Tibet: less talk, more action

Here is another great photo taken by Caroline aka Sirensongs who is in Nepal right now.

She wrote another great post about how to take action in support of Tibet.

I checked out how many American cities the Olympic torch will pass through and there's only one, San Francisco. you can bet if it passed through Chicago I'd be out there waving my Tibetan prayer flags. Hopefully more and more protesters will line up along the torch's route throughout the world.

As Sirensongs wrote, "if you're stuck in a torch-less locale, you can at least phone, write, fax or email the International Olympics Committee (who keep insisting the Olympics are not political)." Below are letter-writing guidelines courtesy of Students for a Free Tibet:

Use the following talking points as guidelines when calling your NOC or drafting your own letter:

--Say you would like to leave a message with the President of the NOC.
--If the Torch goes through Tibet it will likely cause further unrest, which would result in another heavy-handed crackdown and consequently more arrests, torture, and loss of life.
--On humanitarian grounds alone, it is inconceivable that the Torch relay pass through Tibet at this time.
--Please urge the IOC to immediately remove all Tibetan area from the Olympic torch relay route.

The Students for a Free Tibet website has current information about the Tibet protests and instructions on how to take action. Here is a list of action you can take via the website:

IOC: Speak Up About the Tibet Crisis
Take Action: Tell your Congressional Representative to Support Tibet
Tell the Indian Government to Release the Tibetan Marchers
China: Allow Journalists Access to Tibet
Support the Protests in Tibet

This is a letter you can send to the IOC:

"I am outraged that the International Olympic Committee has remained silent while hundreds of Tibetans across Tibet are intimidated, imprisoned, beaten and killed by Chinese forces.

Tibetans have suffered greatly for almost six decades under Chinese rule and are now risking everything to speak out. Despite the growing unrest in Tibet, the Beijing Olympics organizers are moving ahead with preparations to carry the Olympic torch through Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest. China must not be allowed to bring its torch to Tibet after the Tibetan people have so strongly denounced China's occupation of their homeland. So far, the IOC has shirked any responsibility for the Chinese government's recent atrocities inside Tibet.

Mr. Rogge, we call on you to take action now and show the global community that you value the principles upon which the Olympic institution was founded. If the IOC allows China to carry its torch through Tibet, it will be complicit in the violent crackdown on Tibetans that will undoubtedly occur.

Unless you want the Olympic Torch to become a symbol of bloodshed and repression, you must immediately withdraw the Tibetan Autonomous Region and the Tibetan provinces of Amdo and Kham - now annexed into China's Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu - from the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay route.

As reports spread of arbitrary arrests, house-to-house raids, killings, and even beatings of schoolchildren, it is unthinkable that the IOC would continue to move forward with "business as usual". Allowing the torch to be carried through Tibet will escalate tensions, giving the Chinese forces an excuse to continue its violent crackdown.

People of conscience worldwide have responded with an outpouring of support for Tibetans inside Tibet and condemnation of the Chinese government's heavy-handed crackdown. Stand on the right side of history and immediately withdraw all Tibetan provinces from the torch relay route."

Those of us in the United States can contact our National Olympic Committee (NOC) to ask them to directly appeal to the IOC. Our NOC speaks not only for American athletes but for the US as well. Here is contact information for the National Olympic Committees.

Lastly, if you want to hear excerpts from a talk by my teacher, Gelek Rimpoche (who escaped Tibet in 1959), go to the Jewel Heart website to listen to MP3s on Karma & Tibetan Uprising, Part 1, Tibetan Uprising, Part 2, and The Collective Karma of The Tibetan People. Great stuff from a Buddhist master (and someone whom I believe is self-realized although Rimpoche would probably deny it!)

Less yakking, more action. please.