66 posts tagged “campaigns”

The actor Paul Newman, who has died aged 83, became so famous for his dazzling looks and the bluest eyes in the business that it is impossible to think of him as other than a celebrity.

Yet his many-faceted, contradictory character renders the star image superficial. He was a notable producer-director, a racing car enthusiast, a political activist and a philanthropist, counted as the person who had distributed more money — in relation to his own wealth — than any American in the 20th century.

::read more

An all round beautiful man.

Re~Cycle, the charity that ships used bicycles to Africa (http://www.re-cycle.org), is again the chosen charity of the Bicycle Film Festival's London event (17 around the world).

- Volunteers needed to help Re~Cycle run the valet bicycle parking and sell raffle tickets

- Buy some raffle tickets for a great bike

- Come and see some great films (from £7.50)

WHEN: Wednesday 1st October to Saturday 4th

WHERE: The Barbican Cinema, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS.

More info: http://bicyclefilmfestival.com/2008_site/london

HELP NEEDED PLEASE:

* People to help run the valet bicycle parking

* People to sell raffle tickets for posh bike

* If you can get some friends to fill a time slot with you (say 3 or 4 people), it would be easier to organise (thanks!)

* Individuals are VERY welcome!

* Cycle Surgery will be organising + bringing all the equipment + supplying t-shirts to wear

Times + days (volunteer slots from Rita, below):

Wed Oct 1    -  8PM-12AM

Thurs Oct 2  -  6:30PM- 11PM

Fri Oct 3       -  6:15- 12AM

Sat Oct 4      -  1:45PM- 12AM

::read more here

Avaaz message:

Dear Friends,

The Beijing Olympics are a crucial chance to persuade China's leaders to support dialogue and human rights in Tibet, as well as Burma and Darfur, and we need to seize it.

China wants the Olympics to be a coming out party for a newly modern, powerful, and respectable nation. But the Olympics are about humanity and excellence--we can't celebrate them in good conscience while ignoring the suffering of Tibetans and others.

So Avaaz is launching a major new campaign: SAVE THE OLYMPICS. We'll ask China to save the Olympics for all of us, by making specific, reasonable progress in dialogue with the Dalai Lama, securing release of Burmese and Tibetan political prisoners, and supporting peacekeeping in Darfur.
::read more

Fwd:

After the steering group meeting this Saturday (19th April) we will be holding a candlelight vigil at 6.30 for about an hour to express our support for His Holiness and the Tibetan people following the recent events inside Tibet. We invite you all to join us in the Tibetan Peace Garden, next to the Imperial War Museum in Southwark. Please let supporters and members of your centres know and encourage them to join us. Please bring nightlights in jam jars or candles you can hold safely.

Love and best wishes,

Jane (Coskry)
Dharma Network

Karma Hardy
Tibet Foundation
2 St. James's Market, London SW1Y 4SB
Tel: 0044 20 7930 6001, Fax: 0044 20 7930 6002 www.tibet-foundation.org/

Based on an email from Avaaz (I've changed references to emailing and replaced them with links):

On Monday, thousands of people in 84 cities worldwide marched for justice for Tibet - and delivered the 1.5 million-signature Avaaz petition to Chinese embassies and consulates around the globe. (::click here for photos.) Avaaz staff have engaged with Chinese diplomats in New York and London, delivering the petition and urging action. And a growing chorus of world leaders is joining the call.

China is on the fence - indicating an openness to talks with the Dalai Lama, while at the same time pressuring other governments to support its continuing crackdown. Each day, more leaders declare their stance. It's time to redouble our efforts - ::click here to send a personal message to your head of state, urging support for dialogue with the Dalai Lama - and check out the photo gallery from Monday's day of action!

Together, we've built an unprecedented wave of global pressure. The Avaaz petition is one of the biggest and fastest-growing global online petitions on any topic in history; since it launched on March 18, it has been signed by 100,000 people per day - an average of more than 4,000 per hour, day and night.

Politicians understand that there is power in numbers. We need to show them that they have more to gain by listening to their own people - and heeding the cry for help from Tibet - than by giving China a pass in the lead-up to the Olympic Games. ::take action now

We're privileged to be alive at a time when people anywhere can reach out and support people everywhere - instantly. If we have the power to make things better, we have a responsibility to act. Thanks for what you've done so far, for the people of Tibet and for a more humane world for all.

With hope,

Ben, Ricken, Graziela, Galit, Paul, Iain, Pascal, and the Avaaz team

PS - The more people sign the petition, the more powerful our call for change. We will hope to deliver it to the Chinese government again once we reach our target of 2 million signers. If you haven't already, please forward this to your friends and family, and urge them to sign the Tibet petition!

Here are some links with more information on the Tibetan protests and the Chinese response:

::China softens Dalai Lama stand" -- Wen Jiabao calling for dialogue

Dalai Lama expresses appreciation for world reaction, appeals for continued support; also sends appeal to the Chinese people:
http://dalailama.com/news.221.htm
http://dalailama.com/news.220.htm

::China announcing support from governments around the world

::Leaders across Europe and Asia starting to back dialogue as the way forward

::Chinese Prime Minister attacks "Dalai clique", leaves door open for talks

::Other Chinese signals

::link

Yesterday (March 27, 2008) His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke directly about the troubles in Tibet, asking all supporters worldwide to help in any way they can, providing that this happens in a strictly non-violent way. He explained that this is a moment of crisis, and that it is all of us, rather than the Tibetans in exile, who have the potential to shift the situation. His Holiness specifically stated, not for the first time, that Tibetan dharma cannot survive without Tibetan freedom. He explained that only Tibetan Buddhism has been able to preserve the full Nalanda tradition and its message of universal compassion, its techniques to promote inner values and its teachings on interdependence, with their extraordinary potential to bring peace and harmony to the modern world.

One of the only ways that we can influence the decisions of the Chinese government is to show that there is widespread and increasing public condemnation of their actions in Tibet. How can we do this? How can we link together all the feelings of individuals, who by themselves may feel powerless, but as a group could have an unforgettable impact?

We have a simple suggestion. We all want to stand up for Tibet. Let's do it, literally. Every day, let's commit to simply standing up. just for a few moments, with either a printed or digital photo of the Tibetan flag in our hands. Individually or in a group. Quietly or noisily. In the most creative and spectacular way imaginable. On the street, in schools, on trains and buses, in the workplace, in bars and restaurants. Let's be visible, newsworthy, fun and contagious. We want to make our feelings public throughout the world, and we want millions of people to join in.

When China allowed envoys of the exiled Dalai Lama to visit Tibet in the early 1980s as part of a cautious detente, Communist Party cadres told residents not to stone or spit at their one-time masters.

But the officials were dumbfounded, and disconcerted, by what they saw: residents in Tibet's capital Lhasa mobbed the envoys, kneeling, crying and clutching their clothing to air grievances.

The incident underlined the inability, or unwillingness, of the Party to comprehend Tibetans and their reverence for their god-king, which analysts say remains the Achilles' heel of China's Tibet policy.

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They continue to blast the Dalai Lama, accusing him of

abusing religion, stirring protests in Tibet and preparing for independence....

Tenzin Taklha, one of the senior aides of the Dalai Lama, said China's claim it has evidence of the monk's complicity in the Tibet protests were unfounded.

"Again these are baseless accusations and instead of these we would call for international groups to go into Tibet," he said. "We will call upon China to allow an international group to go and investigate these claims by the Chinese."

Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights advocate

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu was awarded the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the cause of racial justice in South Africa. He served as the first black African archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996. Prior to this role as spiritual leader of the Anglican Church in South Africa, Tutu served as General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches from 1978 to 1985.

Statement on Tibet and China

I wish to express my solidarity with the people of Tibet during this critical time in their history. To my dear friend His Holiness the Dalai Lama, let me say: I stand with you. You define non-violence and compassion and goodness. I was in an Easter retreat when the recent tragic events unfolded in Tibet. I learned that China has stated you caused violence. Clearly China does not know you, but they should. I call on China's government to know His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as so many have come to know, during these long decades years in exile. Listen to His Holiness' pleas for restraint and calm and no further violence against this civilian population of monastics and lay people.

I urge China to enter into a substantive and meaningful dialogue with this man of peace, the Dalai Lama. China is uniquely positioned to impact and affect our world. Certainly the leaders of China know this or they would not have bid for the Olympics. Killing, imprisonment and torture are not a sport: the innocents must be released and given free and fair trials.

I urge my esteemed friend Louise Arbour, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet and be given access to assess, and report to the international community, the events which led to this international outcry for justice. The High Commissioner should be allowed to travel with journalists, and other observers, who may speak truth to power and level the playing field so that, indeed, this episode -- these decades of struggle -- may attain a peaceful resolution. This will help not only Tibet. It will help China.

And China, poised to receive the world during the forthcoming Olympic Games needs to make sure the eyes of the world will see that China has changed, that China is willing to be a responsible partner in international global affairs. Finally, China must stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing one whose life has been devoted to non violence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Nobel peace laureate.

BEIJING (Reuters) -

China sought on Wednesday to contain ongoing protests in its ethnic Tibetan regions, as it stepped up detentions in Tibet's capital Lhasa and vowed tighter control over monasteries.

The western province of Qinghai was the latest area to report anti-government activities, with hundreds of civilians staging a sit-down protest after paramilitary police stopped them from marching, a Beijing-based source who spoke to residents said.

"They were beating up monks, which will only infuriate ordinary people," the source said of the protest on Tuesday in Qinghai's Xinghai county.......

.....echoing China's public security minister, Chinese scholars vowed to press ahead with "patriotic education" in Tibet's monasteries, accusing monks there of being duped by the Dalai Lama into supporting separatism.

The education campaigns, which have increased under Tibet's current Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, are blamed by some for sowing resentment of Beijing within the region's Buddhist monasteries, but the scholars said they were necessary.

"The purpose of patriotic education is because the Dalai clique has been trying hard to disrupt development in Tibet and disrupt the normal practices of Tibetan Buddhism," Dramdul, who heads the Religious Studies Institute at the China Tibetology Research Centre, told a news conference.

::link to photos on flickr