Wisconsin For Tibet

The government of the state of Wisconsin has firmly planted itself as an ally in the cause for Tibetan independence. Wisconsin’s governor Jim Doyle declared March 10th “Tibet Day” and issued a proclamation honoring the Dalai Lama as the rightful leader of the Tibetan people and describing Tibet as an occupied land. The Wisconsin’s state legislature also voted unanimously to honor the one million plus Tibetans who have died as a result of China’s occupation.
Additionally U.S. Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin has issued a statement commemorating the Tibetan national uprising of 1959 - it can be viewed here.

The texts of all three statements can be viewed below.

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Tibetan National Uprising Day – NYC Rally

Here are some pictures from my camera phone from the March 10th Rally at Union Square, as well as the demonstration at the United Nations. We had over 400 Tibetans and supporters attend today’s events. The demonstration has moved to the Chinese Consulate, but I came back to the office to provide an update.

Panoramic sepia shot of Union Square.

Panoramic shot from the United Nations.

More cell phone pics below, plus the text of my first speech for SFT!

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Tibet Protest on Tiananmen Square!!!

For the second time since the Athens Olympics, there’s been a Tibet protest in Beijing. Last time it was Han (from SFT) and Liam (from ATC) unfurling a banner from the bridge in Beijing Nationalities Park. This time it’s Wangpo Tethong (from International Tibet Support Network’s Olympics Campaign) holding up a banner on Tiananmen Square. Below is from www.phayul.com UPDATE: A more recent article can be viewed here.

Beijing – Two days prior to the 47th anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day, Wangpo Tethong (43), a Tibetan activist from Switzerland, today called upon the Chinese leadership meeting in Beijing at the National People’s Congress, to seriously review their Tibet policies and to find and implement a sincere solution to the Tibet conflict.

The Olympics countdown clock in front of the National Museum displaying ‘884 days till the opening of the Games 2008’, acted as a backdrop as he unfurled a banner on which was written, “Hu, you can’t stop us! 2008-FreeTibet.org“.

In his role as co-ordinator of the International Tibet Support Network’s Olympics Campaign, Tethong met with journalists and briefed them on the goals of the campaign. “It only follows that if no concrete progress on the question of Tibet is made, the protests will intensify in the next two years until the Olympic Games�, he said.

Read Wangpo Tethong’s open letter to Hu Jintao here. Read more recent updates at

www.2008-FreeTibet.org.

Google HQ on Valentine’s Day

This picture is resurfacing as this site never gave it adequate recognition for it being so cool. This is a full picture of the card that was delivered to Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California on Valentine’s Day.

You can see video of this card being delivered to Google Public Relations Department Google Security by visiting this post.

Oh and if anyone knows who is pictured here, post a comment so they can be recognized as the awesome card-carrying Tibet activist that they are.

Google’s Step in the Right Direction

Google has finally made a step in the right direction vis a vis its relationship with China. They announced last week (sorry for the delay in writing on it) that they would move all of their search records out of China to prevent the records from having to be turned over to the Chinese government.

The Mountain View, Calif., company has decided to store search records from the site outside of China in order to prevent that government from being able to access the data without Google’s consent, said Peter Norvig, Google’s director of research, speaking Monday at a panel discussion at Santa Clara University.

“We didn’t want to be in the position of having to hand over these kinds of records to the government,” he said.

Google retains information on the search queries performed by its users, along with the IP addresses associated with queries, to better understand how its search engine is being used, Norvig said.

It’s fortunate that Google is protecting their users’ search records in a way that Yahoo has refused to do, though the move begs a few questions about Google’s China policy and the example it is setting for other US tech companies.

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