Beijing Wide Open

There are reports of more protests inside Tibet. According to eyewitnesses, yesterday in Lhasa, Chinese police fired tear gas at more than 500 monks from Drepung who were marching and chanting “We want an independent Tibet!” and “Free our people or we won’t go back.” The Guardian is calling the Drepung protest as “the biggest protest against Chinese rule in twenty years.” The Independent is saying the global protests over the past few days are a “reminder to China that the world has not forgotten Tibet, pointing out that it “has been decades since calls for greater independence in Tibet have been so vocal.”

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The Indian police came to the March to Tibet’s first night’s resting place at Sarah Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies yesterday with 100 copies of a restraining order from the central government written in the name of each of the Core Marchers.

The order says that the March may “culminate into endangering public tranquility and breach of public peace and so all Marchers are “not to leave the territorial jurisdiction of Kangra District till further order.” Read more »

The historic March to Tibet departed from Dharamsala today following the official Tibetan Government Uprising Day ceremony. 100 Core Marchers, carrying photographs of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Mahatma Gandhi, departed from the Main Temple with great excitement and thousands of supporters to see them off.

Dharamsala has been swarming with press to cover the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising and the March to Tibet. The March is currently one of the top stories on Google and BBC News, and there is also good coverage in the Times of India, the Guardian and AFP.

You can learn more about the march at the official website: TibetanUprising.com

The Statement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the 49th Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day (March 10, 2008)

On the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan people’s peaceful uprising in Lhasa on 10 March 1959, I offer my prayers and pay tribute to those brave men and women of Tibet who have endured untold hardships and sacrificed their lives for the cause of the Tibetan people and express my solidarity with those Tibetans presently undergoing repression and ill-treatment.-I also extend my-greetings to Tibetans in and outside Tibet, supporters of the Tibetan cause and-all who cherish justice. Read more »

Bjork’s Statement:

i have been asked by many for a statement after dedicating my song “declare independence” to both kosovo and tibet ( amongst others ) on different occasions.
i would like to put importance on that i am not a politician, i am first and last a musician and as such i feel my duty to try to express the whole range of human emotions. the urge for declaring independence is just one of them but an important one that we all feel at some times in our lives. this song was written more with the personal in mind but the fact that it has translated to its broadest meaning, the struggle of a suppressed nation, gives me much pleasure .i would like to wish all individuals and nations good luck in their battle for independence.
justice !
warmth , björk.
—

I [Heart] Bjork.

Bjork took a stand for Tibetan independence at a concert in Shanghai on Sunday. Following what the BBC described as a “powerful performance” of her song, Declare Independence, Bjork yelled “Tibet, Tibet” and “Raise your flag” repeatedly from the stage. She did the same thing but for Kosovo at a concert in Tokyo last week and was promptly dropped from the lineup of a summer festival in Serbia.
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So it turns out the Tibetan antelope doesn’t love the railway after all…

This photo of a herd of Tibetan antelope running happily under the Tibet railway, and embarrassingly one of China’s top photos of last year, has been proven to be a big, fat fake. (Click on the photo itself and see the details that prove it’s a phony.)

An article printed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal points out that the scandal ” has brought on a big debate about media ethics, China’s troubled relationship with Tibet, and how pregnant antelope react to noise. ”

That the Chinese lie about pretty much everything related to Tibet in their media is no surprise to Tibetans. We know that nearly all of the quotes from Tibetans who are happy and prospering under Chinese rule, and the photos of them celebrating occasions like the inaugural run of the railway and the anniversary of the “peaceful liberation of Tibet” are as staged and as fake as the photo you see here.

I woke up today to find an email in my inbox which looked like it was from an SFT UK member (I’ll call him “C”). It was sent to the SFT UK Board and copied to me. In the email C said he felt badly that he hadn’t been more involved since stepping down from the board a while back (true information) but his work was keeping him busy (work was correctly identified). C said a good Tibetan friend of his had come to him recently and asked him to recommend his young Tibetan nephew “Rinzen” to the SFT UK Board. He said he would be forwarding Rinzen’s CV shortly and ended the email with this:

“p.s. He is a Tibetan friend of mine who I trust, so I trust his nephew.”

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It took me a second to process the information I was hearing when Tenzing, one of SFT’s board members, called me this evening to say that Spielberg just resigned from his role as artistic advisor for the Olympics because of Darfur.

We so rarely hear this kind of good news. The kind where someone of Spielberg’s stature actually does the right thing, especially when it comes to China. And while I know Spielberg is mostly a good guy who does work on important issues, I promise you, when it comes to China people change. From what I’ve seen, people will do pretty much anything Beijing asks them to.

But now we can see that Spielberg is not one of them after all.

In a statement sent to the U.S. Chinese Ambassador and the Beijing Olympic Committee Spielberg said that his “conscience” would not allow him to “continue with business as usual” and he feels China “should be doing more to end the continuing human suffering.” Read more »

As Britain shifts position, U.S. Olympians learn they can say what they want — in certain areas

By Philip Hersh,
Special to The LA Times
February 12, 2008

A member of the U.S. Olympic team would face no official rebuke for wearing a T-shirt that said, “Free Tibet,” while walking the streets of Beijing during the 2008 Summer Games.

Wear that shirt in the Olympic Village or any sports venue, and the athlete might be on the next plane home after violating the international Olympic Charter.

Athletes from other countries may have to be even more careful about what they say and where they say it. Read more »