Tibet : Now or Never

With the spontaneous protests and riots in Tibet these past weeks, I do believe that now is the time to make a public stand against Human Rights abuses by the Chinese government.
The opportunity for media attention during the Olympic Games will not come again, and I call on all of us to publicly boycott the Olympics in 2008 and condemn the Chinese government's policies of torture, censure, pollution and exploitation of the people of China and Tibet.

Read the Economist's excellent summary of the problem here.

Chinese factory workers see their families once or twice a year, working 6 to 7 days a week for less than minimum wage.
Chinese mine workers risk their lives daily to extract coal that is burned at obscene rates, polluting the air with carbon emissions, all to produce $5 shoes and plastic Happy Meal toys.
Journalists are restricted from taking video, pictures, or even questioning the policies of the government, often risking imprisonment or kidnapping to reveal daily living conditions in China.
Tibetans, living under occupation since 1959, are continually arrested, tortured, and murdered for demanding free speech, freedom of religion, and free elections.
This must stop, and we have the power, as free people in democratized nations, to effect this change.
Refuse to buy products made in China, and TELL the store-owner why.
Refuse to watch the Olympic games, and TELL your cable provider why.
TELL your government to NOT send atheletes to the Olympic Games.
TAKE 1 hour of your life to go outside on the streets and merely stand tall among protesters in support of Tibet.


I had the honor of participating in a protest Friday, in Paris, simply because they were passing by where I was walking. I did not have a flag, I did not have paint on my face, I did not scream or chant. I was dressed for work, and only stayed 30 minutes, but I stood among the exiled Tibetans as they shouted for freedom, and supported the movement by being there and marching with them for at least a little while.

Click here to read about Friday's protest near the Eiffel Tower.


Know how good it feels to do what is right. To help others.

Compassion

is a word we seldom use
is a skill that needs practicing

it is the love of another human being
just because they're human

it is crying for someone else's pain
not because it hurts you
but because it hurts them

it is pitying victims without belittling their suffering
it is respecting them
listening
and imagining yourself in their place

compassion takes courage
it takes strength
to take someone else's burden

compassion grows wisdom
feeds honor
and love

Try to not turn your back
try to not look away
just because it's uncomfortable

try to share
to say ok
to trade places for a day

and fear
and ignorance
and hatred
are defeated.

Boycott Made In China

I am given hope with the news that four American students have bravely traveled to China and waved a banner saying "Free Tibet" at the base of Mount Everest. Luckily they were merely deported and the news is being spread around the world.

A girlfriend of a friend of ours, a lovely Italian-French girl who was getting her masters, traveled to China a year or two ago to shoot a film about life there. I don't know the details of what she was doing, but she never returned. She was killed there, perhaps by the Chinese government.

After watching a documentary some time ago about the Tibet Freedom concert which took place a few years ago, I was reminded of the atrocities that the Chinese government continue to carry out to this present day.

Here is a government (not the people - the government) which is not democratic, which has nuclear weapons, which limits freedoms of speech, which tortures minorities with physical and sexual abuse in prisions, which forces sterilization of poor women, which censors the internet, which favors indentured labor practices in its factories, and which is deliberately destroying the environment.

When I think of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and rape rooms, I think of the Chinese government, not Iraq.

Please choose to not buy products that are Made in China, especially when you have a choice. Not only are the products of poor quality, and soon end up in landfills when they break, but it inadvertently supports the growing economy of a reckless government and unemployment in our own economy. Even made in Indonesia or India is better, since those are democracies.

I have also decided to not watch the 2008 Olympic Games on television or the internet, in protest of the Chinese government and their increased development in anticipation of the games.

Only when we are brave enough to stand and speak, will anyone listen.

Student Protesters Article - Reuters