buckaroo banzai | Tibet Will Be Free

Tendor in Greece: “IOC – Drop Tibet from the Torch Route”

Posted by buckaroo banzai on Mar 23, 2008 in ioc, Torch Relay | Comments Off

Upon his arrival in Olympia, SFT’s deputy director held a press conference, which included his demand that Tibet be dropped from the Beijing Olympic Torch Route.

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Transcribed from the video:

I demand, on behalf of the Tibetan people that the IOC drop Tibet from China’s torch relay route, immediately and unconditional. Carrying China’s Olympic torch through the country of Tibet, where just now in the past week and even today, we are seeing evidence of the Tibetan discontent. The Tibetan people want independence. Having China taking their olympic torch, blood-stained olympic torch, through Tibet to the top of Mount Everest, would be adding insult to fifty years of injury, that the Chinese government has inflicted on the Tibetan people.

So, if the IOC has any respect for itself, and any intention to uphold its promise to develop freedom around the world, and bring freedom to China, the first thing, and the bare minimum they have to do is drop Tibet from China’s olympic torch relay route, and the second thing I also want the IOC to do is to make sure, to ensure that unfettered media access is allowed in Tibet and China ,not just during the Olympics, but beginning starting now.

Read the previous post on Tendor’s return to Greece.

Tendor returns to Greece

Posted by buckaroo banzai on Mar 23, 2008 in General, Torch Relay | 1 comment

SFT’s Tendor is in Greece today to witness the lighting of the Beijing Torch first hand, and speak out as a free person, while China is engaged in a bloody crackdown in Tibet. Upon his arrival in Athens, he was immediately pulled aside by security officials, who knew full well who he was, and detained for awhile. Listen or read below for his account… (and stay tuned on this blog for more updates from Tendor)

Listen to Tendor describe his experience

or read his account below:

It was really surreal to see that the long arm of China is flexing its muscle even as far as Greece. As soon as I got into line at the passport control at Athens airport, there were a few cops waiting to single me out and usher me into a room. They went through both of my bags, taking out even the smallest things, like the chagney (blessed grains from Nechung oracle) that my mom had stealthily put in my bags.

After the first few minutes, it was obvious that they knew that I knew that they knew. There was no pretending. They cut through the bull, “Are you alone?” “What will you gain by protesting the Chinese government?” “We support your cause.” “Where is your return ticket?” “Are you alone?” “How much cash are you carrying?” “Tell us who else is here with you?”

“No one, of course, no one.”

And then there was the trick question: “You said you’re alone. So if there are other Tibetans protesting in Olympia, that makes you a liar! Right?”

I said to the police, “The Chinese government is spreading its disease of oppression even in the free world. Greece is a free country with a great culture, and I admire that. That’s why I don’t want China to bring its blood-stained torch to the holy city of Olympia. China has blood on its hands – the blood of Tibetans who got killed as recently as today and yesterday for merely expressing their desire for freedom.”

They nodded and spoke to each other in Greek as one of the younger policemen – who seemed slightly nervous – finished combing my bags. There were about ten policemen in the room. I took some photos of the bag search on my mobile phone – I don’t know why (maybe just because they were telling me not to use my phone). One is attached here.

When the older policemen were in the other room watching my DVDs, the younger one stayed with me. I looked at his badge and asked his name. He quickly slid his badge into his sweater and said, “No name.” I said to him, “You have nothing to hide. You’re not guilty,” I said. “The Chinese government is guilty.”

After an hour and a half, they made me stand against the wall, took a few photos of me, and then let me go. On my way out of the security area, someone who had witness all of this patted my shoulder and said something I never expected to hear:

“Be strong.”

It made me witness firsthand the deep emotional support that free people everywhere feel for the Tibetan cause.

Tendor was in Greece on March 10 to light the Tibetan Freedom Torch. View our earlier coverage here and video here

BoingBoing TV covers Tibet’s Uprising and the Internet

Posted by buckaroo banzai on Mar 21, 2008 in Media Coverage, Multimedia | 0 comments

From the fantastic Xeni Jardin:

Today on Boing Boing tv: Xeni visited one such vigil in front of the LA Federal building, organized by Southern California Tibetans, including Namgyal Kyulo of the Tibetan Association of Southern California, and Tseten Phanucharas, of the Los Angeles Friends of Tibet.

View the full blog post on BoingBoing.net

Music in the video was by SFT’s good friend Sonam Tashi aka AchoDanny

Amazing Footage of Tibetan Freedom Riders

Posted by buckaroo banzai on Mar 18, 2008 in Protests in Tibet | 0 comments

CTV’s Beijing Bureau Chief Steve Chao with exclusive images of protests from Tibet’s border with China.

This will take your breath away. To be clear, these Tibetans had no idea there was a reporter there, they had no idea anyone would see this except for themselves.

NOTE: As far as we can tell, these riders and demonstrators are unarmed.

[youtube qxm2obArsBs]

view the original story page here

Digg Tibet!

Posted by buckaroo banzai on Mar 18, 2008 in Media Coverage, Multimedia, Technology | 2 comments

Usually, Digg is full of strange, geekery, esoteric and random headlines for the various items that are “dugg” by users of the site.

Today, the top entry on Digg, with over 4000 votes is titled, simply, Free Tibet. That number is HUGE in digg world – SciFi writer Arthur Clarke’s death only has 2300 for instance.

Every time SFT has an online initiative or an event to promote, we usually try to get it dugg, with little success. This time, its at the top, and we had nothing to do with it.