You’ll have seen the numerous news reports about anti-Chinese feeling boiling over into violence among Tibetans in Lhasa.
The Chinese premier has accused His Holiness the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the violence. The Dalai Lama, on the other hand, condemns the violence. Indeed his whole life has been as a witness for peace.
Next year will see the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile and there has never been any indication in all those years that the Chinese authorities are willing to deal with the Tibetan issue with any humanity.
But perhaps in this year of the Beijing Olympics, there is a window of influence to be seized. Campaigning organisation Avaaz has launched a petition to the Chinese leadership to enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama. They’re aiming for 1 million signatures and as I write this they have just over 73,000. I’m one, what about you? The petition is here.
By the way, if you want to find out more about the whole issue, you could do a lot worse than read Isabel Losada’s book For Tibet, With Love, a beginner’s guide to changing the world.
And I found this beautiful video at Isabel’s site:
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Sunrise Sister 03.19.08 at 3:53 am
Beautiful little video…..
Sue 03.21.08 at 2:36 am
The Dalai Lama is evil … yeah, right. It just oozes out of his bones, doesn’t it? I agree, the time is ripe for a bit of international pressure … how does one pressure another country without manipulation? I wonder about this sort of stuff …
Tess 03.21.08 at 12:08 pm
Yes, that nasty ol’ violent Dalai Lama!
I don’t know, Sue, whether this sort of thing is ever without manipulation or if that’s part of the price. Not at all sure what the answer is.