California State Fair Madness

So last weekend, Thupten and I were minding our own business and eating corndogs at the Cal State Fair, when we stumbled accross this atrocity called “Folkways of Tibet,” an exhibit celebrating “the 40th anniversary of the Tibet Autonomous Region” and depicting “China’s Tibet.” We agreed that it was pretty much the worst piece of propaganda we had seen in recent years, and decided to get a crew together to come up and do some educating.

This morning, members of TYC, TJC, TANC, SFT, and the Bay Area Tibetan soccer team (represent!) braved the 104 degree central valley heat with banners and t-shirts (from the Alma and Chris martini sweatshop). The target was Cal State University Sacramento, who evidently sponsored the exhbit at the suggestion of Chinese alum without doing any fact checking on the content (you can take action and tell them to cancel this thing immediately by clicking here.)

Once everyone had taken their positions, the girl managing the exhibit came up to Thupten looking pretty mortified (see right). Mortification quickly turned to tears when she saw how upset Tibetans were at the content of the exhibit. She said she had to call security, but promised to start an SFT chapter!!!

Check out the Sacramento Bee tomorrow for an article and some photos of the action. Here’s Chris and Thup looking tough, followed by some fair cops in chino shorts throwing us out!

Feeling satisfied with our accomplishment, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Bollywood tent eating fair food. Check out this photo of SFT love!

SFT HQ Extreme Makeover 2005

Well, yes, we’ve been busy here at SFT Headquarters. [click on the picture to enlarge] We’ve completely overhauled our office space in New York. Okay, we’re not quite there yet. But we’re rolling, and we’re already excited about the changes. More space, better space, better equipment, better organized all-around, etc. We’re preparing for a big school year and we won’t have time to do this stuff then. Actually, in a lot of ways, we feel like we’re renovating now in preparation for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. We’re putting our “house in order” so that we can focus fully on the next 3 years – 2008 will be here sooner than we think!

It’s been fun though, thanks to some great volunteers and several local board members. We even finally got rid of lots of old computers that were taking up a tremendous amount of space here. And after we cleaned off all the information, we put ‘em out in board member Sam’s truck… where a handful of them were taken by friendly neighbors (there was a sign reading “free computers”). We hope you enjpy them!

SFT works for global peace and non-violence

From the New York Times: “At a demonstration near President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex., Kathy Nikeef carried crosses memorializing Americans killed in Iraq.” full article here

Kathy is a former SFT Board Member, and we’re proud that she’s representing down in Texas, in support of Cindy Sheehan. Go Kathy!!

I need your input!

Some of you may seen the mobile ringtone and wallpaper site I launched last year. Its called “Mobile-ize For Tibet” and its currently located at http://www.sftonline.org/ring. For a donation of $3 to SFT, you can get a cool background image for your phone (such as the one to the left), or a ringtone of Long-sho or Lhabhu Dhabhu.

Now I say “some of you” because the whole problem with the service has been the inability to market it, due both to time and money. I still think it could be very popular, particularly if I improve a few things:

1) New website design to improve usability, general look

2) Add new wallpapers, ringtones, on a regular basis (each month?)

3) Increase marketing through word of mouth, banner ads on phayul, etc., fliers, stickers, etc. especially towards Tibetan youth

4) And most importantly, find a *NEW NAME*. We need a name thats catchy and fun – TibetTones.com? TibetRing? RangzenRingers? YakTone?

Please post your thoughts and suggestions in the comments below. I’m really looking forward to hearing your ideas. This could be a great bit of extra income for SFT!

Latest March for Tibet’s Independence Concludes

Accompanied by dozens of local Tibetans and supporters, twenty-some tired, sweaty and sore activists limped into Dag Hammerskold Plaza across from the U.N. around noon today, officially concluding their walk from Boston to New York, International Tibet Independence Movement’s (ITIM) latest “March for Tibet’s Independence.”

After some slogan-shouting and the singing of the Tibetan National Anthem, all of the walkers introduced themselves and received khatas. There were speeches by, among others, ITIM’s president Larry Gerstein and by Jigme Norbu, the son of Taktser Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s older brother who has never wavered from his insistence that Tibetans continue to seek complete independence. Larry and Jigme la and his patriotic father and ITIM Board members and supporters and the walkers, not just this march but all of them (ten marches in about as many years? …and this was a short one) deserve admiration for their commitment to the Tibetan cause.

I was also invited to give a speech. I basically said, hey, we have almost exactly three years until the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese Gov’t thinks it’s their big opportunity to come out as the open, progressive, happy, new and improved One China. We say our big opportunity to create a real political crisis for them on the eve of the Games, while they squirm uncomfortably in the bright hot spotlight.

I think the speech went over pretty well because no one seemed to mind that I was basically soaking wet. Uhg, it was the hottest, most humid day in NYC yet this year. Nasty. Well, small complaints in the scheme of things, eh? Yes. Onward!