free Tibet
free you
be Tibet
be me
and then
tell me
whom to hate
July 2001, the International Olympic Committee votes to make Beijing ground zero for the 2008 Summer Games.
January 10, 2008, I'm cascading amidst the prayer flags in Upper Dharamsala, McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama's India based government-in-exile.
March 14, 2008, I'm back in the addiction riddled States, Tibetan's willing to take blows as the world's eyes turn to Lhasa.
April 9, 2008, the Olympic torch builds and burns bridges all through San Francisco.
April 11, 2008, the Dalai Lama is on his way to Seattle, and squeezes in a press conference on a layover in Narita, Japan, where reminds the world how compassion works: "We are not anti-Chinese. Right from the beginning, we supported the Olympic Games."
But he also says that when it comes to protestors, no one "has the right to tell them to shut up."
Free Tibet? No doubt.
But it's about more than supporting any one campaign. More than Free Tibet: Free Palestine, Free! Free! Free Palestine! More than Free Mumia: Free All Political Prisoners. It is more than a campaign, it's about alignment. It's about that moment on the dancefloor, when you are so in sync with the music that every dancer around you can't help but to groove harder.
In what way are we all political prisoners?
I am most aligned with global struggles when I am actively aware of the ways I work to liberate my own person. In my case, liberation has everything to do with the daily fight for my life post-incest.
I've organized since I was 15, keynoted Take Back The Night's, emceed Artists Against Rape, and take note, April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. But even now, it's still hard to justify dealing with what happened to me. How do I integrate my life's personal campaign with organizing and educating communities?
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Pro-Tibet Protests: Sports Lovers Meet Torture Victims
UPDATE: We've been holding the corner of Embarcadero and Washington streets since 10 a.m. this morning in San Francisco together with Tibetans, Students for a Free Tibet, Darfur activists, and then of course pro-China folks have been right here with us. Intense emotions abound as sports lovers meet torture victims.
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I'm sitting with a mix of folks from Students for a Free Tibet, Ruckus, RAN and others at the jail where the seven Tibetan rights activists who pulled off the stunning Golden Gate bridge action have been held since being whisked off the bridge yesterday.
Our latest news is that they're coming out any minute now -- that's been the word for two hours. I think of them through the labyrinth of halls and walls beyond the door so sleepy, sore, with perhaps no idea of just how far reaching their tremendous action has been for two days.
This isn't the first action on the Golden Gate Bridge, but a good friend pointed out that its probably the biggest action since 9/11. But the actions in this campaign so far have all been big -- Mt. Everest, the Great Wall, the Eiffel Tower. Well, almost the Eiffel Tower. Police presence in Paris was too high for the action to get going, so they defaulted to a nearby bridge over the Seine whose name escapes me now, writing this on my phone from the waiting room of this jail.
The demands -- no torch run through Tibet, an end to human rights abuses, and ultimately the liberation of Tibet -- are on the front page of newspapers worldwide.
The victory in many ways is already complete for the campaign on the torch. The Olympics were supposed to herald a new China. Thing is, the Chinese government thought it could get the symbolic stamp of approval without actually changing its behavior. As Tibet has escalated their campaign for international attention, China's government has shown its unwillingness to improve their violent history.
The activists are released one by one, first the women, then the men, swamped by journalists and then enveloped by loved ones.
They are free! Tibet is next!
San Francisco is preparing for the Olympic torch relay to pass through the city in its only U.S. stop. Already, seven people have been arrested as protesters climbed up the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl banners calling for a free Tibet, blogs Wiretap's Adrienne Maree Brown.
Thousands of protesters are expected to line the waterfront route to greet the torch with outrage, following scenes in London and Paris. Activists demonstrating for a free Tibet join those protesting China’s policies in Darfur and Burma.
But not everyone thinks the Olympics is the place for protest. According to a poll by the L.A.-based Kelton Research firm, many Americans think sports and politics should not intersect. Of 1,000 people surveyed, 90 percent said they agree with the statement that the Olympics and politics should be kept separate; 70 percent said they strongly agree with that statement.
By contrast, 21 percent of those polled said they support boycotting the Beijing Olympics. Slate’s Anne Applebaum gives a couple good reasons for why the Olympics are the perfect place for a protest.
For one thing, everyone is watching. Media from all over the world will be in Beijing to capture demonstrations. The Games haven’t even started and those demonstrations are at the center of pre-Olympic coverage.
For another, she argues, history has shown that boycotting sporting events can make a difference:
The boycott of South African athletes from international competitions was probably the single most effective weapon the international community ever deployed against the apartheid state. ("They didn't mind about the business sanctions," a South African friend once told me, "but they minded—they really, really minded—about the cricket.") The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics helped undermine Soviet propaganda about the invasion of Afghanistan and unify the Western world against it. I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing that from the Soviet perspective, the Soviet bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics four years later was successful, too. Presumably, it was intended to solidify Soviet elite opposition to the United States in the Reagan years, and presumably, it helped.
The modern Olympics were founded with the goal of promoting international peace. Having the games in China turns that idea on its head by supporting a government that hasn’t supported peace. The hypocrisy of it all also makes Beijing ripe for protest.
Pro-Tibet Protesters Climb San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge
I write right now with the utmost pride. Three activists, including one of our beloved Ruckutistas, are climbed up the suspension cables of the Golden Gate Bridge in an action to support Tibetan independence.
San Francisco is the only city hosting the torch in the United States, and Students for a Free Tibet responded. The message is clear and visionary: FREE TIBET!
Actions in Paris and London have already shown one of the ugly truths of standing up against injustuce -- the bravery of nonviolence is met with the cowardice of violence. This is true in Tibet, where 180 people have been slaughtered since March in their attempts to send a message to the world through the layers of repression of Chinese rule.
As the climbers pulled themselves higher and higher, I meditated on what this struggle is about. It is as fundamentally a fight against inequality and tyranny as the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa...it is the old world of imperialism and inequality against a new world of sovereignty and spiritual wealth.
As the banners scooted across ropes strung between the three climbers, the news media gathered four helicopters, two vans, eight photographers. The news poured in: "traffic is stopped", "five people detained on the bridge", "two diversion teams". The story ran live on CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC. A cameraman next to me finally said it: "They've brought the city to a stop. It’s amazing!"
And then the banner unfurled, white and black against the iconic red Golden Gate Bridge, and was gorgeous. "One World, One Dream: Free Tibet"
This was a huge, beautiful and strategic action; the people of Tibet have this brief window, when the whole world is watching China, the whole world is speaking of "One Dream," the whole world is waiting for the Olympics.
The Tibetan dream of independence is our common dream, and we're asking you to do one thing if you are moved by the strength and perseverance of the Tibetan people and Tibetan-led Students for a Free Tibet: donate to StudentsforaFreeTibet.org to support this action and the actions to come.
And check out these two links for a couple of visuals on the banner hang:
China's Tibet Accusations Continue
China’s repeated attacks on the Dalai Lama really isn’t doing much for its image. Last week, the notorious human rights offender accused the Tibetan Nobel Peace laureate of being a terrorist. Today, China said the Dalai Lama and his supporters are planning suicide attacks.
I swear, you’d think this stuff was straight out of The Onion.
From the AP:
The Tibetan government-in-exile swiftly denied the charge [regarding suicide attacks], and the Bush administration rushed to the Tibetan Buddhist leader's defense, calling him "a man of peace."
"There is absolutely no indication that he wants to do anything other than have a dialogue with China on how to discuss the serious issues there," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.
The Chinese government saysthe Tibetan Buddhist leader’s master plan is to collude with Muslim terrorists to destabilize the country before the Olympics. The only thing that’s clear, though, is that China is doing a good job all on its own of destabilizing the country’s image before the Olympics.
China's claims about Tibetan violence continued this week. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security says it found an array of weapons in Lhasa, Tibet, including 176 guns, 13,013 bullets, 7,725 pounds of explosives, 19,000 sticks of dynamite and 350 knives.
But China’s ban on all foreign media makes it impossible to gauge whether there could be any truth to its claims that Dalai Lama supporters are planning violent attacks.
Violent Crackdown and Information Blackout in Tibet
The news from Tibet keeps getting worse. Well, what little news China will let us hear.
China has been able to block information out of Tibet. Thousands of Tibetans living in exile in India had relied on email and cell phone correspondence to obtain information about the protests in Tibet, and the violent Chinese crackdown that has followed. But now those emails and calls have stopped.
This comes after China banned foreign media last week.
At today's U.N. human rights forum, China was urged by the EU, the US, Australia, Canada and Switzerland to ease its military crackdown.
Meanwhile, China has actually had the gall to say what's needed in Tibetan monasteries is "patriotic education." We can only assume the Chinese government is talking about patriotism for China; because, as far as I can tell, fighting for rights and autonomy for Tibet is pretty patriotic if you're Tibetan.
In the midst of all of this there's a little event that's supposed to happen this summer. What is that? Oh yeah, THE OLYMPICS. Yes, the Olympics are still actually taking place in Beijing, despite its perpetration of egregious human rights violations. Awesome.
About 50 Tibetan exiles in India began a global torch relay of their own, which will end in Lhasa, Tibet on August 8, the first day of the 2008 Olympic Games. Tibetan exiles are planning their own mock Olympics from May 15-25 in Dharmsala, India to show the absurdity of it all.
YM Blog-a-thon Update: Violence
Here's a quick update on the Youth Media blog-a-thon focusing on violence. This is the second of our monthly Youth Media Blog-a-thons organized by YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia and WireTap in which youth bloggers connect around issues that affect our lives. Below, you'll find young folks from across the country address everything from the wars abroad, violence on our streets, feminism, every-ism, depression and more. Read, comment and spread the word. There's also still time to participate! Holler to find out how.
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(This post originally appeared at The Nation online. )
It's the fifth anniversary of the war and here in D.C., Students for a Democratic Society are throwing a dance party. In an event themed, appropriately, "Funk the War," about 400 youth from Oklahoma to Vermont have converged to jostle and shimmy their way down K St. to the rhythm of electronic beats and anti-war chants.
Unlike the massive protests organized by groups like ANSWER six years ago, today's actions are decentralized, more creative and cropping up all over. This morning, black-draped protesters wearing white masks that bore the names of Iraqis killed made an eerie pilgrimage down K St., while a group of veterans from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan marched from Arlington Cemetery to the National Archives, where four veterans risked arrest to jump on the ledge in front of the building and read a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
"We consider the [National Archives] our territory," says James Gilligan, 27, one of the four. Five years ago today, Gilligan arrived in Iraq -- ready, he remembers, to "defend my country." Now, after tours in Guantanamo and Afghanistan, he's returned home and is ready, he says, to fight for the constitution on his own home turf.
Here on K St., the mood is fresh and ebullient, despite the arrival of heavy rains. The crowd dances its way up past the site of Lockheed Martin, where protesters try to swarm the lobby. Along the way, they're accompanied by a fleet of 11 police cars -- whose blinking red-and-blue lights make the street look even more like a disco.
Six years ago, I remember an entirely different reception when protesters started blocking streets in San Francisco. Then, people were honking angrily and some were flipping off the crowds. But this time, the on-lookers are the cheerleaders. Outside of Bechtel, I watch some protesters hurl red paint against the building's entrance with an analyst from the U.S. Treasury at my side. "I think it's fantastic," he says. "This war is idiotic." An owner of a VW bug stuck in the middle of the street, lights feebly blinking, just smiles at the scene. One banker walking by tells me, "I wish I didn't have to go to work. More of us should be joining in."
YM Blog-a-thon: Our Silent Majority
(Editor's note: Youth Outlook and WireTap are kicking off the second Youth Media Blog-a-thon. This month's topic is violence. Check back frequently for updates and feel free to join the discussion.)
I'm in an awkward position. On the one hand, I'm a member of the media. What that really means, I still don't know. So far I've gathered that it has something to do with writing and making decisions about what other people read. Take this here, blog-a-thon, for instance. I've been harassing encouraging people for almost two weeks to tell their stories of how violence impacts their lives and communities.
Midway through sending out a mass text message, I started to have second thoughts. It's not easy to get people to write about anything, much less something as personal as violence. And then I began to reconsider what I would write about. I had made the decision long ago to write about topics from a distance, especially those that were closest to me. It was a decision based more on personal protection than journalistic objectivity, and it's always easier to write about something you're removed from. I was going to google some statistics, quote some song lyrics, maybe make a reference or two to The Wire, and then write about it all in some vague, circular way, make sure all my links were on point, post, and then peace out.
But that would make me a hypocrite. After all, I can't ask anyone to do something I’m not willing to do myself.
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A couple weeks ago, I blogged that efforts to distribute food to those who need it most are being thwarted by militia groups. Well, it seems that things just keep getting worse.
Yesterday, U.N. officials said it will have to cut emergency food aid in half due to an increase in bandit attacks on its delivery convoys in Darfur. These attacks come at a time when the U.N. World Food Programme is already extremely low on money, reports Reuters.
"Our humanitarian air operation for aid workers," said U.N. Sudan representative Kenro Oshidari in a statement, "could be forced to stop flying because we have no money, at a time when our helicopters and aircraft are needed more than ever because of high insecurity on the roads."
Unless more funding arrives, the WFP will have to close its humanitarian air service by the end of March. That will affect over 8,000 aid workers carrying emergency supplies each month.
The decline in food supplies is especially worrisome because demand for food is high right now, in the time leading up to the May-October rainy season.
Five Years of Conflict in Darfur
Today marks the fifth-year anniversary of crisis in Darfur. The political conflict is said to have begun on February 26, 2003 with an attack by rebels in North Darfur—though this was by no means the first outbreak of ethnic violence. In five years, it seems that no progress has been made.
Over the past five years, about 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced. 240,000 of those fled to the neighboring country of Chad, just one of the ways the conflict is affecting the whole region.
Darfur has elicited the world’s biggest relief operation—(there are currently 12,100 humanitarian aid workers on the ground)—but the situation has simply not improved. In May 2006, the government and one rebel group signed a peace deal, but two others refused, and new rebel factions have sprouted since then. The peace deal has done nothing to improve security in the state.
New bombings are adding to the chaos. The U.N. said this week that bombings are endangering thousands of lives and motivating more Darfurians to flee from their homes. Earlier this month, 12,000 more people fled to eastern Chad following two days of bombing by the Sudanese army and Janjaweed militias.
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Usually I stick to covering international human rights for this blog, but since it’s Super Tuesday, I figured I’d cross over a bit to domestic territory.
Recent developments in the debate over torture beg the question of whether any of the candidates will take on this issue with respect to the “war on terror.” CIA Director Michael Hayden said today that the CIA used waterboarding on three occasions soon after 9/11.
Waterboarding was used on senior al-Qaeda leaders Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and suspected 9/11 terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, said Hayden. The CIA says that the two al-Qaeda suspects accounted for one-fourth of human intelligence on al-Qaeda.
But that speaks to one of the key arguments against forms of torture such as waterboarding. As many trained interrogators have said, harsh interrogation techniques do not generate reliable intelligence. “What we end up doing,” former intelligence and special operations commander Ken Robinson said on the Diane Rheme Show back in October, “is we end up creating more generations of the very type of people we’re fighting when we start using the same techniques which we are accusing them of using on our people.”
The CIA admitted in December to destroying interrogation videos, prompting a Justice Department investigation. Those tapes would probably clear up any question that might remain about whether or not waterboarding is torture. If, you know, the Geneva Conventions’ classification isn’t good enough.