The World Today for December 18, 2023

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NEED TO KNOW

Death By Inches

TIBET

The Chinese government recently renamed “Tibet” as “Xizang” in official diplomatic documents. The move was the latest in a series of measures that critics of China say are aimed at erasing Tibetan national identity and culture.

“These are political actions of ‘de-ethnicization,’” Yang Haiying, a Mongolian-born humanities professor at Shizuoka University in Japan, told Radio Free Asia. “‘De-ethnicization’ is equivalent to the idea of resolving ethnic issues. It is an approach to deny ethnicity by emphasizing ‘de-ethnicization’ of regions.”

Others, like Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, likened these policies to “cultural genocide.” Since China invaded Tibet in 1950, Rogin wrote, Tibetans have sought to assert their cultural uniqueness. Their government in exile, led by the Dalai Lama, has succeeded in keeping the flame of their non-violent independence movement alive. For now.

Meanwhile, the plan to erase Tibet’s identity isn’t new. China has cracked down on Tibetan culture harshly over time in a strategy that critics told France24 is designed to cause the Tibetan nation to die a slow death. For example, China has forced three-quarters of Tibetan children to attend boarding schools where they are indoctrinated to reject their Tibetan heritage and swear fealty to the Chinese Communist Party. The Tibetan language and the practice of the religion of Tibetan Buddhism are banned.

United Nations experts estimate that a million children are enrolled in such schools. The US government recently slapped visa sanctions on Chinese officials aiding and abetting this “forced assimilation,” reported the Guardian. The Central Tibet Administration, effectively Tibet’s government in exile, called the facilities repressive, “colonial-style boarding schools.”

The European Parliament recently condemned the schools and called on China to close them.

As Foreign Affairs noted, Chinese leaders have pursued similar, arguably genocidal policies against the Uyghurs, a Muslim community in the western region of Xinjiang. Human rights advocates claim China has detained a million Uyghurs in internment camps to wipe out their culture.

These developments are especially important now because Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is 88 years old, wrote the Economist. Living in exile in India since he fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959, he has significantly curtailed his globetrotting and state visits in recent years as he has grown older. What happens when he passes is a burning question in both China and India – two nations that are experiencing heightened tensions as they grow more powerful.

To make Tibet Chinese, all China has to do is wait.

THE WORLD, BRIEFLY

Holy Mess

VATICAN

A Vatican court found nine defendants, including a powerful cardinal close to Pope Francis, guilty on charges of financial crimes and corruption Saturday, in what observers have described as the Holy See’s trial of the century, the Washington Post reported.

The case centers on a bad property investment in London that led to millions of dollars in losses for the Vatican. Following an investigation, church prosecutors discovered that Cardinal Angelo Becciu oversaw the transfers of nearly $220 million in connection with the London deal, some of it illegal.

Prosecutors accused Becciu and other defendants of defrauding the Holy See and demanded sentences between four and 13 years, as well as more than $500 million in restitution.

In an unprecedented move, the court convicted Becciu on three counts of embezzlement and sentenced him to five and a half years in prison. He was also found guilty of illegally funneling hundreds of thousands of euros to charities and organizations, including a Sardinian charity run by his brother.

However, he was acquitted of charges of money laundering, abuse of office and influencing a witness.

The other defendants – including Vatican officials, Italian business executives and consultants – were found guilty of financial crimes or abuse of office.

The court also ordered the guilty individuals to pay more than $200 million in total in restitution.

Meanwhile, Becciu was barred from holding any Vatican post and fined around $8,700.

The cardinal denied wrongdoing and said he plans to appeal the verdict. He claimed that the pope had prior knowledge of the London deal.

Analysts said the case amounts to both an affirmation of accountability and an embarrassment for the Vatican, as it has struggled for years to root out corruption.

Over the past decade, the Vatican bank, previously marred by scandals involving secretive accounting and money laundering, underwent a significant clean-up initiated under Pope Benedict XVI and accelerated under Pope Francis.

Vatican watcher Emiliano Fittipaldi said the Becciu case “says a lot about the pope’s will – theatrical and spectacular – to clean house.”

Even so, others have questioned the handling of the case, wondering why the Holy See would choose to conduct such a complicated, transnational investigation on its own rather than hand it over to Italian authorities who are better equipped to handle such a case.

The case and tribunal also raised questions about the fairness and effectiveness of the Vatican’s legal system, with some noting that prosecutors were bringing unwanted attention to the intrigue and infighting within the Holy See.

Weak Handshake

VENEZUELA/ GUYANA

Venezuela and Guyana agreed this week to refrain from the use of force over the oil-rich territory of Essequibo, a long-running dispute that has raised fears of a potential conflict breaking out in South America, CNBC reported.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali, reached the agreement following a tense meeting in the Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Both presidents affirmed their commitments in an 11-point declaration, in which they agreed to “not threaten or use force against one another in any circumstances, including those consequential to any existing controversies between the two states” and to “refrain, whether by words or deeds, from escalating any conflict,” Al Jazeera added.

Even so, the meeting did not make any progress in resolving the dispute. Representatives of both countries are planning to meet in Brazil within the next three months to resolve any outstanding issues.

The issue centers on the contested territory of Essequibo, a 61,600-square-mile area – about two-thirds of Guyana – that Venezuela alleges was stolen when the border was drawn more than a hundred years ago.

Caracas says the area is part of its territory because of its historical inclusion in its boundaries during the Spanish colonial period. It rejects an 1899 ruling by international arbitrators that established the current border between the two South American nations.

Observers said that Venezuela revived its claim to the land following the discovery in 2015 of oil off the territory’s coast.

Earlier in the month, Venezuela held a referendum on whether to establish a state in Essequibo, a move that Guyana described as a step toward annexation.

Despite the low turnout, most voters voted in favor of incorporating the region into Venezuela. Soon after, Maduro ordered state-owned companies to explore and exploit the oil, gas, and minerals to be mined in Essequibo.

Both countries have also put their armies on alert.

Opting Out

IRAQ

Iraqis cast their ballots in the country’s provincial elections this week, the first such vote in a decade and one that many believe will set the stage for the next parliamentary polls in 2025, the Associated Press reported.

The vote will select new provincial council members, who will later appoint new governors in the country’s 18 provinces.

Voting began Saturday and was initially restricted to members of Iraq’s security forces and internally displaced people living in camps. Main polling will take place Monday and the results are expected Tuesday.

Saturday’s vote showed a turnout of around 67 percent, according to electoral authorities.

Even so, political analysts and Iraqis doubt that the weekend turnout would lead to a higher number of voters in Monday’s vote. Analyst Sajad Jiyad said that millions of eligible voters have failed to register and low turnout has been a feature of Iraqi elections since 2005.

Meanwhile, many voters lamented that there was “no real electoral program” and pointed to widespread corruption in the political campaigns.

Others expressed concerns that the elections could descend into violence across the provinces.

Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr – who officially resigned from politics in 2022 – has urged his supporters to boycott the provincial elections, citing concerns about reinforcing the influence of a corrupt political class.

Some of his supporters have torn down electoral posters and vandalized campaign offices.

Advocates, who previously participated in the 2019 anti-government protests and oppose Iraq’s ruling parties, have also pledged to sit out of the vote.

In March, a controversial election law was passed, enlarging electoral districts and raising concerns about diminishing opportunities for smaller parties and independent candidates to secure seats.

The Coordination Framework, a coalition primarily composed of Iran-backed Shiite parties and a rival to al-Sadr’s bloc, backed the legislation.

Observers said the Coordination Framework is expected to gain significantly from the provincial elections, especially as al-Sadr’s followers are boycotting them.

DISCOVERIES

New Moon

Earlier this year, scientists suggested that the Earth has entered a new geological epoch that is characterized by humanity’s influence on the planet.

Known as the Anthropocene, this new age began between 1950 and 1954, marking the point where humans were determined to have significantly impacted Earth’s climate, species and environment. This epoch is defined by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, nuclear weapons testing, and pollution.

Now, researchers are proposing that the Moon has also entered its own Anthropocene, New Scientist reported.

Geoarcheologist Justin Holcomb and his colleagues explained that human activities, such as spacecraft landings and lunar rovers, have caused surface disturbances on the Moon, displacing more regolith than natural processes, such as meteoroid impacts.

The Moon’s Anthropocene is believed to have started in September 1959 when the Soviet Union crash-landed its Luna 2 probe, initiating a series of human-induced surface changes. Current estimates suggest that humans have caused disruptions in at least 59 locations on the moon, leaving discarded objects ranging from spacecraft components to flags, golf balls, and bags of human waste.

The team predicted that as human colonization and mining efforts on the Moon are set to increase, while expressing concerns about upcoming missions, such as NASA’s Artemis III, potentially contaminating the lunar surface and hindering geological research.

This has prompted calls for creating lunar “national parks” to preserve areas for scientific study.

Mark Sephton at Imperial College London supports this proposal, but emphasized the need for a balance between scientific exploration and human expansion into the solar system.

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