SMURF EMANCIPATION DAY – A RESPONSE TO CHINA’S PROPAGANDA!

28th March 2009, LONDON – Refusing the Chinese governments latest mass propaganda campaign of the introduction of a new national holiday called “Serf Emancipation Day” to be held annually in Tibet on the 28th of March, a coalition of young Tibetans and their supporters staged an extravagant protest in front of the Chinese Embassy this morning. Protesters were celebrating the “Smurf Emancipation Day”, dressed as smurfs, wearing smurf masks, shouting slogans such as “Smurfs don't need no re-education” and reading out the official blue Gargamel paper 17 points agreement.

A Smurf, who wore a mask and cannot be named to protect his identity, said:
 “For centuries, us Smurfs lived harmoniously in our village, picking smurfberries and smurfing happily all day long. Then Chairman Gargamel took our village and began to destroy our happy, smurfy culture. Smurf Emancipation Day is a joke; Smurfs want our freedom!”

Through creative and original campaigning, the Smurf Emancipation Day is drawing attention to the serious and critical situation in Tibet. It exposes the ridiculous lengths that China resorts to in order to legitimise its illegal occupation of Tibet. Their joke on history does not deserve to be taken seriously but provokes to be subverted. The more China tries to re-write history, the more China forces their propaganda on Tibetans, their own people and the outside world, the more this will ultimately backfire on them. They will never win the hearts of Tibetans.

In London at the G20 meeting world leaders are discussing the current financial crisis and possibly enhancing China's bargaining power in monetary based decisions it is important that we do not let the Serf Emancipation Day unnoticed.

The Smurfs have not really been Emancipated. Neither have Tibetans.

After fifty years of peaceful resistance in Tibet, the Chinese Government is still so fearful of Tibetan protests that it feels the need to create a national holiday in a desperate attempt to rewrite history.

‘Serf Emancipation Day’ is a propaganda exercise designed to portray Tibet as a place saved from a brutal dictatorship when in fact the opposite is the case. In 1950, 40,000 Chinese soldiers invaded Tibet, a country roughly the size of Western Europe, intent on exploiting its vast natural resources and gaining a strategic foothold in the region. During the Tibetan Uprising of 1959, an estimated 26,000 innocent Tibetan men, women and children were killed by the vast Chinese army, and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was forced into exile.

Since then, the Chinese Government have ruled Tibet with an iron fist, stripping the country of its resources while jailing and torturing any Tibetans who speak up to demand their freedom. China sidesteps questions about human rights from Governments, journalists and the United Nations by claiming that Tibetans lived as ‘serfs’ prior to the invasion, and that Tibetans now benefit from the industrial and economic might of China.

But in reality, Tibetans are still being denied their basic human rights as China floods Tibet with troops in an attempt to deter dissent. 2008 saw the biggest uprising in Tibet for fifty years, as over one hundred peaceful protests spread across Tibet, involving thousands of people. These protests were met with a brutal crackdown; the indiscriminate killing of Tibetans of all ages designed to scare them into keeping silent about their rights and freedoms.

In 2009, thousands of protesters have again protested against Chinese rule in Tibet, but the media blackout imposed by the Chinese authorities has prevented many of these protests being seen by the world’s media. Eyewitness testimony and rare photos and videos from Tibet confirm that thousands have been detained under the ‘Strike Hard’ campaign, with Tibetans getting life sentences simply for sending email to the outside world.

‘Serf Emancipation Day’ is just another cynical attempt by the Chinese Government to create a smokescreen obscuring what is really happening to the Tibetan people and their ancient, unique and peaceful culture

If Tibetans really were emancipated, it would be easy for the Chinese Government to show this; they could simply allow foreign visitors, journalists and United Nations observers into Tibet. The fact that to this day they deny independent observers access to Tibet underlines the obvious question:What are they so desperate to hide?

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SMURF EMANCIPATION DAY – A RESPONSE TO CHINA’S PROPAGANDA!

28th March 2009, LONDON – Refusing the Chinese governments latest mass propaganda campaign of the introduction of a new national holiday called “Serf Emancipation Day” to be held annually in Tibet on the 28th of March, a coalition of young Tibetans and their supporters staged an extravagant protest in front of the Chinese Embassy this morning. Protesters were celebrating the “Smurf Emancipation Day”, dressed as smurfs, wearing smurf masks, shouting slogans such as “Smurfs don't need no re-education” and reading out the official blue Gargamel paper 17 points agreement.

A Smurf, who wore a mask and cannot be named to protect his identity, said:
 “For centuries, us Smurfs lived harmoniously in our village, picking smurfberries and smurfing happily all day long. Then Chairman Gargamel took our village and began to destroy our happy, smurfy culture. Smurf Emancipation Day is a joke; Smurfs want our freedom!”

Through creative and original campaigning, the Smurf Emancipation Day is drawing attention to the serious and critical situation in Tibet. It exposes the ridiculous lengths that China resorts to in order to legitimise its illegal occupation of Tibet. Their joke on history does not deserve to be taken seriously but provokes to be subverted. The more China tries to re-write history, the more China forces their propaganda on Tibetans, their own people and the outside world, the more this will ultimately backfire on them. They will never win the hearts of Tibetans.

In London at the G20 meeting world leaders are discussing the current financial crisis and possibly enhancing China's bargaining power in monetary based decisions it is important that we do not let the Serf Emancipation Day unnoticed.

The Smurfs have not really been Emancipated. Neither have Tibetans.

After fifty years of peaceful resistance in Tibet, the Chinese Government is still so fearful of Tibetan protests that it feels the need to create a national holiday in a desperate attempt to rewrite history.

‘Serf Emancipation Day’ is a propaganda exercise designed to portray Tibet as a place saved from a brutal dictatorship when in fact the opposite is the case. In 1950, 40,000 Chinese soldiers invaded Tibet, a country roughly the size of Western Europe, intent on exploiting its vast natural resources and gaining a strategic foothold in the region. During the Tibetan Uprising of 1959, an estimated 26,000 innocent Tibetan men, women and children were killed by the vast Chinese army, and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was forced into exile.

Since then, the Chinese Government have ruled Tibet with an iron fist, stripping the country of its resources while jailing and torturing any Tibetans who speak up to demand their freedom. China sidesteps questions about human rights from Governments, journalists and the United Nations by claiming that Tibetans lived as ‘serfs’ prior to the invasion, and that Tibetans now benefit from the industrial and economic might of China.

But in reality, Tibetans are still being denied their basic human rights as China floods Tibet with troops in an attempt to deter dissent. 2008 saw the biggest uprising in Tibet for fifty years, as over one hundred peaceful protests spread across Tibet, involving thousands of people. These protests were met with a brutal crackdown; the indiscriminate killing of Tibetans of all ages designed to scare them into keeping silent about their rights and freedoms.

In 2009, thousands of protesters have again protested against Chinese rule in Tibet, but the media blackout imposed by the Chinese authorities has prevented many of these protests being seen by the world’s media. Eyewitness testimony and rare photos and videos from Tibet confirm that thousands have been detained under the ‘Strike Hard’ campaign, with Tibetans getting life sentences simply for sending email to the outside world.

‘Serf Emancipation Day’ is just another cynical attempt by the Chinese Government to create a smokescreen obscuring what is really happening to the Tibetan people and their ancient, unique and peaceful culture

If Tibetans really were emancipated, it would be easy for the Chinese Government to show this; they could simply allow foreign visitors, journalists and United Nations observers into Tibet. The fact that to this day they deny independent observers access to Tibet underlines the obvious question:What are they so desperate to hide?

Ven. Palden Gyatso la speaks on the Serf Emancipation Day!

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Ven. Palden Gyatso la speaks on the Serf Emancipation Day!

Comments

Ven. Palden Gyatso la speaks on the Serf Emancipation Day!