Monday 17 March 2008

Free Tibet

The whole world is watching...


The Free Tibet Campaign is still updating its website with photos taken by protesters today. Here's another one:


They must be very, very scared.

There are reports of people protesting outside Chinese embassies around the world today. There is no embassy near me, so all I can think of to do for now is to copy these images here. If you happen to live in London though the embassy is at 49-51 Portland Place, and will probably be very busy tonight.

The editor of the Guardian has written to the embassy about media censorship, which might be a good basic letter for the rest of us to change a bit and also send - names, addresses and e-mails here to send to. I'd probably leave out the phrase "henceforth unfettered" if you don't want to sound like a Guardian editor.

Personally I think I might give them a ring tomorrow on 020 7299 4049, although if I had access to a fax machine I think it would also be quite good fun to repeatedly fax those photographs of dead protesters to all the embassy fax numbers...

COMMENTS

13 comments:

Ralph Mills said...

(Yawn) There are far more important things to worry about - how many millions poor Heather Mills will have to survive on, the juicy bits of the Diana inquest, all that money those penniless investors will have lost today, some bear convicted of stealing honey. Come now, get your priorities sorted out! And then there's Britney and Paris, who we haven't heard about or seen in a state of semi-nudity for at least a day...

Alice said...

I was actually going to mention Heather Mills if I hadn't felt more like doing a Tibet post. Might do it tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

I've sent email to 3 of the addresses you gave a link to. I've saved them as a draft. How many I wonder, will I have to send before I get a single reply !!

Anonymous said...

anonymous is me "Nick Stansfield".

Anonymous said...

Nicks Yahoo just told him that the Defence address no longer exists and the Maritime Chinese Embassy's mailbox is FULL !

Alice said...

Nice one - the phone line was engaged all day too...

Ralph Mills said...

Sadly, our country, like most of the developed world, is dependent on various totalitarian, unsavoury, undemocratic or just plain crazy regimes for its energies, its drugs, its toys, its trimmed green beans, its illegally-logged timber, its soy, its steaks etc etc. Our rich folks similarly obtain most of their wealth and influence from these same countries, despots and dictators. Much of our economies, our jobs, our play, relies on trade with not very nice people and places.

Hence, while we'll bravely rattle our sabres at the small fry like Cuba (how many of our laptops and mobile phones come from Cuba?) or countries we don't get much from apart from a few spices (like Iran), and even invade a few (like Iraq, with disastrous consequences) that are so madly disfunctional and easily squashed, on the whole we can't risk the wrath of the world's arms traders, the oil oligarchs, the steel magnates, the cheap technology addicts (or even not-so-cheap...I'm writing this on a MacBook Pro, which proudly announces on its underside that it was "Designed in California. Assembled in China.") the beef barons, all the assorted millionaires and billionaires and trillionaires who trade with places like China. It's also complicated by the fact that Mr and Mrs Average Daily Mail reader work in jobs that depend on these economies, whether they slave in Asda or CosCo, or in a hospital (read the labels) or even teach in school (much of the school's equipment, even the text books, will be sourced in the far East).

So China can do what it will without worrying too much. OK, a few will cancel their Olympics tickets, but most won't. The lesson from South Africa is that there may be someone rotting in gaol right now who might inspire an internal revolution. The lesson from South Africa is, however, that it has to be to our economic advantage before we'll support you in anything other than words and gestures. And economics and ethics are immiscible. You can shake them up and get something that looks homogenous, but without constant stirring they soon separate!

Anonymous said...

There is an online petition here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/97.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

660,000 have signed so far; the aim is 1 million.

nick-s said...

I think every little helps. Even if it turns out to have given little apparent help, it still must be a step in the right direction.
All campaigns that have been successful enough to change any governments stance began as small scale petitioning.
Thanks for the link Jane.

CrazybutKool said...

Hi Alice, i am the "webmaster" of crazybutkool.blogspot.com, i see your comment and i wanna let you know that crazybutkool.blogspot.com (i use to publish news, etc.) is a section of WWW.CRAZYBUTKOOL.COM.AR, an argentinian site of animations, etc. The name is in english beacuse, i think, its better than in spanish.
I talk english and spanish, but the page its just in spanish.

Grettings, CrazybutKool.

James Higham said...

Yes - it's major, ths one but i fear the Chinese will prevail - it is such a key strategic route for them when they come through to Europe.

Anonymous said...

This is important, no doubt, however, a bunch of whining people on the internet will do nothing.
This is like asking America to "free Alaskan Natives", what would it take for that to happen? Invasion. Who's going to invade Tibet and ignite war with China? Come on...

Unknown said...

Free Tibet and its people from the shackles and torture of the liar Dalai Lama and his clique, and from his hypocricy of using "slavery and religious control" of the Tibetan people. The feudal system of the Dalai Lama and his clique worked the Tibetan peasants and people to death with no food and no clothing and no shelter.

You want truth? Now you can handle the truth!