ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Piss off the Dalai Lama.
BEING DESTINED FOR GREATNESS COMES IN MANY FORMS. Some conquer nations, some develop cures for horrible diseases, some sail uncharted seas, and some can hit that mark that nobody thought was possible. Some people go that extra mile and dare to do what you’d expect to be just as impossible as dividing by zero: someone, not to recently, managed to piss off the Dalai Lama. You can watch it here. (realizing that the Dutch language sounds as appealing to foreigners as a legion of hellcats with throat cancer reciting the Black Speech of Mordor, I suggest that you skip to 1:08 for the relevant bit).
You are now imagining this man grumbling: “You’re making me angry. You wouldn’t like me if I were angry…”
Granted, this isn’t like Johny Rambo shooting up an entire army base at the end of Rambo II, but what do you expect? He’s the freaking Dalai Lama, rhetorically asking ‘Clear?’ in a passive-aggressive fashion while shoving his finger in the general direction of the interviewer. It doesn’t get much more spectacular than this, folks. Said interviewer asked his Holiness for his two cents on a rather morbidly fascinating trend in Tibet: self-immolation, which started a wave of political suicides across the country. You’ll remember that a man setting himself on fire is more or less what kick-started the most recent wave of social-political reforms in the modern world, so it’s no surprise that the Chinese government has thus far adopted a “People don’t need to hear this shit” policy on the whole issue. But the fact remains that Tibetan Monks are protesting against Chinese oppression in the most spectacular and self-destructive way possible: by setting themselves on fire for all to see in record numbers (WARNING: Not Suitable For Work).
You’d expect any holy person worth his/her to salt to take a moral stance on such drastic measures. The villainy of the Chinese government, after all, goes undisputed in the Western World. The Dalai Lama, however, frowns on acting like a moralfag and instead takes on a ‘Live and Let Die’ attitude. (Then again, who in his right mind would argue against a man devoted enough to set fire to himself?).
DutchReview 