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The nerve of those farmers!

Who says farmers are inflexible? In rich countries, they have long justified farm hand-outs by pointing to low world prices for food (never mind that low prices were partly caused by their own subsidised overproduction). Without public cash, they said, farmers would desert the land, leaving meadows to brambly ruin. Now that the world is running short of food, the farm lobby has deftly changed tack. Prices for many crops are at record highs, the new line goes, and rich countries need to protect their farmers in order to ensure that their people get fed.

Thankfully, Jagdish Bhagwati and Jeffrey Sachs stress three suggestions to tackle the long-term consequences of the current food crunch that are not mentioned too often.

1. Meat production consumes grain, so, either through lifestyle changes or by removing subsidies, reduce meat production;

2. Bhagwati talks about GM food, and Sachs about climate-proof food, but science needs another Norman Borlaug to revolutionize agriculture;

3. Again, Bhagwati talks about the IMF offering short-term balance-of-payments help, and Sachs about a new Global Fund for Africa, but this crisis illustrates again how small the world is becoming.

But, reform starts with the first big swing, and that's the EU's (and American) subsidies.

Just to disabuse readers about The Tudors, I included the bloopers reel. After months of hits for the last post on Showtime's newest costume drama, I couldn't resist biting the links that feed me. My heart is still somewhere in the late 19th Century Dakotas.Here's the story so far:

A year later, Queen Catherine was banished from court and her old rooms were given to Anne. With Wolsey gone, Anne now had considerable power over government appointments and political matters. When Archbishop of Canterbury William Warham died, Anne had the Boleyn family's chaplain, Thomas Cranmer, appointed to the vacant position. Through the intervention of the King of France, this was conceded by Rome, the pallium being granted to him by Clement.

The breaking of the power of Rome in England proceeded little by little. In 1532, a lawyer who was a supporter of Anne, Thomas Cromwell, brought before Parliament a number of acts including the Supplication against the Ordinaries and the Submission of the Clergy, which recognised Royal Supremacy over the church. Following these acts, Thomas More resigned as Chancellor, leaving Cromwell as Henry's chief minister.

Henry attended a meeting with the French king at Calais in the winter of 1532, in which he hoped he could enlist the support of Francis I of France for his new marriage. The conference at Calais was a political triumph, since the French government gave its support for Henry's re-marriage. Immediately upon returning to Dover in England, Henry and Anne went through a secret wedding service. She soon became pregnant and, as was the custom with royalty, there was a second wedding service, which took place in London on 25 January 1533. Events now began to move at a quick pace. On 23 May 1533, Cranmer, sitting in judgment at a special court convened at Dunstable Priory to rule on the validity of the king's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, declared the marriage of Henry and Catherine null and void. Five days later, on 28 May 1533, Cranmer declared the marriage of Henry and Anne to be good and valid.

Catherine was formally stripped of her title as queen and Anne was consequently crowned queen consort on 1 June 1533. The queen gave birth slightly prematurely on 7 September 1533. Anne had given birth to a girl...

Fans have noticed a few inaccuracies. The Gray Lady wants to ruin the entire visual, and olfactory, experience for all of us.

If «The Tudors» fails to live up to the great long-form dramas cable television has produced, it is not simply because it refuses the visceral messiness of a «Rome» or a «Deadwood» (the corpse-eating pigs!) but more significantly because it radically reduces it's the era's thematic conflicts to simplistic struggles over personal and erotic power. «The Tudors» makes it seem as if the entire creation of the Anglican Church boiled down to Henry's wish to remarry and sire a male heir. (When Anne gives birth to a daughter this season, the future Elizabeth I, Henry looks as if he were a little boy who got the wrong kind of tricycle at Christmas.) «The Sopranos,» «The Wire» and «Big Love» all have derived their potency from dramatizing the preservation of failing institutions. The paradox of «The Tudors» is that it takes on one of the most powerful and protested institutions in human history — the Catholic Church during the Renaissance — and provides little sense of what the English people have to gain or lose by breaking with it.

Peter O'Toole arrives this season as Pope Paul III, playing him as a drawing-room wit, a delicious performance that only serves to mitigate further any sense of the papacy's hegemony. Henry VIII was a man of extreme faith who attended Mass five times a day. Watching «The Tudors» you'd think he spent most of that time shaving.

That's a little tough. I've liked the portrayal of Sir Thomas More, which has been much more nuanced than the standard Hollywood performance in A Man for All Seasons.

Finally, though, Curzon has wondered about the disappearance of the 3rd Duke of Norfolk in the second season (of which I've only seen four episodes until now). Considering how Rome ended on a fairy tale despite its grittiness, that one development makes me nervous. After Deadwood folded, my patience might not outlast the second season. The Tudors are somewhere between Rome and Deadwood, but I doubt either Showtime or HBO can match corpse-munching pigs and Wild Bill Hickok.

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In George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith experiences an epiphany during a war rally when he realizes, that «…the speaker had switched from one line to the other actually in midsentence, not only without a pause, but without even breaking the syntax…. Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia. A large part of the political literature of five years was now completely obsolete.»i During the commotion, Smith receives a copy of an illegal, secret tome, «The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism«, written by a member of the Brotherhood, Emmanuel Goldstein. Nestled in an armchair, Smith reads about the geopolitical reality underlying the continuous wars in a chapter entitled, «War is Peace». Three super-states, Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia are locked in a cycle of warfare for control of cheap labor in a western Asian and African shatter zone and to mobilize their respective citizens in perpetual mobilization.

Lost In Eurasian Land Lust: A Critique of Zbigniew Brzezinski's The Grand Chessboard - Get more documents

ESWN reminds its readers about joining the pro-Tibet bandwagon, and I agree. And, not just because I trust Rebecca MacKinnon implicitly. As I've argued before, on this blog, and also contra-TNR (it would take too long to find the comment on the TNR site), why stop at boycotting the Olympics when ending them permanently is so much more beneficial?

Beijing is doing much that's distasteful, like blocking communication and roughing up protesters. Even EU leaders are strongly considering an Olympic boycott, which is enough to embolden even the most cowardly. TNR's Joshua Kurlantzick piles on even more transparently.

The charges, though absurd--it's the Dalai Lama--are hardly unique. In fact, they're of a piece with a new tactic the Chinese government seems to have developed: using Olympic security as an excuse to crack down, beyond any sense of proportion, on its "enemies."

Take the case of the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group located primarily in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. (Though primarily Buddhist, Confucian, and atheist, China has a Muslim population of one to two percent.) Earlier this month, China announced that Uighur terrorists had targeted the Games, a claim that understandably drew headlines around the world. Given the Games' horrific history of terrorist attacks, many sporting fans probably breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that the Chinese authorities had busted a plot hatched by militant separatists.

The Uighurs? Is Kurlantzick trying to launch his own central Asian state with disaffected anti-Han groups in tow? That he's right has nothing to do with Beijing, Tibet, or the Olympics!

The World Uyghur Congress believes that the unrest is a huge challenge for the Chinese government's controversial rule of Tibet, casting serious doubt on the Chinese government's promises to improve its human rights situation ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games. The harsh crackdown on peaceful Tibetan protesters reveals the brutality of Chinese rule in Tibet which flatly contradicts the core of the Olympic Spirit founded upon universal moral principles.

The World Uyghur Congress also urges the world community to exercise more pressure on the Chinese government to cease using military force against the Tibetans and Uyghurs, and instead seriously seek political solution to their legitimate aspirations, ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

It's a political statement, not the gospel! However much one might agree that the Uighurs are in bad sorts, let's not swap careful consideration for slavish and convenient groping for fashionable trends.

In 1945, a rebellion led to the creation of a short-lived independent republic in the Yining region close to the Soviet Union. But in 1949, this was abolished after the Russians told the Uighurs to co-operate with Mao. An earlier East Turkestan, in 1933, had lasted only a few months. Since 1949, Chinese rule has never been seriously challenged, although the authorities say there were more than 200 «terrorist incidents» between 1990 and 2001, causing the deaths of 162 people. The most recent unrest of any significance occurred in 1997, with the Yining riots. Three bus bombings in Urumqi and an explosion in Beijing that year were also blamed on Xinjiang separatists.

Calls for independence are still heard among members of the Uighur diaspora. Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman and former political prisoner who was sent into exile in America by China in March, has become a prominent cheerleader for the cause. She has been labelled a «terrorist» by the Chinese government and her family members in Xinjiang have been harassed by the police. Amnesty International says the government's accusations «have not been backed up with any evidence» and appear to be aimed at discrediting Ms Kadeer and her associates as part of a broader political crackdown in Xinjiang.

But at the beginning of October, official celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the founding of what China calls the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region passed without disruption. Tight security for the events reflected the authorities' continuing fear that, though subdued, separatists could still pose a security risk. Yet China plainly does not worry that Xinjiang might descend into a Chechnya-style conflict. And for all its warnings of terrorist dangers, it appears convinced that, just as rapid economic growth has bought respite from radical political demands in other parts of China, the same formula could well work in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is a prize worth keeping for more than just reasons of national pride. As China searches for fuel to power its economic development, its gaze has inevitably turned westwards to the province's rich endowments of coal, oil and natural gas. Driving along the edge of the vast Taklamakan desert, the vista is of endless tracts of wells and drills. Official hyperbole makes it hard to tell how much oil and gas Xinjiang really has. But the province is a focal point of exploration by China's largest oil and gas producer, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

The discovery of Xinjiang's Kela II natural-gas field laid the foundation for a 4,000km (2,500-mile) pipeline that began pumping gas from Xinjiang to China's east coast last year. Three years ago, the oilfields of the Junggar basin, in northern Xinjiang, broke the annual output record for Chinese oilfields by crossing the ten million tonne mark. In 2004, the Tarim basin oilfields chipped in with five million tonnes.

With its borders with Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, among others, Xinjiang is also China's principal gateway to the energy reserves of Central Asia. Chinese oil experts are frequent visitors to Almaty and Tashkent, where they hammer out some of the biggest deals in the global energy market today. The first phase of an oil pipeline stretching from Kazakhstan to the border town of Alashankou, in Xinjiang, is soon to be completed. The two countries are also exploring the feasibility of a natural-gas pipeline.

Dissent among the Chinese is perspicacious, although the Potemkin treatment is unnecessary. An historic summit between western and Chinese media, including bloggers would be a good start.

The Atlantic's Graeme Wood on Buddhist democracy nails it:

There may be something or nothing to learn about democracy from these spectacles. The first suggests that the movement for Tibetan independence does not answer only to the Dalai Lama, and that China may have a bigger problem, with a wider and more distributed base, than it thought. Would Lhasa consider exchanging the unquestioned rule of Hu Jintao for something more than the unquestioned rule of Tenzin Gyatso? As for the Bhutanese monarch, all signs point to democracy -- except for the often and freely expressed desire of the Bhutanese to keep and revere the monarchy, with or without elections. Whatever else this shows, it should put rest to the notion that democratization of the Buddhist street is any simpler -- or more welcome -- than democratization of the Arab one.

Second place in thought-provoking quotes, though, goes to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner:

On Wednesday, Kouchner told RMC radio and BFM television that the boycott was not a bad idea. But "it seems unrealistic," he said. "There are a lot of good ideas that can't be put into practice."

"When you're dealing in international relations with countries as important as China, obviously when you make economic decisions it's sometimes at the expense of human rights," he added. "That's elementary realism."

It's no time for sycophantic devotion to one political course, religion, leader, or even state, especially when repression seems to be expanding.

The Dalai Lama is a likeable kind of guy, but I'd like to see, and hear, less of him.

Tibet's case is not helped by world leaders. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's actual words were quite measured, but standing in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, is incendiary. «We insist the world know what the truth is in Tibet,» Pelosi said.

PRC's Premier, Wen Jiaobao, even more explicitly makes the mistake Pelosi only staged with symbolism: demonizing the Dalai Lama directly.

The EU eschewed the long tradition of childishly pursuing its own foreign policy and spiting every other western state, agreeing with Pelosi not to boycott the Summer Olympics. But still, Beijing can always thank Brussels for relieving the diplomatic pressure.

I also think the Dalai Lama erred tactically by broadcasting his pledge to resign if Tibetan resort to violence. The nature of this gamble exposes Tibet's problem: there are no responsible leaders in Tibet ready to speak for Tibetans. Fortunately, the Dalai Lama maintains that he only wants "autonomy" for all Tibetans in Tibet and in western PRC.

The 73-year-old religious leader was reacting to statements made by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. In a telephone conversation with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Wen said that Beijing was prepared to talk to the Dalai Lama. The condition, however, would be that he could not demand independence for Tibet and he would have to distance himself from the violence.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of being a "separatist and traitor," who talks of autonomy but really means the independence of Tibet from China. The Dalai Lama calls for broad autonomy for Tibet, not only for the current so-called "Tibet Autonomous Region," but also for areas in the neighboring provinces of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan which have large Tibetan populations.

When asked by SPIEGEL ONLINE whether he might be ready to limit his autonomy plan to just central Tibet, the Dalai Lama said no. The proposal to include other areas as well proves that he has no separatist intentions, he said. For the Tibetans, the only important thing is to "protect their culture."

"I have now repeated a thousand times, it is my mantra: We do not want independence," he said. The Chinese government should take seriously their constitution, which talks of autonomy for certain regions, he added. "It should not only be on paper," said the Dalai Lama.

Of course, Beijing will never consider an autonomous Tibetan zone encompassing western parts of its geo-economically strategic western provinces. For a refreshingly unromantic viewpoint on Tibet, FT reprises the Chinese perception of the Tibetan protests. Yet, I agree with Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, that Beijing needs to act more responsibly.

Still, the tragic and farcical developments of recent weeks underscore the inherent conflict between China's desire to place itself in the global spotlight and its hope that no one will focus on the nation's flaws. They want internationally acclaimed artists to perform in cities like Shanghai without doing unexpected things--even if, like Bjork, part of their cachet is an ability to surprise an audience. But the Chinese leadership is no more capable of balancing these tensions than Don Quixote was of slaying windmills.

Beijing knows better; Tibet just needs to learn. At 73, the Dalai Lama is past the mark where he can continue to lead Tibetans, who should find their own secular path in a very dangerous region. A new generation of leaders should realize, that simplistic notions of self-determination and autocracy are fighting words where the mountains and rivers run between vital trade, pipeline, and resource routes.

There is opportunity as much as crisis here: even the meanest dictator doesn't want to have blood all over the Internet, or disrupt his cash flow (also check out Tim Johnson's report from Sichuan province).

Military looking vehicles had their license-plates covered or removed and many troops displayed no insignia, suggesting an attempt to cover up the use of army personnel to control the unrest. China does not want the run-up to the Olympics overshadowed by accusations of military repression in Lhasa. But the army is almost certainly playing a big part in the city's clampdown on the ethnic violence that erupted on March 14th and 15th. The authorities say 160 rioters in Lhasa have turned themselves in to the police and 24 people have been charged with «grave crimes». But Tibetans say they fear widespread and indiscriminate arrests.

Ethnic Han Chinese who were targeted in the violence (officials say 13 people were killed by rioters) are fearful too. Several told your correspondent that they would leave Tibet. One Han on the flight from Lhasa to the neighbouring province of Sichuan said he would normally travel in and out of Tibet by train, but he was now afraid that Tibetan terrorists might target the line. No terrorist incidents involving Tibetans have yet been reported, but China—partly in response to an alleged attempt by an ethnic Uighur woman to start a fire on board an airplane earlier this month—has stepped up airport security in recent days.

The huge security deployment in Lhasa has prevented further outbreaks of unrest there, but reports of smaller incidents in other areas of Tibet and ethnic Tibetan regions close to it have continued to emerge. The authorities admitted on March 20th that security forces had fired at protesters in the southwestern province of Sichuan four days earlier, injuring four people. A correspondent for Reuters news agency reported from the area that local residents believe several Tibetans were shot dead. Foreign reporters are now barred from Tibet and several have been turned back from ethnic Tibetan areas of surrounding provinces.

A younger generation of Tibetans raised in the the Dalai Lama's medieval aura, but with feet and senses in the real world, would take a shrewder gamble.

(For those with an open, unclouded mind, check out the bevy of high-quality links China Beat has collected from across the Internet on Tibet.)