Helping Tibetans develop their local economy

Otto Kolbl, researcher at the German Department of Lausanne University, Switzerland

Some Tibetan monks have told me that their ultimate goal was not only to pass on their cultural and religious heritage to the next generation, but also to create favorable conditions to further develop their insight into the essence of humankind and other aspects of Buddhist religion, philosophy and science.

Lay Tibetans are equally engaged in the social construction process of the region, which goes way beyond the mere "preservation" of tradition. I have not met any Tibetan hostile to outside views or some form of assistance in this process, as long as it helps fulfill their wishes.

Obviously, a good knowledge of the reasons which led to the late emergence of Tibetan-owned businesses is vital to work out a functional plan. A good knowledge of the specifics of Tibet's geography and environment is equally important to identify areas in which Tibetans enjoy a competitive edge.

It's time Western academics and media started playing a more constructive role not only with regard to Tibetans, but also with regard to ethnic minority groups in other countries. Every country that has ethnic minority groups has offered interesting solutions, but there is probably none that does not have problems.

Western countries tend to advocate more autonomy. However, most of them started implementing this principle when their ethnic minority groups were already losing their languages and identities and almost assimilated into the mainstream national culture.

It is extremely important to find ways to help ethnic minorities to develop economically while preserving and developing their languages, cultures, traditions and religions. This can allow modern nation states and multi-national states to integrate their minorities without resorting to assimilation, which would eventually threaten their existence.

Only international cooperation of all the actors mentioned above can help us move forward on this difficult path.

Development of human rights in the Internet era

He Zhipeng, professor at law school of Jilin University

The Internet and new media are helping build a new social environment, which has positive as well as negative impacts on human rights, constitutionalism and the rule of law. The Internet promotes development of human rights, but it also leads to misunderstandings and trouble. As some researchers have discovered, network evolvement promotes and has an impact on human rights protection.

On the one hand, it helps safeguard people's rights such as the right of freedom, right to equality and right to education. On the other, some rights have are still being violated, including individual rights and copyright, despite repeated prohibitory measures. Because of the high dependency on technology, the Internet has become an easy playing field for some countries that enjoy technological advantage to culturally invade other countries and indulge in cultural hegemonism.

Comparing the two aspects, it is worth paying close attention to the advancement and acknowledgement of the positive influence. The Internet's power to disseminate information quickly can propagate human rights information at a faster pace. And extensive spread of information through the Internet can lead to a boundless world so that requests for the protection of human rights can be forwarded to other countries, and international organizations and institutions.

The issue of human rights can spread among common people, and new media channels such as electronic notebooks, mobile phones and iPads can transfer information anytime and anywhere through texts, pictures and audio conversations. All of these help spread human rights information and fix problems.

Therefore, the Internet era requires distributors of social resources to govern more fairly and efficiently, fully respect and protect human rights, recognize the human rights system and problems in the era of globalization, and help build a sound system of human rights.

(China Daily 09/16/2013 page9)