Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings
November 8, 2008

Tell Condoleezza Rice Not to Bargain Away Justice in Darfur

This from Amnesty International:

    The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. Some states are calling for the United Nations Security Council to suspend the ICC’s investigation. The U.S. government has gone on record opposing any compromise on justice. But recent reports indicate that the U.S. may be wavering on this point, signalling to the government of Sudan that the U.S. would support a deferral if Sudan were to meet certain conditions. Write to Secretary of State Rice today to urge the U.S. not to bargain justice away.

Send your letter to Secretary of State Rice here.

November 8, 2008

Burma News (11.8.08)

[This post has been updated as of 6:10 p.m. EST on 11.8.08.]

Here are some of the latest headlines on Burma:

  • The Agence France-Presse reports that a doctor has visited Nobel Peace laureate and Prime Minister-elect Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in her home, where she is under house arrest. This comes two months after her refusal of food supplies from the junta, which “sparked concerns that she was malnourished.”
  • The Associated Press reports that Burma has met with Bangladesh in an effort to “resolve their dispute over offshore waters that are being explored for oil and gas.” I previously blogged about the conflict here. Bangladesh, though, has upped their border patrol.
  • The A.P. also reports that the United States has condemned the junta’s prosecution of defense lawyers for representing political detainees.
  • Reuters reports on the overwhelming number of people in Burma still living in makeshift shelters post-Cyclone Nargis. Meanwhile, though, the junta has lifted a rice export ban it imposed after the disaster.

    • November 8, 2008

    Tibet News (11.8.08)

    Here’s some of the latest news on Tibet:

  • The International Campaign for Tibet publishes a new statement on Tibet from the British government.
  • The New York Times reports that senior envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama announced Thursday that they had presented Chinese officials in Beijing with a “memorandum on ‘genuine autonomy’ for Tibetans living under Chinese rule.”
  • Bodhi Tree Swaying posts rare color footage of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibet in the 1940s.
  • Reporters Sans Frontieres publishing a new statement deploring “the Chinese government’s lack of goodwill towards foreign journalists trying to visit Tibet and its repressions of Tibetans who dare to talk about what has happened to them.”

    • November 8, 2008

    New Film about Military Chaplaincy

    Over at Buddhist Military Sangha, our friend Lt. Jeanette Shin, the first commissioned Buddhist chaplain in the whole of the United States Armed Forces, points us to the webpage for a new documentary about military chaplaincy entitled In His Service and Yours.

    November 8, 2008

    A Buddhist at President-Elect Obama’s Inauguration?

    Over at Barbara’s Buddhism Blog, author Barbara O’Brien has an action of sorts that she has designed: she’s asking readers to contact the Obama/Biden transition team to “suggest at least one Buddhist-American clergyperson is included in the inauguration.”