Discontinuity in the Diaspora: Working In the Transnation

 I recently began working for Machik, an NGO operating in Tibet.  Losang Rabgey is the Executive Director.  Her parents fled Tibet during the Cultural Revolution in China to India. Decades later, after they moved to Canada, the father received a letter from his village asking for help building a school.  Her father took out his retirement money and devoted the rest of his life to supporting his community through Machik. Their journey over the last 12 years provides insight to the modern concepts of globalization discussed by both Sparks and Sinclair. 

            Sinclair writes about the deteritorialization of culture or cultures beyond the boundaries of a state. Diaspora and transnational communities, play a vital role in maintaining a common identity through the media.  What Machik was exposed to was the wide world of diasporic disconnection. When her family decided to build the school, they made the decision to work with the Chinese government, as opposed to llamas and local communities.  It was a risky decision, one which had never been done before because it was seen as supporting communism and the Chinese government. 

            The worlds opinion and understanding of Tibet today is not based on Tibetans in the region, but diasporas, who communicate with other major news media sources such as CNN.  Diaspora that shape popular opinion about the entire transnation.  The cycle of information between the two communities is not adequate enough to form an accurate unified opinion.  What results, is a prescriptive opinion from the Diaspora on how the world should view and act towards Tibetans, but that opinion does not always reflect the actual opinions or interests.  For instance, the outside community took Machik’s involvement with the Chinese government to be a political move against Tibetans culture.  They did not support their efforts and maintained the opinion that the Chinese should not be looked to for such kinds of help.  Whereas, those in Tibet understood the stability that came with government support.  Their favorable opinion can be seen through their donations to Machik (Machik is the only NGO in Tibet to receive funding from the community). 

To link this example back to globalization theory, the Diaspora creates a transnational identity but not a homogeneous and well-connected one.  Sinclair supports the theory that the importance of nations is declining in place of micro and macro regionalism with the growth of geolinguistic media.  However, while its true that Tibetans in and out of Tibet couldn’t communicate the way they do now without these mediums, access to communication does not mean that all people use it or that they interpret information the same way.  Tibetans living in the rest of the world are socialized so their understanding and opinions do not completely reflect those of those in Tibet. Their local cultural and ideology cannot be separated out.  Sparks would say there was not an adequate contra-flow of knowledge.  The international opinion was shaped by a heavily one-sided flow.  So what does globalization theory teach us about this situation?  There needs to be a strong contra flow of information to create a balanced flow of knowledge to sustain a transnational identity.  Perhaps I’ll suggest to Losang a newsletter or video log from the Tibetans on the Plateau for the Tibetans abroad. 

Here is a link to their website, if your interested.  Keep you eyes open for their video content coming soon (that’s  my job) http://www.machik.org/

-Christina Cerqueira