existence. For example, the creation of Tibetan Plateau demonstrates the Power of Nature.
The Great Tibet Problem. The Balance of Power. 1. The King vs The Priest, or 2. The Man vs Mother Nature.
I coined the phrase Tibet Equilibrium to describe a new Theory of Balance of Power in International Relations. I am describing the issue as Nature vs Man. In my analysis, a sudden, unexpected, natural calamity will restore the Balance of Power across the Tibetan Plateau to grant the Natural Freedom that the denizens of Tibet enjoyed during their entire history.
From the biography: How the Dalai Lama combines a rationalist’s view with a spiritual outlook
An excerpt from ‘The Dalai Lama: An Extraordinary Life’ by Alexander Norman.
The Great Tibet Problem. The Balance of Power. 1. The King vs The Priest, or 2. The Man vs Mother Nature.
In April 2011 the Dalai Lama announced his full retirement from office as leader of the Tibetan government in exile. Henceforth it would be headed by a democratically elected first minister. In thus handing over political power, the Precious Protector brought to an end three and a half centuries of theocratic rule – albeit that power had for long periods been vested in regents acting in the name of the Dalai Lama.
It was a reform not universally applauded by Tibetans, but it had clearly been among the Precious Protector’s plans from the moment he decided in favour of democracy on first coming into exile.
The Dalai Lama effected extraordinary change with this move. When Altan Khan, the Mongol strongman of sixteenth-century Central Asia, pro- claimed Sonam Gyatso, abbot of Drepung, to be Taleh (the Mongolian term for ocean, from which the word “Dalai” is derived) Lama, the Tibetan was head of a monastery comprising several thousand monks. But although this conferred immense prestige and great wealth, the direct political power attaching to him personally was limited to the sway he held over the Gelug establishment in general and over Drepung and its sister monasteries and their estates in particular.
It was not until the Great Fifth secured the patronage of another of the Khans that the institution of the Dalai Lama attained such prestige that, in combination with his viceroy and backed by the military might of the Mongols, he could exercise political power across the Tibetan Buddhist world as a whole. In so doing, the Great Fifth forged the Tibetan people into a broadly harmonious society in a way that had not been seen since the fall of the religious kings in the ninth century.
Moreover, his imaginative recapitulation of the Tibetan empire brought the spiritual realm of gods, demons, and protectors together with the earthly realm of human beings, their landed property, and their possessions, and made both answerable to a single authority.
What the present Dalai Lama brought about with his retirement was thus not just his withdrawal from politics but the end of the dispensation whereby, in effect, the Dalai Lama united within himself the functions of both priest and patron.
This, it will be remembered, was the paradigmatic relationship whereby the priest, or lama, guaranteed the legitimacy of the king, while the king in turn supported the lama temporally. Under the new dispensation, the Dalai Lama continues to rule the supernatural realm while earthly matters are placed under the authority of a secular establishment. What is especially innovative about this manoeuvre is the elevation of the people themselves to the role of patron.
The withdrawal of the Dalai Lama’s authority from the temporal realm was almost as important for its psychological as for its political value. No longer should Tibetans look to the Dalai Lama for answers to every question of a practical nature that, in theory at least, they had hitherto been free to put to him. Instead, they would stand on their own feet.
The Dalai Lama and his successors could thus concern themselves with what they are actually trained for, namely, spiritual direction, even if, to the end of this life, he would remain a symbolic figurehead for his people.
Given that the Precious Protector’s every word is held by most of his people to have divine authority, it presumably takes considerable restraint on his part not to speak out on earthly matters from time to time. But save for his handling of the Shugden controversy, insofar as it is a political matter, the Dalai Lama has so far shown little inclination to intervene in affairs of state. Instead, the former leader has dedicated himself to fulfilling what he describes as his three “main commitments.”
These are, first, as a human being, by helping others to be happy; second, as a Buddhist monk, by working to bring about harmony among the world’s various religious traditions; and third, as a Tibetan, by helping to preserve his country’s unique language and culture. In this last, he emphasises the enormous debt the Tibetan tradition owes to what it inherited from the Indian scholar-saints of Nalanda, the Buddhist monastic university that flourished from the fifth to the twelfth century and provided the blueprint for the monastic universities of Tibet.
A major component of these commitments is the Dalai Lama’s dedication to the environmentalist cause. The destruction of wildlife in Tibet since 1950 is a continuing sorrow to him, though his attitude toward the environment generally is neither sentimental nor a function of his religiosity. There is nothing “sacred or holy” about nature, he writes in his autobiography; rather, “taking care of our planet is like taking care of our houses.”
Similarly, while he is a ready advocate of compassion in farming and has said on occasion that he would like to be the “world spokesman for fish,” he does not go so far as to deny categorically the possibility that animal experimentation might, in certain circumstances, be justifiable – provided that the motive in doing so is altruistic. It is characteristic of the Buddhist approach to avoid absolutes.
Also to the dismay of some, the Dalai Lama, though he has often spoken in favour of vegetarianism, is, as we have seen, not a vegetarian himself. Moreover, he recognises the difficulty of living in an environmentally responsible way and does not make a fetish of doing so. While eschewing baths, he admits that, in taking a shower morning and evening, there might be little difference in his water consumption.
With respect to his commitment to helping others find happiness, the Dalai Lama includes scientific research as an important component in the human search for felicity. To this end, he continues to meet and to engage in dialogue with scientists from around the world. Whether a consequence of this is that he has himself “become one of the world’s greatest scientists,” as Robert Thurman has suggested, may be open to question. It is certainly not a claim he would make for himself.
But his patronage of a compendium of Buddhist scientific texts demonstrates his wish to see Buddhist inquiry, especially into the nature of consciousness, given serious consideration by outsiders. Noting the congruence between the Buddhist and the scientific worldviews, the Dalai Lama wonders why “the impulse for helping and kindness are not recognised as drivers for human behaviour and… flourishing?” If scientists were to ask these questions honestly, he believes that they would find the answers provided by Buddhist thinkers compelling.
In the field of interreligious dialogue, the Dalai Lama has, since retiring from office, continued to meet and to pray with religious leaders and prominent spiritual figures from around the world. Setting aside his vow to refrain from intoxicating beverages, he once partook of Holy Communion administered by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. On another occasion, he donned an apron to serve food in a church-run homeless shelter in Australia.
Despite hostility from some quarters, the Dalai Lama has visited Israel more than once; in 2006, he met with both the Sephardi and Ashkenazi chief rabbis. He has also visited several Islamic countries, notably Jordan, again more than once, meeting with Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, a leading figure in Islamic interfaith dialogue, later that same year.
Besides advocating pluralism with respect to other religions, it is evident that the Dalai Lama also wishes to strengthen his followers in their faith. As a rule, he counsels people to remain within their own faith tradition, remarking that if a person is a poor practitioner of one, changing to another will do nothing to improve matters.
Referring to his visit to the monastery of Le Grand Chartreuse, where he noticed the monks’ feet cracked with cold from wearing only sandals, he praises the dedication of followers of non-Buddhist religions. At the same time, he speaks of his concern about Tibetan teachers abroad who live luxuriously or flout their vows.
Yet his concern about behavior inappropriate to prelates is not confined to Buddhists. When Pope Francis removed a German ecclesiastic for the ostentatious restoration of his residence, the Dalai Lama wrote to congratulate the Roman pontiff. Whether or not it is true that, of all the other religions, the Dalai Lama feels closest to Catholicism is an open question.
On the one hand, for him it is given a priori that there is no creator. On the other hand, the superficial similarities between many of the liturgical practices of Rome and Lhasa cause him to wonder if there was not earlier contact between the two traditions. Both religions practice ritual eating and drinking, and both venerate the relics of saints. It is also true that the Dalai Lama has been hosted many times by ecumenically minded Catholic organisations, and if he is not mistaken, the Dalai Lama enjoys divine approval for fostering links with the Catholic Church.
On a visit to Fatima in 2001, he experienced a vision of the Virgin Mary, whose statue turned and smiled at him. In this context, it is not entirely clear how we are to interpret his remark that one of the biggest surprises of his life came when Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the indispensability of reason to religious faith. In the Dalai Lama’s view, if people would only think hard enough, they would come to see the truth of how things really are – and thus the falsity of the pope’s position and the correctness of his own.
The Great Tibet Problem. The Balance of Power. 1. The King vs The Priest, or 2. The Man vs Mother Nature.
Excerpted with permission from The Dalai Lama: An Extraordinary Life, Alexander Norman, HarperCollins India.
The Great Tibet Problem. The Balance of Power. 1. The King vs The Priest, 2. The Man vs Mother Nature, or 3. David vs Goliath. THE BATTLE OF RIGHT AGAINST MIGHT. Just like David who defeated the Philistine Champion Goliath, Tibet will prevail in its just battle against the military might of the man.
The Dalai Lama Review. Alexander Norman Dead Wrong. Indian Prime Minister Nehru was not petrified of upsetting Mao Zedong. HISTORY OF THE US-INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS: OCTOBER 11, 1949 .
In my analysis, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was never petrified of upsetting Chairman Mao Zedong. In fact, Nehru made no attempt to avoid upsetting Mao Zedong. China is fully aware of all of Nehru’s initiatives in support of the Tibetan Resistance Movement that began in 1949.
Rudra Narasimham Rebbapragada
Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22-Vikas Regiment
The Dalai Lama Review. Alexander Norman Dead Wrong. Indian Prime Minister Nehru was never petrified of upsetting Mao Zedong. HISTORY OF THE US-INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS . Prime Minister Nehru with the US president Eisenhower in December 1959. :
‘The Dalai Lama’ Review: Bodhisattva of Compassion
A Westerner with rare access to his subject writes an authorized biography of one of the world’s most feted, and charismatic, figures.
The Dalai Lama Review. Alexander Norman Dead Wrong. Indian Prime Minister Nehru was never petrified of upsetting Mao Zedong.The Dalai Lama in 2016. PHOTO: PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
By Tunku Varadarajan Feb. 26, 2020 7:27 pm ET Mr. Varadarajan is executive editor at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
The Dalai Lama Review. Alexander Norman Dead Wrong. Indian Prime Minister Nehru was never petrified of upsetting Mao Zedong.
On July 6, 1935, was born a boy to a family of peasants in the village of Taktser in the far northeast of Tibet. Its inhabitants spoke a coarse dialect that was incomprehensible in Lhasa, Tibet’s storied capital. The boy, Lhamo Thondup, was one of only seven siblings, out of 16, who survived into adulthood.
Although the village was remote, it was not godforsaken. At barely 2 years of age, Lhamo Thondup was identified as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, who had died in 1933. Solemn portents and divinations had led a party of monks to Taktser, where the lively little mite convinced his visitors that he was next in a line of Tibetan Buddhist god-popes stretching back 600 years.
In “The Dalai Lama,” a biography written with generous access to its subject, Alexander Norman describes the scene. With the monks looking on, the boy picked out, unprompted, a series of objects that had belonged to the Great Thirteenth. Locals spoke of a rainbow appearing over the boy’s house at the time of his birth. “This was a theogony,” writes Mr. Norman, “the coming of a god.”
A rival candidate was in contention, a well-born child in Lhasa; but there could be no doubt that the boy from Taktser was the next Dalai Lama, the paramount monk who is Tibet’s spiritual and temporal leader. It is an office like no other on earth: “The profundity of the emotional connection Tibetans have with the Dalai Lama,” Mr. Norman writes, “is beyond anything that others can easily imagine.” The one in whom “the bodhi—the awakened mind of the Buddha—resides is not merely a monarch. He is someone who connects, in himself, the seen world with that unseen.”
The subtitle of Mr. Norman’s book, “An Extraordinary Life,” is an understatement. The 14th Dalai Lama, regarded as divine when he could barely speak, was enthroned at the age of 4. After a childhood in which he had no friends and was forbidden to play soccer, he took on full political duties at 15, outgrowing his oppressive regents. At 23, he fled to exile in India, crossing the border, Mr. Norman tells us, on the back of a dzo, a cross between a yak and a cow: “And it was on this humble form of transport that the Precious Protector, the Victor, Lion Among Men, Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, Ocean of Wisdom . . . quit his homeland.”
That journey occurred in 1959, when it became clear that Communist China intended not merely to obliterate Tibet’s culture but to imprison the Dalai Lama himself. Exile from Tibet—which continues to this day—was not just personally devastating to the Dalai Lama; 80,000 Tibetans fled to India in that year alone—to the consternation, Mr. Norman notes, of Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s prime minister, who was petrified of upsetting Mao Zedong.
The Tibetan diaspora numbers 150,000, most of them (including the Dalai Lama) residing in India. The population of the Chinese-occupied Tibet Autonomous Region is put at three million, of which 90% is ethnic Tibetan, according to Beijing’s own reckoning, which certainly undercounts the Han Chinese interlopers. Given that China’s “ascent as a world superpower looks set to continue into the foreseeable future,” laments Mr. Norman, fewer countries “will dare risk their trading relations with China for the sake of a few million Tibetans.”
Mr. Norman knows the Dalai Lama better than most, having helped him to write his autobiography. His new book is rich, sometimes heaving, with detail; his supple prose, often beautiful, is as adept at explaining Tibet’s theology as it is at describing its spiritual world. “Every feature of the landscape and every creature dwelling within it,” he writes, “falls under the aegis of some sprite or spirit or deity. Even the bolts of lightning in a storm were said to issue from the mouths of celestial dragons.”
Yet the most potent forces against which the Dalai Lama has grappled have been infernal. His two regents were, Mr. Norman says, martinets who coveted the power they enjoyed when he was a minor. The first was jailed by his successor and, as one account has it, killed by having his testicles crushed. Remarkably, the man who emerged from these dark beginnings has proved to be a serene statesman, known for his beatific smile and ecumenical diplomacy.
The Dalai Lama is among the world’s most feted figures. Mr. Norman explains how he has done more to promote Buddhism in the Western world than any person in history and stresses that it is his charismatic wisdom, even more than his campaign for freedom, that makes him a darling in the West. His appeal transcends ideology, and he has had admirers as diverse as Allen Ginsberg, the Beat poet, and George W. Bush, along with Hollywood stars galore. Mr. Norman’s book, while respectful, is not adoring: He doesn’t flinch from offering examples of his subject’s behavior that are awkward. These include an instance in Norway when the Dalai Lama giggled and told a teenager she was “too fat.” His views on homosexuality are not in lockstep with those of Western progressives, and no one can deny that his judgment faltered when he granted audiences to the leader of a cult that went on to murder people with sarin gas in Tokyo.
If he has shown himself to be fallible, on occasion, his understanding of China cannot be faulted. The horrors heaped on Tibet during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution abated with Mao’s death, but it is still a land that lives under brutal subjugation. A realist, the Dalai Lama has stated for decades that he would accept China’s sovereignty over Tibet in exchange for autonomy. But China dismisses him as a separatist under the sway of “hostile foreign forces.”
In 2011, the Dalai Lama announced his retirement as leader of Tibet’s government in exile, giving the role to a democratically elected minister. The next Dalai Lama may well choose to undo this political reform, and yet, in thus “handing over political power,” writes Mr. Norman, “the Precious Protector brought to an end . . . centuries of theocratic rule.” It was the act of a thoroughly modern monk—the first democrat to lead Tibet’s people. It breaks the heart that he has, in China, a foe so all-consuming.
The Dalai Lama Review. Alexander Norman Dead Wrong. Indian Prime Minister Nehru was never petrified of upsetting Mao Zedong. The history of Special Frontier Force-Establishment No. 22: 1957 was a turning point in the history of Tibetan Resistance Movement.
To open the Door to the Dalai Lama, India has to keep the Window open for the Russian Support to safeguard Kashmir.
In my analysis, Alexander Norman’s forthcoming book “The Dalai Lama — An Extraordinary Life” has utterly failed to reveal the reason for not granting political asylum to the Dalai Lama during his first visit to India in 1956.
India-Tibet relations cannot be discussed without mentioning Kashmir. Since 1947, India is facing the challenge of defending Kashmir from aggression by Pakistan sponsored by the United Kingdom, and the United States. To open the Door to the Dalai Lama, India has no choice other than that of keeping the Window open for the Russian support to safeguard Kashmir.
To open the Door to the Dalai Lama in 1959, India has to keep the Window open for the Russian Support to safeguard Kashmir. HISTORY OF THE US-INDIA-TIBET RELATIONS: SEPTEMBER 04, 1959 .
Alexander Norman’s book throws light on spiritual leader’s dilemma
In 1956, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not keen to open the Door to the Dalai Lama for India has to keep the Window open for the Russian Support to safeguard Kashmir.
Tribune News Service
Shimla, , February 22
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was reluctant to grant political asylum to Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, claims Alexander Norman in his latest biographical account of the Nobel laureate, prior to his arrival in India in 1959.
To open the Door to the Dalai Lama in 1959, India has to keep the Window open for the Russian Support to safeguard Kashmir.
Norman’s forthcoming book “The Dalai Lama — An Extraordinary Life” provides a glimpse into the Tenzin Gyatso’s first visit to India in 1956 on the invitation of Nehru when he was in his early 20s.
Norman, closely associated with the 14th Dalai Lama for decades, gives a detailed account on the dilemma he faced while deciding whether to return home or ask Nehru for asylum.
The author says Nehru, refusing to make any commitment, lest it harmed India’s ties with China, advised the Dalai Lama to hold the Chinese forcefully to the 17-point agreement. He gives a vivid account of the massive turnout in Sikkim to catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama and to seek his blessings.
There is an account of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Bodh Gaya during his 11-week stay in India, including at the Chinese Embassy. Norman claims that had he been a little more certain of Washington’s intentions of championing the Tibetan cause, he may have considered not returning to Tibet.
Referring to the Dalai Lama as the “Precious Protector”, the book reveals how China tactically ensured that Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai would be in India at the same time.
To open the Door to the Dalai Lama, India has to keep the Window open for the Russian Support to safeguard Kashmir.
Whole Dude - Whole Spirituality 