An Audience with His Holiness

Tuesday, September 27th was an unforgettable day for SFT. His Holiness the Dalai Lama granted an audience to New York-area Tibet Support Groups including SFT, USTC (United States Tibet Committee), TJC (Tibet Justice Center) and others.

His Holiness spoke for a good fifteen minutes, during which he talked about the dangers to Tibetan survival posed by the China-Tibet Railway, the urgency of the Tibet situation, and most importantly, he spoke of hope. The thing that registered most deeply in my mind, as I listened closely to my leader’s impassioned speech, was that he was getting old. But he was not giving up! Again and again, His Holiness said, “Work harder.” It was as if he was acknowledging the fact that we were already working very hard – but that we need to work even harder if we were to achieve our goal. Although there were not many people in that audience, his message “Work Harder” was clearly intended for everyone working for Tibet and freedom everywhere.

After the audience, the SFT staff, board, and some of our most dedicated members and supporters went to Tibetan Kitchen to eat some momo and drink some beer (those under 21 drank water or soda, of course).

Messenger From a Burning House

A brilliant opinion piece in the LA Times by writer Pico Iyer. These are important words for anyone – from Larry King to Paul Martin to wealthy western ‘Tibetan’ Buddhists – who claim to admire the Dalai Lama. Just an excerpt:

How to try to preserve Tibet after half a century of occupation remains a tangled question: More and more Tibetans in exile, especially the young, believe the Dalai Lama is too conciliatory, too ready to forgive, and some urge attacks on Chinese power stations, roads and even officials. When the Dalai Lama, who just turned 70, is no longer around, it’s possible that some Tibetans will turn, in desperation, to terrorism. His gamble — and hope — is that by taking the high road, and speaking for universal principles of tolerance and trust, he will gain some (mostly invisible) ground in the long run.

Those of us outside the Tibetan community face a very different, but no less urgent, task: As the Dalai Lama travels through the U.S., those who long to see him, to touch him, those who are eager to bask in his infectious optimism and warmth, must also try to help him in the place where he needs it most: urging China to change its policies before there is no Tibet to save.

Otherwise we just seize the parts of his message that inspire us and ignore the parts that challenge us. In doing so, we become dangerously close to being children gathering around a spiritual godfather, hungry for his wisdom and hardly caring that his home, across the way, is going up in flames.

Read the full piece in the LA Times.

SFT vs. the Chinese Ambassador: A Showdown

I woke up real early this morning, hoping to be the first one to arrive at work. But I was disappointed when I saw that Matt, Lhadon and Han were already there, hard at work printing handouts and preparing placards. Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong was going to give a speech at the Asia Society and we had a plan to disrupt his business.

Around 11:45 am, Tibetans and supporters, representing TYC, TWA and SFT in the New York area, waited in the lobby of the Asia Society building, pretending to be customers looking to buy museum sovenirs. When the Ambassador drove up to the entrance, we all jumped out from behind the shelves, pulled out Tibetan national flags from our pockets, and started chanting, “Shame on Zhou, Shame on China, Free Tibet Now.” Confused and shaken, Ambassador Zhou was quickly shuffled away by his security guards into the elevator.

At the conclusion of the program at about 1:45 p.m. the security guards and the police started preparing a quiet exit for the Chinese Ambassador. But the building had only two exits, and we had both exits covered. Eventually, the Chinese Ambassador exited through the back door, where some of us chanted and waved the Tibetan flags for a full two minutes while he maneauvered his way through the crowd to his limousine. Let’s just say, we got him! By the way, this is the same Chinese Ambassador who had to put up with Rich Felker, SFT’s Regional Coordinator for Midatlantic, who chained himself to a pillar last year when the Ambassador visited the University of Virginia.

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents

Reporters Without Borders has released what the AP calls an “ABC guide of tips for bloggers and dissidents to sneak past Internet censors in countries from China to Iran”

Check out the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents.

Hopefully the rat bastards at Yahoo! won’t go reading it just to figure out how to foil the various schemes… hoping to railroad some more China critics in their effort to show the Chinese Communist Party how far they’ll bend over for a buck.

In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Tibet activists, Chinese Democracy activists and anyone who wants to see a billion people gain a measure of freedom from the Olympic opportunity, need to start writing without fear of persecution and punching holes in the great Chinese internet firewall. There isn’t too much in the Handbook that most geeky types in the U.S. don’t already know but it’s a good start. Bravo to RPF.

Mock Hanging in Vancouver as Hu Dines!

From Jeff Langlois, SFT Canada Board Member:

Tonight’s action was a resounding success, Kate and the rest of SFT Vancouver made a fantastic effort this past week and managed to pull together a great demo and action. We had about a hundred supporters in addition to many Falun Gong and Tiawanese who noisily greeted Hu Jintao. About half way through the demonstration Kate scaled a 50 foot flagpole and hung two banners before staging a mock hanging. It lasted for over an hour and in the end they just let us walk away without any charges or even a warning. It really was a night of victories.

I have attached a few of the first photos from the action (that is Kate hanging under that shroud). Also, visit

http://www.940news.com/nouvelles.php?cat=23&id=91702

for the first bit of coverage (the mock hanging is not reported on but our fabulous media spokesperson Pema Lhalungpa managed to get a great quote in there!)

Talk to you all soon,

Jeff Langlois