Our friend and recent interview subject Erick D. White tips us on the new documentary Leaving Fear Behind–a film about twenty ethnic Tibetans and their views on China and Tibet, made by a Tibetan filmmaker inside Tibet. Sadly, news just broke yesterday that the filmmaker and his assistant have been jailed by Chinese authorities. A five-minute clip from the film is embedded below.
The Associated Press is reporting that the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) are “backtracking on another promise about coverage of the Beijing Games, keeping in place blocks on Internet sites in the Main Press Center and venues where reporters will work.” As of this moment, Amnesty International‘s website is blocked, as are sites with “Tibet” in the URL.
You can protest this and other offenses by not watching the Olympics.
Visit Samadhi Cushions online at http://www.samadhicushions.com.
Our friend and recent interview subject Erick D. White forwards us a working paper from the East-West Center and authored by Kyaw Yin Hlaing, entitiled “The State of the Pro-Democracy Movement in Authoritarian Burma”. Among other things, the paper contains what Erick aptly refers to as ” an excellent discussion of [the movement's] recent developments and predicaments.” Take a look.
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom and Kate Merkel-Hess have written a feature for the latest issue of The Nation about how the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing will “play at home, among a populace skeptical of government and eager to tout their own growing clout.” This is a good piece to balance along with all the things I have been posting about China’s egregious human rights record and morally problematic relationships with leaders in Sudan and Burma.
