Skip to main content

[NEWS] Dalai Lama 'very happy' with Obama meeting

Dalai Lama 'very happy' with Obama meeting


President met with exiled Tibetan spiritual leader over China's warning

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama appeared in public at the White House Thursday and said President Barack Obama was "supportive" in a meeting that drew angry protests from China.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has ended his more than hourlong meeting with the Dalai Lama at the White House, and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said afterward "I am very happy."


The Dalai Lama told reporters on the White House driveway Thursday that he spoke to Obama about the promotion of human values, religious harmony and the concerns of the Tibetan people.

Obama was "supportive," he said.


Obama's largely symbolic meeting with the Dalai Lama was kept low-key in deference to Chinese anger. Beijing considers the Buddhist monk a separatist, and Obama wanted to void angering China at a time when its cooperation was needed on nuclear standoffs, climate change and other priorities.

Seeking to avoid alienating Beijing, Obama had delayed meeting the Dalai Lama until after first seeing Chinese leaders during his Asia trip last year.

During Thursday's visit, Obama -- like his White House predecessors -- denied the Dalai Lama the symbolism of meeting in the Oval Office. Instead they met in the lesser-known Map Room. Such distinctions signaled to Beijing that the Tibetan monk was not being received as a political leader.
But honoring the Dalai Lama could still help Obama burnish his administration's credentials among human rights activists, who accuse him of focusing on global issues with Beijing at the expense of promoting Chinese democratic reforms.


Ahead of the talks, Tibetans living near the Dalai Lama's birthplace in northwest China welcomed the White House meeting with a defiant show of fireworks. The midnight display along a valley dotted with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries was a reminder that the Dalai Lama remains a potent figure in his homeland.
REUTERS-updated
from msnbc.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35456043/ns/politics-white_house/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

[ENVIRONMENT] Big Food vw. Big Insurance

Big Food vs. Big Insurance By MICHAEL POLLANPublished: September 9, 2009 TO listen to President Obama’s speech on Wednesday night, or to just about anyone else in the health care debate, you would think that the biggest problem with health care in America is the system itself — perverse incentives, inefficiencies, unnecessary tests and procedures, lack of competition, and greed. No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet. That’s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on ...

[INTERESTS] Infographic: The Ten Most Expensive Pieces of Art Ever Sold

Infographic: The Ten Most Expensive Pieces of Art Ever Sold By Cliff Kuang Last week, a mysterious rich man paid $104.3 million [1] for a six-foot tall sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, making it the most expensive piece of art ever sold. Following that news, GOOD and graphic-design firm Karlssonwilker [2] created an infographic of the ten most expensive pieces of art of all time. (Full-size here [3].) (The title, Not-So-Starving Artists, is deceiving because it's hard to starve if you're all dead. The real lucre goes to Christie's and Sotheby's, the two major auction houses.) Obviously, the graph is a schematic, but here's the actual works, if you're curious to learn more: 1.Walking Man I by Alberto Giacommeti--$104.3 million 2.Boy with a Pipe by Pablo Picasso--$104.1 million 3.Dora Maar with Cat by Pablo Picasso--$95.2 million 4.Adele Bloch Bauer II by Gustav Klimt--$88 million 5.Triptych, 1976 by Francis Bacon--$86.3 million 6.Portrait du Dr G...

[NEWS] Chocolate Bond

British high-end chocolate maker and retailer  Hotel Chocolat , which currently operates over 40 stores in the UK, the Middle East and the US, wants to expand even further. But rather than turning to banks or big investors for money, they're inviting customer to buy bonds. Bonds that will pay chocolate returns. Two values of Chocolate Bond will be issued: both with the return paid in monthly Tasting Boxes. Holders of a GBP 2,000 Chocolate Bond will receive six free tasting boxes a year worth GBP 107.70 per year, and those holding a GBP 4,000 bond will receive thirteen boxes, worth GBP 233.35 per year. Which comes down to a 5.38% return. After an initial term of three years, and on every anniversary thereafter, bond holders can redeem their bond for a full return of their investment. If they decide to continue to hold the bond, the monthly boxes will keep on coming. The company doesn't have to worry about the logistics of interest payment in kind; it already operates a tasting...