Thanks for the info!

That the Chinese had a Han child play a Tibetan was interesting. [1]

[1] http://www.bangkokpost.com/sportsplus/sportsplus.php?id=129656

Students for a Free Tibet has a new online video channel broadcasting from London throughout the worldwide uprising for Tibetan freedom during the Beijing Olympics: Free Tibet 2008 Television, or FT08.TV.

With all the Olympic actions for Tibet taking place and particularly the incredible success of the ‘opening’ banner action outside Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium on Aug. 6th and subsequent media storm here in the UK, it took some time to get FT08.TV ready for prime time.

But with the dedicated help of lots of people, SFT’s new video channel is up and running, and filled with lots of must-see on-demand content, including inspiring Tibet activist video-profiles, action reports, video-blogs, and more.

We’re also airing a nightly Windhorse Report live from London with SFT leaders Tenzin Dorjee and Han Shan – a roundup of reports from Beijing and around the world during the Olympics, with breaking news about protests, call-in interviews with news-making activists, episodes of SFT-TV (the efforts of SFT’s global grassroots), and info and analysis about the situation on the ground in Tibet.

There will be more and more compelling content to watch every day and we’ll be improving the channel/website as we go (after all, this is but one small facet of our Olympic efforts right now). But please come check it out: surf around the many videos on the channel, or watch the stream (click on “Streaming Now” in the upper left-hand corner). Last but not least, you’re invited to submit video… check out the channel for more on what we’re looking for.

Please help spread the word about FT08.TV– join the facebook group, blog about it, embed the videos, spam your address book – and of course, keep watching.

And don’t forget to visit SFT’s Olympics Campaign website: http://www.FreeTibet2008.org and SFT’s blog: http://www.blog.studentsforafreetibet.org for more news and analysis from the frontlines of the current global effort to make Olympic history for Tibet.

Note: many thanks to Nathan Dorjee, Shannon Service, Andi Mignolo, Alex Fountain, Thupten Nyima, Kala Mendoza, and many others for helping to make FT08.TV happen at this critical time.
5:32 PM

Go on your facebook, etc to announce freetibet2008.tv/live. After go on “social justice” websites like “witness.org” (check it out) to announce ft08.tv. Also check out blogs discussing Tibet issue’s and post the official ft08 announcement.

Check out recent news articles on Tibet. Usually they have “comment” sections, post the ft08 annoucement.

Thank you for the commnet.

“What about Sino-Tibetan animosity?”

Obviously, this is a serious issue. Outer Tibet remains the one area of the old Empire of the Great Qing that has been neither Hanized nor lost to a foreign power. The 1970s-eras tactics of the PLA do not help matters, and hopefulyl a recognition by the Communist party of the failure of those tactics in Tibet will come sooner, rather than later.

“What about the millions Tibetans that have worked hard and succeeded under Chinese rule? And the millions of Tibetans that have no connection whatsoever to the Dalai Lama, his Yellow Hat sect, and the Tibetan diaspora? Should they have to suffer for the actions of the China-bashers in the West, none of whom have ever set foot in Tibet?”

You’re on dangerous territory here.

Are you arguing in favor of individual human rights for Tibetans?
Are you arguing inf avor of collective human rights for Tibetans?
Are you arguing for a poicy that increase the material standard of living for Tibetans?

If you’re arguing the first or second, then the obvious villain is the Communist Party. If you’re arguing the third, then the correct way forward is to support the Dalai’s line of an autonomous Tibet developed by China.

“Tibet is more than just Lhasa. There are many sects that were repressed under the Dalai Lamas. They are reappearing today because the gelugpa from Lhasa have lost their power.”

The backwards-looking justifications used by many apologists for the Communist Party is embarrasing, and more befitting a third-world country than a great power.

“The Chinese government has tried to mitigate ethnic hatred by blaming the violence on a small number of ‘troublemakers’, the Dalai clique… Still, some Chinese don’t listen. They assume that all Tibetans sympathize with the Dalai Lama.”

You are arguing that the Dalai Lama does not enjoy widespread support inside Tibet?

“Whether or not this is true, someone had to be blamed, and the government had two choices: blame Tibetans or blame the Dalai clique.”

Why were actually addressing the problems and de-escalating the situation not in that last?

“I sincerely hope that the anti-China protests will die out soon along with rash, hotheaded Chinese anger.”

What protests are you speaking of?

There were numerous protests in the West against the Communist Party’s violation of Chinese human rights (Han, Tibetan, Uigher, etc.). Are you saying that these were anti-China?

There was the Lhasa uprising against the Communist Party… but if you call that “anti-China,” then do you recognize it as a struggle for national liberation?

What about the millions Tibetans that have worked hard and succeeded under Chinese rule? And the millions of Tibetans that have no connection whatsoever to the Dalai Lama, his Yellow Hat sect, and the Tibetan diaspora? Should they have to suffer for the actions of the China-bashers in the West, none of whom have ever set foot in Tibet?

Tibet is more than just Lhasa. There are many sects that were repressed under the Dalai Lamas. They are reappearing today because the gelugpa from Lhasa have lost their power.

The Chinese government has tried to mitigate ethnic hatred by blaming the violence on a small number of ‘troublemakers’, the Dalai clique. Whether or not this is true, someone had to be blamed, and the government had two choices: blame Tibetans or blame the Dalai clique. Still, some Chinese don’t listen. They assume that all Tibetans sympathize with the Dalai Lama.

I sincerely hope that the anti-China protests will die out soon along with rash, hotheaded Chinese anger.

Social unrest in China is not going away. The bad effects you mention will not either. Fortunately, China’s currently at a place where she can afford to learn the lessons of how to deal with unrest in a sophisticated and wise manner.

I’d rather have Sino-French popular animosity now, when it won’t actually effect anything valuable, than say in 15 years, when it might.

Such attacks inevitably turn into racism, on both Chinese and Western sides. In the end, who will suffer? The Tibetans.

The Chinese government is doing its best now to extinguish the flames of ethnic hatred, but its only option now is to use the Dalai Lama as a scapegoat. What’s done is done.

Hopefully Westerners will get bored and go back to sipping their lattes. Racism is never the answer.