Dalai Lama urges US to keep pushing for liberty and freedom Phayul / February 24, 2010
Fresh off a visit to the White House, His Holiness the Dalai Lama addressed about 4,000 people Tuesday at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida, covering a variety of topics including terrorism and war, the economy, Tibet, and his meeting last week with President Barack Obama in his hourlong speech on "The Effect of Compassion on the Global Community.'' Dharamsala, Feb 24: Voicing admiration for American values, His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Tuesday urged the United States to spread freedom and democracy to other lands. The Dalai Lama said the economic crisis cannot deter the U.S. from championing liberty, freedom and democracy, and told the Americans: "Don’t give up".
"America is a champion of democracy and liberty; you should be proud of those values," the exiled Tibetan leader told thousands of listeners at Nova Southeastern University in Davie. "When you deal with other countries, you must keep these things very important."
The exiled Tibetan leader said he has compassion for the Chinese, but disagrees with their treatment of his people.
The Chinese government considers him a separatist who wants to overthrow Chinese rule of Tibet, but the Dalai Lama says he just wants Tibetans to have more influence over their homeland while staying under Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama said China deserves to improve its economy and to have a place among more powerful nations. He added that he admired the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong in the early years, but was puzzled by his subsequent aggressive actions in China as well as Tibet.
Repeatedly praising American values and society, the revered Tibetan leader said he has always admired the United States for its "individual freedom, liberty, openness.''
The Dalai Lama also spoke highly of Obama, who met with the Tibetan leader at the White House on Thursday despite a stern warning from Chinese officials that the meeting would cause "serious harm'' to U.S.-China relations. He praised the president's outreach to the international community and his advocacy of compromise.
Obama's international popularity "means he also has extra moral responsibility," the Dalai Lama said.
About the meeting with President Obama, the Dalai Lama said topics included disarmament, reducing violence and "the Middle Way," the Dalai Lama's approach for peacefully resolving conflict between Tibet and China.
His talk, "Universal Responsibility," earlier in the morning, was delivered to students, staff and faculty at Nova's Don Taft University Center. The first of two addresses at the university, it was the start of a two-day speaking tour in South Florida that includes talks at colleges and universities in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
First, he called for schools to teach compassion and responsibility, rather than just facts.
"With too much education, even a brilliant mind can go wrong, to destruction," he said. "Ultimately, inner values are essential."
He said the recent Copenhagen Summit disappointed many observers for failing to do more for the poor. The reason, he said, was that "national interests were more important than global interests."
He decried the "sad reality" of war, which starts from a "strong demarcation between we and they."
In his talk, the Dalai Lama also advocated dialogue with enemies and praised education as a tool to battle terrorism and promote peace.
The Dalai Lama said that education and mass media had caused growing numbers of people to think in terms of respect and cooperation, rather than conflict.
"It is nearly 10 years since the start of the 21st century, but already much has changed," he said at the gathering, co-hosted by NSU and Broward College. "Now, we should consider that every part of the world is part of me. We still need to educate people that our own interests depend on others' interests."
Stressing the world's "fundamental oneness,'' he said that "as soon as we are born on this planet, we have equal rights, every person.'' Many of the world's problems today, he said, "essentially are our creation. And in the meantime, nobody wants to talk about it. There is too much of a self-centered attitude.''
"Today, one (Osama) bin Laden. If you handle wrong way, the next, 10 bin Ladens and then 100 bin Ladens,'' he said earlier to reporters, echoing themes of his speech. "If America, a few decades ago, had spent more money on education, health in Afghanistan, Iraq, these areas, I think things today would be different.''
