kagablog

NEW DELHI
Friends of Tibet, All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum For Tibet and Core Group
for Tibetan Cause invite you to a press conference on India’s stand on Tibet
and proposed intervention by the Indian Government on this issue, with Kiren
Rijiju, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha). Members of the All Party Indian
Parliamentary Forum For Tibet and Core group for Tibetan Cause will also
address the press.

Venue: Press Club of India, Rafi Marg, New Delhi.
Date: Monday, March 17, 2008
Program: 3pm Tea
3:30 Short film screening on Tibet followed by Kiran Rijiju’s statements and a
Q&A session

Friends of Tibet
All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum For Tibet
Core Group for Tibetan Cause

March 16, 2008
New Delhi, India

For more information you may, contact: 9899086964, 9810513969 or email:
friendsoftibet.delhi@gmail.com

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BOMBAY
Friends of Tibet to join students, human rights activists and Tibet supporters
to join a candle light vigil near Tata Institute of Social Science, Deonar,
Bombay on March 17, 2008 (Monday) at 6:30pm in memory of those killed in brutal
firing by Chinese Red Army and to support the ongoing struggle for Tibetan
Independence. Join Us!

We urge all citizens of India to condemn this brutal act by Chinese and show
support and solidarity to Tibetans in there struggle. We urge government of
India to speak to the Chinese government and ask for the withdrawal of PLA from
Tibet and hand over Tibet back to the Tibetans.

To know more, call Friends of Tibet at: 9820477010 or email:
friendsoftibet.bombay@gmail.com

. . . . .
Friends of Tibet, PO Box: 16674, Bombay 400050, India.
. . . . .
Friends of Tibet is a people’s movement to keep alive the issue of Tibet
through direct action. Our activities are aimed at ending China’s occupation of
Tibet and the suffering of the Tibetan people. Friends of Tibet supports the
continued struggle of the Tibetan people for independence. To know more, visit:
www.friendsoftibet.org

Dear Friends,

The time has come for me to go to Tibet again. Last time when I went to Tibet in 1997 - after my graduation - I was arrested by the Chinese authorities, beaten up, interrogated, starved and finally thrown out of Tibet after keeping me in their jails for three months in Lhasa and Ngari. I walked to Tibet, on my own, alone, across the Himalayan Mountains from the Ladakh.

Eleven years later, I am walking to Tibet again; this time too, without permission. I am returning home; why should I bother about papers from Chinese colonial regime who have not only occupied Tibet, but also is running a military rule there; making our people in Tibet live in tyranny and brutal suppression day after day, everyday for fifty years.

The Year 2008 is a huge opportunity for the Tibet movement to present the injustices the Tibetans have been subjected to, when China is going to attract international media attention. I am taking part in the return march from Dharamsala to Tibet, that is being organized as a part of the “Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement”, a united effort put together by five major Tibetan NGOs: Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet (an association of former political prisoners), National Democratic Party of Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet, India.

The march will start on 10 March 2008, from Dharamsala, the capital of Tibetan exiles and will pass through Delhi and then head towards Tibet. Walking for six months, we might reach the Tibet border around the time China opens the Beijing 2008 Olympics (August 14-25). Presently it’s too early to approximate at which border point we would be crossing; Tibet and India share a border that runs 4,075 Km along the length of the Himalayas. We might choose any point, or even multiple points. We’ll see the situation.

I know there had been similar attempts in the past, but this is 2008, and I have seen the organizers working extra hard with strategic planning, taking care of every minute detail, and the best thing is that we have all the NGOs working unitedly for the common goal. This unity is our strength! I do not know where we would end up, that’s why I am giving away the little collection of books (my only possession in life) to a library at is being setup in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala. My friends: Lobsang and Nyingje (who served in the Indian army as part of the Tibetan battalion) are also giving away their personal belongings; committing themselves for the march.

Of course the Indian police will do their duty; the Chinese army at the Tibet border would be overtly enthusiastic. Since we are leading a peaceful march, with absolute commitment to non-violence, I do not think anyone - either from Indian authority or Chinese - would impose themselves on us. Inspired by Gandhi’s Salt March, even if they did try to stop us, we are not stopping. For how many days can they jail us for just walking peacefully? And why should the Indian government stop Tibetan refugees voluntarily returning home on foot?

In the past I have climbed buildings to shout for freedom, thrown myself at the Chinese embassy gate in New Delhi, spent months in jails, got beaten up police, fought court cases, but I never lost the dignity of the struggle: my believe in Non-violence. The March to Tibet will be non-violent; it is a sadhana, a spiritual tribute to the truth and justice that we are fighting for. This is our Long March to freedom.

And on our journey home, we will cook and camp in tents on the roadside, there will be the marchers and the support marchers, the kitchen team, logistics, media and the medical team. There will be dancing and singing, and theatre and film shows on the road as we take this long journey home.

Dear friend,

Here is an opportunity to join a historic non-violent freedom struggle, a people’s effort to win freedom for a country that remains subjugated even in 2008. I request you to join us, support us in whatever ways possible. We need people to know about it, so spread the word. You can walk with us, as we walk for six months, maybe you can join us for a day along the path, even one hour, or for a week, months as a supporter. Schools, colleges and even whole town can walk with us. We need volunteers, media people, writers, photographers, bloggers can help us. We need nurses, cooks, technicians and your prayers.

Ever since the march was announced on 4th January 2008, Tibetans have been talking about it; it’s a major discussion in the refugee camps. Recently the organizers launched the entry form. And I heard people are slowly getting themselves registered. You too can register your volunteer online. For more information please visit: www.TibetanUprising.org For enquiries email the coordinators: Lobsang yeshi or sherab woser

Join us.

Tenzin Tsundue

Dharamsala

125. It is not possible to make a LASTING compromise between technology and freedom, because technology is by far the more powerful social force and continually encroaches on freedom through REPEATED compromises. Imagine the case of two neighbors, each of whom at the outset owns the same amount of land, but one of whom is more powerful than the other. The powerful one demands a piece of the other’s land. The weak one refuses. The powerful one says, “OK, let’s compromise. Give me half of what I asked.” The weak one has little choice but to give in. Some time later the powerful neighbor demands another piece of land, again there is a compromise, and so forth. By forcing a long series of compromises on the weaker man, the powerful one eventually gets all of his land. So it goes in the conflict between technology and freedom.

126. Let us explain why technology is a more powerful social force than the aspiration for freedom.

127. A technological advance that appears not to threaten freedom often turns out to threaten it very seriously later on. For example, consider motorized transport. A walking man formerly could go where he pleased, go at his own pace without observing any traffic regulations, and was independent of technological support-systems. When motor vehicles were introduced they appeared to increase man’s freedom. They took no freedom away from the walking man, no one had to have an automobile if he didn’t want one, and anyone who did choose to buy an automobile could travel much faster than the walking man. But the introduction of motorized transport soon changed society in such a way as to restrict greatly man’s freedom of locomotion. When automobiles became numerous, it became necessary to regulate their use extensively. In a car, especially in densely populated areas, one cannot just go where one likes at one’s own pace—one’s movement is governed by the flow of traffic and by various traffic laws. One is tied down by various obligations: license requirements, driver test, renewing registration, insurance, maintenance required for safety, monthly payments on purchase price. Moreover, the use of motorized transport is no longer optional. Since the introduction of motorized transport the arrangement of our cities has changed in such a way that the majority of people no longer live within walking distance of their place of employment, shopping areas and recreational opportunities, so that they HAVE TO depend on the automobile for transportation. Or else they must use public transportation, in which case they have even less control over their own movement than when driving a car. Even the walker’s freedom is now greatly restricted. In the city he continually has to stop and wait for traffic lights that are designed mainly to serve auto traffic. In the country, motor traffic makes it dangerous and unpleasant to walk along the highway. (Note the important point we have illustrated with the case of motorized transport: When a new item of technology is introduced as an option that an individual can accept or not as he chooses, it does not necessarily REMAIN optional. In many cases the new technology changes society in such a way that people eventually find themselves FORCED to use it.)

128. While technological progress AS A WHOLE continually narrows our sphere of freedom, each new technical advance CONSIDERED BY ITSELF appears to be desirable. Electricity, indoor plumbing, rapid long-distance communications . . . how could one argue against any of these things, or against any other of the innumerable technical advances that have made modern society? It would have been absurd to resist the introduction of the telephone, for example. It offered many advantages and no disadvantages. Yet as we explained in paragraphs 59-76, all these technical advances taken together have created a world in which the average man’s fate is no longer in his own hands or in the hands of his neighbors and friends, but in those of politicians, corporation executives and remote, anonymous technicians and bureaucrats whom he as an individual has no power to influence.[21] The same process will continue in the future. Take genetic engineering, for example. Few people will resist the introduction of a genetic technique that eliminates a hereditary disease. It does no apparent harm and prevents much suffering. Yet a large number of genetic improvements taken together will make the human being into an engineered product rather than a free creation of chance (or of God, or whatever, depending on your religious beliefs).

129. Another reason why technology is such a powerful social force is that, within the context of a given society, technological progress marches in only one direction; it can never be reversed. Once a technical innovation has been introduced, people usually become dependent on it, unless it is replaced by some still more advanced innovation. Not only do people become dependent as individuals on a new item of technology, but, even more, the system as a whole becomes dependent on it. (Imagine what would happen to the system today if computers, for example, were eliminated.) Thus the system can move in only one direction, toward greater technologization. Technology repeatedly forces freedom to take a step back—short of the overthrow of the whole technological system.

130. Technology advances with great rapidity and threatens freedom at many different points at the same time (crowding, rules and regulations, increasing dependence of individuals on large organizations, propaganda and other psychological techniques, genetic engineering, invasion of privacy through surveillance devices and computers, etc.) To hold back any ONE of the threats to freedom would require a long and difficult social struggle. Those who want to protect freedom are overwhelmed by the sheer number of new attacks and the rapidity with which they develop, hence they become pathetic and no longer resist. To fight each of the threats separately would be futile. Success can be hoped for only by fighting the technological system as a whole; but that is revolution not reform.

131. Technicians (we use this term in its broad sense to describe all those who perform a specialized task that requires training) tend to be so involved in their work (their surrogate activity) that when a conflict arises between their technical work and freedom, they almost always decide in favor of their technical work. This is obvious in the case of scientists, but it also appears elsewhere: Educators, humanitarian groups, conservation organizations do not hesitate to use propaganda or other psychological techniques to help them achieve their laudable ends. Corporations and government agencies, when they find it useful, do not hesitate to collect information about individuals without regard to their privacy. Law enforcement agencies are frequently inconvenienced by the constitutional rights of suspects and often of completely innocent persons, and they do whatever they can do legally (or sometimes illegally) to restrict or circumvent those rights. Most of these educators, government officials and law officers believe in freedom, privacy and constitutional rights, but when these conflict with their work, they usually feel that their work is more important.

132. It is well known that people generally work better and more persistently when striving for a reward than when attempting to avoid a punishment or negative outcome. Scientists and other technicians are motivated mainly by the rewards they get through their work. But those who oppose technological invasions of freedom are working to avoid a negative outcome, consequently there are a few who work persistently and well at this discouraging task. If reformers ever achieved a signal victory that seemed to set up a solid barrier against further erosion of freedom through technological progress, most would tend to relax and turn their attention to more agreeable pursuits. But the scientists would remain busy in their laboratories, and technology as it progresses would find ways, in spite of any barriers, to exert more and more control over individuals and make them always more dependent on the system.

133. No social arrangements, whether laws, institutions, customs or ethical codes, can provide permanent protection against technology. History shows that all social arrangements are transitory; they all change or break down eventually. But technological advances are permanent within the context of a given civilization. Suppose for example that it were possible to arrive at some social arrangements that would prevent genetic engineering from being applied to human beings, or prevent it from being applied in such a ways as to threaten freedom and dignity. Still, the technology would remain waiting. Sooner or later the social arrangement would break down. Probably sooner, given that pace of change in our society. Then genetic engineering would begin to invade our sphere of freedom, and this invasion would be irreversible (short of a breakdown of technological civilization itself). Any illusions about achieving anything permanent through social arrangements should be dispelled by what is currently happening with environmental legislation. A few years ago it seemed that there were secure legal barriers preventing at least SOME of the worst forms of environmental degradation. A change in the political wind, and those barriers begin to crumble.

134. For all of the foregoing reasons, technology is a more powerful social force than the aspiration for freedom. But this statement requires an important qualification. It appears that during the next several decades the industrial-technological system will be undergoing severe stresses due to economic and environmental problems, and especially due to problems of human behavior (alienation, rebellion, hostility, a variety of social and psychological difficulties). We hope that the stresses through which the system is likely to pass will cause it to break down, or at least weaken it sufficiently so that a revolution occurs and is successful, then at that particular moment the aspiration for freedom will have proved more powerful than technology.

135. In paragraph 125 we used an analogy of a weak neighbor who is left destitute by a strong neighbor who takes all his land by forcing on him a series of compromises. But suppose now that the strong neighbor gets sick, so that he is unable to defend himself. The weak neighbor can force the strong one to give him his land back, or he can kill him. If he lets the strong man survive and only forces him to give his land back, he is a fool, because when the strong man gets well he will again take all the land for himself. The only sensible alternative for the weaker man is to kill the strong one while he has the chance. In the same way, while the industrial system is sick we must destroy it. If we compromise with it and let it recover from its sickness, it will eventually wipe out all of our freedom.

Keep on reading ted kaczynski’s manifesto here

There is a rare and defining moment in human history when a crushing and
seemingly permanent tyranny reveals on the surface of its implacable
structure the first tiny cracks of impending collapse — allowing the first
stirrings of hope among long oppressed peoples and subjugated nations.
Such a transition was heralded in Eastern and Central Europe and parts of
Central Asia by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

For the people of Inner Mongolia, East Turkistan and Tibet such a moment
may be at hand. China’s economic boom has created enormous and
irresolvable problems and conflicts that threaten to tear Chinese society
apart. Endemic official corruption, desperate peasant uprisings,
large-scale labour unrest, harsh religious repression, ever-widening
economic disparity, ecological devastation, absence of legal recourse to
justice and the almost non-existence of civil society, have been the
cause, according to official Chinese reports, of over 45,000
demonstrations and riots, many violent, all over China in the last year.

The Tibetans, the Uyghur people of East Turkistan and Mongols have
traditionally desired only to live in freedom in their own independent
homelands, but this desire has been thwarted and crushed by Communist
China for over fifty years. It is a matter of history that Communist China
invaded Tibet in 1949-50 overpowering and smashing a small Tibetan army
defending its homeland. It is also the case that East Turkistan and Inner
Mongolia were forcibly occupied by Communist troops in 1949. In no case
did Communist China’s rule in these countries come about through the
consent of the people or even through an accident of history.

Since then China has systematically undermined the ancient way of life of
these peoples, first doing away with their legitimate governments, and
then imprisoning, torturing and executing many of their traditional
rulers, chieftains and spiritual leaders. When the people of these nations
refused to accept these injustices and depredations, the Chinese Communist
army and State Security organs crushed all such resistance with
overwhelming violence. Millions of Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols were
killed. Millions more were imprisoned or deported to forced labour camps
(laogai). The people in these lands had, in the past, enjoyed a
sufficiency in basic needs, but now the policies of the Communist
government caused widespread crop failure, recurring famines and mass
starvation where millions of people especially women, children and the
elderly perished.

Under the slogan of revolutionary “struggle” (douzheng), the Communist
administration in these regions coerced and forced the people to spy on
and inform on each other, often employing even children to report on their
parents and participate in public denunciations and “struggles”. All
customary, in fact universal, human values of friendship, hospitality,
trust, respect, tolerance, peace and compassion were regarded by the
Communist authorities as “feudal” and “counter-revolutionary”.

During the years of the “Cultural Revolution”, people were compelled to
destroy their own temples, monasteries, and mosques. Nearly all buildings
and monuments of historical, cultural and religious importance in these
countries were demolished and their treasures and art objects looted and
shipped to China for their precious metals or for sale on the Asian art
market. The mineral wealth, forests, water and other natural resources of
these lands have, especially in the last couple of decades, not only been
systematically exploited to benefit China, but have also been
thoughtlessly wasted and the environment devastated because of the extreme
policies of China’s leadership.

Right now China’s population transfer policy has flooded Inner Mongolia,
East Turkistan and Tibet with Chinese migrants, completely marginalizing
the indigenous population and making them a minority in their own
homelands. Native craftsmen, small businessmen, workers and even labourers
have been near completely displaced by Chinese immigrants, causing
tremendous social problems, and psychological distress among the native
population.

All the while, the informers, the various organs of State Security
(gongan), the State Psychiatric Units (ankang) and the “People’s
Liberation Army” are relentlessly going about their task of spreading
terror throughout these lands and forcing the submission of their peoples.

We individuals and our organisations assembled here today are firmly
behind all the Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongols who in their homelands are
standing up and demanding independence, and we mutually pledge to fully
support those inside who risk everything, including their lives, in the
quest for a free and democratic homeland. We appeal to the global
community of nations as to the rectitude of our intentions and do thus
declare that Tibet, East Turkistan and Inner Mongolia are absolved of all
political connections to the People’s Republic of China, or any future
Chinese state and government, and shall henceforth be free and independent
nations, each irrevocably committed to a democratic system of government,
established by the free will of the people, and based on the rule of law
and the primacy of individual freedom.

In the case of Taiwan we have a travesty of international justice where a
fully independent, prosperous and democratic nation, is not recognized as
such by other nations, primarily out of concern for displeasing Communist
China. Taiwan may have once been a part of China, but most member states
of the United Nations Organization were at one point or another in their
history a part of another nation or empire. Taiwan was only a province of
China briefly for eight years between 1887 and 1895. Taiwan was, by the
treaty of Shimonoseki (1895), ceded, in perpetuity, to Japan. Whatever the
ramifications of its varied history the people of Taiwan have the right,
as do all peoples in the world, to self-determination; and furthermore
through their successful efforts in creating a progressive and prosperous
democratic state have more than earned the right to nationhood. China’s
numerous and increasingly belligerent threats to invade Taiwan must be
condemned by the international community and Taiwan’s right to
independence recognized.

We call upon individual nations of the world and the United Nations
Organization to support the inalienable right of Uyghurs, Mongols,
Tibetans and Taiwanese to independent homelands. We appeal to the United
States of America, the first liberal democratic nation in the world, to
give due recognition to the rightful cause of these peoples and aid them
in their noble quest for independence, freedom and democracy.

19th September 2006, Conference Room HC-9, U.S. Congress, Capitol Hill,
Washington D.C.

This is the download link for the uncompressed source material available for copyleft free! Download from the African Noise Foundation.
http://www.kaganof.com/kagablog/audio/anfgroove.rar

freedom fighter tenzin tsundue (photo aryan kaganof)

SEVEN YEARS STANDING UP FOR TIBET

March 9, 2006

Dear friends:
Friends of Tibet (India) is completing seven years as an organisation.
We have about 3,900 members in 19 regional chapters around India and
growing steadily.

Today we are happy to announce the launch of our international
chapters - Uruguay, Spain and Sri Lanka. We expect to start our
activities in five more countries by the end of this year. From now on
Friends of Tibet (India) will be one of the chapters under Friends of
Tibet: International. This new global movement to keep alive the issue
of Tibet through direct action will consist of organisations directly
supporting the Tibetan struggle for independence.

Ms Virginia Balseiro (virginia@friendsoftibet.org) from Mercedes,
Uruguay will lead Friends of Tibet (Uruguay), Ms Carolina Montesinos
(carolina@friendsoftibet.org) from Barcelona, Spain will lead Friends
of Tibet (Spain) and Sethu Das (sethudas@friendsoftibet.org) will be
in charge of Friends of Tibet (Sri Lanka) for the first one year.

The mind and soul of Friends of Tibet remain the same even as we
continue to grow and change. We had great opportunities working with
various organisations, institutions and individuals. We thank you for
your help and cooperation and for the trust you put in us.

We believe a free and independent Tibet is crucial to secure long-term
peace and stability in the region because the end of China’s
occupation and militarisation of Tibet will also mean an end to the
un-winnable arms race in the region. But most of all we work for
Tibetan independence because the clear wish of the people inside
Tibet, who continue to suffer and to die for freedom, is for
independence.

Best regards,
Sethu Das (President)
Tenzin Tsundue (General Secretary)

………………………………………….
* Friends of Tibet (International): Email: support@friendsoftibet.org
/ Web: www.friendsoftibet.org
* Friends of Tibet (India): Email: friendsoftibet.india@gmail.com /
Web: www.friendsoftibet.org/INDIA
* Friends of Tibet (Spain): Email: friendsoftibet.spain@gmail.com /
Web: www.friendsoftibet.org/SPAIN
* Friends of Tibet (Sri Lanka): Email:
friendsoftibet.srilanka@gmail.com / Web:
www.friendsoftibet.org/SRILANKA
* Friends of Tibet (Uruguay): Email: friendsoftibet.uruguay@gmail.com
/ Web: www.friendsoftibet.org/URUGUAY