More fact on America's "free press."

From Sommerville "HOW THE NEWS MAKE US DUMB," we had learnt that
press is making
Americans dumb. From American pollster Andrew Kohut's book,"AMERICA
AGAINST THE WORLD: How We Are Different And Why We Are Disliked," we
found that Americans do have a disconnect of a major order. In a
previous post, I showed that how NYTimes' selective non-coverage on
the recent Shangri-La Dialogue could have contributed to America's
disconnection from the rest of the world and from the reality.

In this post, the mechanics of the news coverage by America's so
called "free press" was brought to light
Mary Mapes, the Peabody Award-winning CBS news producer and the author
of the book "TRUTH AND DUTY" was a press romantics. She thought the
press was special and journalists were special. But then she
discovered the truth when she was the subject of journalistic
investigation. Investigative reporting was not investigative reporting
at all. In short, the press behaved like a digital lynching mob.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/sports/detail.asp?id=165423&sY=olympics/2008&sM=07&sD...

Beijing hotels report low bookings

By Joelle Garrus, AFP
Monday, July 14, 2008

BEIJING -- Rooms are going begging one month out from the Beijing
Olympics with hotels reporting low

er-than-expected advance bookings and crossing their fingers for a
late influx of tourists.

After being warned that an accommodation crunch was likely during the
Games, Beijing went on a hotel building binge after winning the right
to host the Games in 2001 -- and now the opposite appears to be in
prospect.

With few exceptions -- notably some niche hotels in Beijing's old
quarter -- hotels are in fierce competition to attract Olympic
customers.

So far the luxury sector has come off best with top hotels achieving
75 percent booking rates while four star hotels are less than half
full and bookings for three-star hotel rooms are running at 30
percent, according to the Beijing Tourism Bureau.

Tibet SPLITTISTS will say, "If Tibet was always part of China, then
why do Tibetans use a written and spoken language completely different
from those used in mainland China?". But do not listen to the
arguments of such splittists! They seek only to DECEIVE AND HURT THE
FEELINGS of Patriotic mainland Chinese! You must look at it in this
way: Has the glorious Chinese Communist Party not always told you
that Tibet has always been part of China? Has the Party not brought
great economic gains to the motherland? Therefore the Party would
NEVER tell you anything which is not completrly TRUE! You must now
REJECT the arguments of splittists and western meddlers!

Are you boycotting Chinese products? If so, please go to http://buyhard.net46.net,
where you can register details of items you put back on the shelf when
you realized they were made in China.

There had been a discussion on the number of monks and nuns not long
ago. I come across following. Assuming 6 million ethnic Tibetans,
150,000 monks and nuns transalte into 1 in every 40.

http://www.blackandwhitecat.org/2008/04/01/separatism-and-tibet/

"Tibet has about 150,000 monks and nuns, the highest concentration of
full-time “clergy” in the Buddhist world. Western scholars of Tibetan
literature and art forms have attested that it is flourishing."

From The Times
July 7, 2008
Tibetan monasteries empty as China jails monks to silence Olympic
protests
Tibetan monks have angered China by taking opportunities to protest to
the media. The authorities have cracked down at least until the
Olympics

Tibetan monks have angered China by taking opportunities to protest to
the media. The authorities have cracked down at least until the
Olympics
Jane Macartney in Beijing

Chinese authorities tightened security around Tibet's main monasteries
and banned visits to a sacred site on the edge of the capital, Lhasa,
for fear of a fresh outburst of unrest on the Dalai Lama's birthday.

On Jul 5, 4:13 pm, "Bill Bonde { ''Soylent Diesel is People'')"
yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Dalai Lama envoy: China talks difficult
AP[Friday, July 04, 2008 14:44]
By ASHOK SHARMA

NEW DELHI, July 4 ? An envoy for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said
Friday that the latest round of talks with China were "one of the most
difficult sessions" held so far, but that he will return for more
discussions after the Beijing Olympics.

Lodi Gyari said during the meetings he countered China's accusations that
the Dalai Lama planned to sabotage next month's Olympics and was behind
anti-government protests that rocked Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited
areas of China in March.

"Such baseless accusations make the Chinese government really look
ridiculous in the eyes of the world," Gyari said. "This time they realized
that labeling his Holiness being responsible for the present disturbances
in Tibet and accusing him of sabotaging the Olympics is something that no
one buys."

Gyari called the discussions "one of the most difficult sessions" the two
sides have had, but said they agreed to meet again after the Olympics.

PARIS:

China stepped into an internal French political spat Tuesday, fiercely
condemning a decision by the Paris City Council to make the Dalai Lama an
honorary citizen of the city.

"China expresses its strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition" to the
decision, said the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu. "This act of
crude interference in China's domestic affairs has seriously damaged the
Sino-French relationship, and in particular the existing friendly ties
between Paris and Beijing."

Jiang added that making the Dalai Lama "an 'honorary citizen of Paris' now
can only be considered as another grave provocation of 1.3 billion Chinese
people, including the people of Tibet, and it will further encourage the
arrogance of the Dalai and Tibet independence elements."

The attention Beijing is attributing to the matter will no doubt please the
recently re-elected mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, who is trying hard to
become the next leader of the French Socialist Party, which is in disarray
since having lost the presidency last May to Nicolas Sarkozy and his Union
for a Popular Movement, or UMP, conservative party.

One fundamental question which has not been raised is the DL's
citizenship. If he is consdiered a Chinese citizen by himself or by
other countries, then he need to follow Chinese law. If he is not
consdered a Chinese citizen, then western countries have no ground to
pressure China to negotiate with him over Tibet which is part of
China.