What do you feel is accomplished for Tibet here?

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

I am asking this delicately, there are a lot of good wishes, gentle gestures and kind sentiments here and very nice people. Even the Dalai Lama has said his own prayers have no real power.

What do you feel is accomplished for Tibet here?

These are a couple of the latest headlines 10/18/08
China to punish Tibetan kids for studying in India
The Times of India Sat, 18 Oct 2008 9:23 AM PDT
KATHMANDU: Thousands of Tibetan children and their families face stiff punishment at the hands of the Chinese government for enrolling in schools in India run by the Tibetan government in exile headed by their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, a rights body said.



China to train cadre of Tibetan monks to counter Dalai
The Times of India Sat, 18 Oct 2008 9:23 AM PDT
BEIJING: The Chinese government is setting up the first-ever academy of Tibetan Buddhism in the Tibet autonomous region in south western China. Construction on the $11.7 million project began on Saturday. The project located near Lhasa is being fully



Tibetan filmmaker temporarily released from prison
Phayul Sat, 18 Oct 2008 7:54 AM PDT
Dharamsala, October 18: Jigme Gyatso, who assisted filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen for taping interviews with Tibetans in Tibet about their lives under Chinese government rule, has been temporarily released and placed under probation after being held for nearly seven months, their production company, based in Switzerland, disclosed today.

Thanks

[graham clark]

This site provides a vehicle for thought...................energy follows thought.................all change starts on the level of thought.........................You cant underestimate the power of thought


lots of love peace joy


gram

[Mrs. Tatiana A Kostanian]

It is possible that you from your perspective could give us a bit more understanding of what you would like to see, or offer in kind of what accomplishments you have seen, received, or spoken to you directly about what IS being accomplished?
Thanks for anything specific you can offer.

Tatiana

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

Tatiana, The world and the political powers of the world are moving very fast with very concrete actions ... Whether it be mulibillion dollar deals to exploit Tibet or Building train lines, implementing policies that put Tibet under a news blackout etc.

There is a solid number of people here, to connect towards political action... To connect to put collective pressure on the Media that Tibet is an important story to be reported.

Our perspective is created from taking several programs to college and public venue and people who are trying to apply Tibet to China rising and the economic, political and military challenges they will face and how they can pragmatically create a voice that will speak to power and what we hear most often is that is in political will of collective numbers and information, education and awareness via Media and the question is how is change created against such massive powers.

We point out that change comes from the habits of consumers, the collective political efforts by large numbers of people.

We have no doubt that this many people coming to one place with the hope of Tibet in mind is a start... the question is how to make it action and how to assist the Tibetan people speak with a more important voice in the world?

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

Tibetan_Photo_Project said:

Tatiana, The world and the political powers of the world are moving very fast with very concrete actions ... Whether it be mulibillion dollar deals to exploit Tibet or Building train lines, implementing policies that put Tibet under a news blackout etc.

There is a solid number of people here, to connect towards political action... To connect to put collective pressure on the Media that Tibet is an important story to be reported.

Our perspective is created from taking several programs to college and public venue and people who are trying to apply Tibet to China rising and the economic, political and military challenges they will face and how they can pragmatically create a voice that will speak to power and what we hear most often is that is in political will of collective numbers and information, education and awareness via Media and the question is how is change created against such massive powers.

We point out that change comes from the habits of consumers, the collective political efforts by large numbers of people.

We have no doubt that this many people coming to one place with the hope of Tibet in mind is a start... the question is how to make it action and how to assist the Tibetan people speak with a more important voice in the world?

I would like to collective passive effort to be at minimum financial donations to effective organizations that speak for Tibet or that are legitimate support groups and as a collective active response, focused efforts aimed at major media... For example if everyone here would contact CNN or the NY Times etc and speak as consumers that Tibet reporting is important to them... To collectively approach companies doing business with China to make human rights a condition of doing business.

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

Gram, I don't really underestimate the power of thought... it is one of the reason we are trying to broaden the education beyond people of like mind and work to get the project to create a voice in the mainstream media to reach new people.

The issue of Tibet has been around for 50 years with activity centered around it for but the question is how to move thought to the stage of action. And most effectively unified action.

David, The International campaign for Tibet offers a calendar that Tibet groups simply have to submit to and they offer a great many letters to sign onto... I would suggest however that even more effective is to Cut and paste the letter into a hard copy as email does not really speak as loud... Students for a Free Tibet also offers much the same.

Product companies used to say that for each letter they received in the mail they could assign a number of customers that felt the same, so a single letter could represent the thinking of up to 4000 customers who felt the same but who did not take the time to write... Today the mailed letter is still that type of measure, because of the time and effort. Online petitions are often invisible, and too easily assembled and electronically easily ignored and gone with the touch of the Delete button. ... apparently a Mail Sack full of letters still speaks loudly to people.

I applaud the pre publication of events and also in posting photos, if you can provide organizing details... how to hold an event in your home town...etc.... many people don't know where to start or where to get support material.

graham clark said:

This site provides a vehicle for thought...................energy follows thought.................all change starts on the level of thought.........................You cant underestimate the power of thought


lots of love peace joy


gram

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

David, take a look up this thread, I responded to you and to graham in the same answer

David said:

Well at least my 2 cents is it allows like minded individuals to get together and share info. Like after the rallies I posted video and pictures from our rallies here in NYC perhaps one of those might inspire someone to take more action in one way or another towards a Free Tibet. Also the educational videos and such that folks like Tseji posts that show us her homeland.

Now a few things I personally would like to see as I haven't really found a decent site for this but is for all the major Free Tibet websites ot get together and come up with one joint calender of events. i found it hard at the end of the olympics to find out what we were all doing. This site had a candle lighting on the 23 here in NYC they did that on the 22 and had a die in on the 23. Yet this site had a candle lighting scheduled for the 23. It may have happened by not in the group that I was in that did the major rallies here in NYC. So one main calender of events would be great as each site can see what is planned and plan their events accordingly to maximize the turn out. I mean 1 person can't be in two areas of the city at one time. Even superman couldn't do that.

That and I would love to see some form of activist toolbox that has contacts for all the major governments as well as some form letters. I for one am not the best to write as I tend to get to emotional in my writing which isn't always good so some nice calm clear letters that can either be sent by just filling in your details and hit send or that can be copied and pasted would also make a good way for the site to be more proactive.

if you haven't why not join the steering committe in the groups the links almost always at the top in the featured groups area. just send Dave a join request and he'll in turn send you an invite if you haven't alrerady of course. Not in there so unsure at the moment.

[graham clark]

Tibetan_Photo_Project said:

Gram, I don't really underestimate the power of thought... it is one of the reason we are trying to broaden the education beyond people of like mind and work to get the project to create a voice in the mainstream media to reach new people.

The issue of Tibet has been around for 50 years with activity centered around it for but the question is how to move thought to the stage of action. And most effectively unified action.

David, The International campaign for Tibet offers a calendar that Tibet groups simply have to submit to and they offer a great many letters to sign onto... I would suggest however that even more effective is to Cut and paste the letter into a hard copy as email does not really speak as loud... Students for a Free Tibet also offers much the same.

Product companies used to say that for each letter they received in the mail they could assign a number of customers that felt the same, so a single letter could represent the thinking of up to 4000 customers who felt the same but who did not take the time to write... Today the mailed letter is still that type of measure, because of the time and effort. Online petitions are often invisible, and too easily assembled and electronically easily ignored and gone with the touch of the Delete button. ... apparently a Mail Sack full of letters still speaks loudly to people.

I applaud the pre publication of events and also in posting photos, if you can provide organizing details... how to hold an event in your home town...etc.... many people don't know where to start or where to get support material.

graham clark said:

This site provides a vehicle for thought...................energy follows thought.................all change starts on the level of thought.........................You cant underestimate the power of thought


lots of love peace joy


gram

[graham clark]

i certainly would like to see a collection of letters which could be used by people to send to relevant bodies I.e. United Nations , ect Goverment bodies , that people could use and post themselves with opportunities to customise them to add more personal power to them. I have to finger type as it is and find even this level of communication quite an effort.


lots of love peace and joy




gram

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

Ok... now we are talking...
Here are links to Action and advocacy on the very pragmatic political level
http://www.savetibet.org/index.php

Action tools at
http://www.savetibet.org/index.php

I have to mention this, given the number of people here, if everyone donated around $25 we could fully fund The Tibetan Photo Project Film Maker Education Centers in India to grow the voice of the Tibetans from The Tibetans through their films and photos and this would put a center in Dharamasla, Delhi and one of the Southern Tibetan Colonies. Our Website media and exhibits and presentations page translate their work into a worldwide voice http://www.tibetanphotoproject.com

My personal view is the Tibet effort needs focus on three elements, growing awareness, financial pressure on China and citizen political pressure that runs up the chain and demands more from the leaders of our countries, states and large cities and that a combined voice becomes a stronger voice on each front.

So the question is how to pull the voices and the good wishes together... I see seeds of it starting here. Certainly the wheel does not need to be reinvented as there are groups already doing the work who could always use more support both in volunteer time and in simple cash donations and funding...

On our Website, we always tell people that we do not endorse, but to research any organization completely to your own comfort and satisfaction level but to do the research and find a place to add your voice, skill or pennies or any combination.

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

The calendar is down in the choices at the bottom at ITC
http://www.savetibet.org/calendar/index.php
I agree that it could be done better and I agree in the method you say is needed...
so.... Now you have a mission... maybe you cannot do the calendar but you can offer a plan outline that ITC could implement through its Website....

There are a great deal of clearing house directories on things Tibetan.... and maybe linking them all to the same calendar system would be a good mission for you to take on... if not by actual design but by trying to connect everyone to the same suggestion.

David said:

Before I forget where is that calender as I didn;t see it on their site?

Well problem is none are really good. One of teh better sites I have seen is actually the libertarian parties website here in the US. You can literally set it locally and then via their site easily get connected locally based on the zip code you entered So like my zip is 10035 I would put that in and find everything within a set radius would pop up and then that regional website would have regional events. problem I find on alot of these sites is their global events so it's like sorting through that large sack of mail just to find the one you sent. Well same thing a global calender makes it harder to find local events. I would just like to see a better set up where it could be narrowed down to region or even state (or substitute your local areas names) and find stuff in your area. An event in California doesn't do me any good as I can't participate easily in it living in NYC. I know it's possible as I have seen it done. just a matter of someone taking the reins and doing it.

Tibetan_Photo_Project said:

David, The International campaign for Tibet offers a calendar that Tibet groups simply have to submit to and they offer a great many letters to sign onto... I would suggest however that even more effective is to Cut and paste the letter into a hard copy as email does not really speak as loud... Students for a Free Tibet also offers much the same.

Product companies used to say that for each letter they received in the mail they could assign a number of customers that felt the same, so a single letter could represent the thinking of up to 4000 customers who felt the same but who did not take the time to write... Today the mailed letter is still that type of measure, because of the time and effort. Online petitions are often invisible, and too easily assembled and electronically easily ignored and gone with the touch of the Delete button. ... apparently a Mail Sack full of letters still speaks loudly to people.

I applaud the pre publication of events and also in posting photos, if you can provide organizing details... how to hold an event in your home town...etc.... many people don't know where to start or where to get support material.

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

It is always about one person who will lead... the other thing that is needed is One person to make it their mission to produce a letter that invites all other organizations to come to one place to connect.

It is one thing to build the machine, and it is another to invite people over to have a look at it.

[Tibetan_Photo_Project]

http://www.tibetanphotoproject.com/founderstatement.html