June 25, 2004 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
The Dalai Lama has thrown his weight behind an animal rights group’s campaign against KFC’s entry into Tibet.
“It is quite natural for me to support those who are currently protesting the introduction of industrial food practices into Tibet that will perpetuate the suffering of huge numbers of chickens,” the Dalai Lama is quoted as saying in the letter to KFC. [Daniel Brett]
Backing such causes may well be in line with the Dalai Lama’s religious beliefs, but they do devalue his position as a political leader of the Tibetans. One of China’s main planks against the Dalai Lama’s movement is that Tibet would remain a backward theocracy under his rule, whereas China’s central government seeks to deliver progress and economic development to the Tibetan people.
Attacks and agitations against McDonalds and KFC have come to be recognised as attacks against globalisation of which they are icons. It is ironical for the Dalai Lama - who so well integrated Tibetan Buddhism with the modern world on the back of globalisation - to be seen as backing a cause that is often construed as repudiating it.
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