Rev. Danny Fisher

Just a Buddhist Minister Trying to Benefit Beings
March 13, 2009

Sign the Petition to Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now

This from the U.S. Campaign for Burma:

    Sign the petition below to demand that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon make the release of Burma’s political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, his personal priority.

      Dear General Secretary Ban Ki-moon,

      “Until all of our political prisoners are free, none of us can say that Burma is now truly on the road towards democratic change.” Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, held under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years.

      The military government – the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) – must immediately and unconditionally release all political prisoners including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Khun Tun Oo and Min Ko Naing.

      The release of all political prisoners is the first and most important step towards freedom and democracy in Burma. We, the undersigned, call upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to make it his personal priority to secure the release of all of Burma’s political prisoners by the SPDC.

      Sincerely,
      [Your Name]

Add your name here.

1 comment
March 13, 2009

AFP: Buddha Images Stolen in Laos

“Luang Prabang, Laos: Lao monk displays a wooden carving of a Buddha, Feb. 21, 2007.” Photo by the Agence France-Presse.
The Agence France-Presse reports that over two-hundred Buddha statues were stolen last year from temples in the southern Lao province of Savannakhet. These stolen icons were apparently sold to collectors “both inside the country and abroad.” The AFP writes that Lao officials are expected to meet later this month to discuss how to address the widespread robberies.

March 13, 2009

Tibet News (3.13.09)

Here are the Tibet-related headlines for today:

  • The New York Times reports on a new exhibit at Beijing’s Cultural Palace of Nationalities that marks the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising. They write: “With its display cases of gruesome torture devices, grainy film scenes of mutilated faces and the ‘liberation’ shots of beaming Tibetans, the exhibit is a propagandist tour de force that reinforces the Communist Party’s unbending version of history during what is referred to here as a ‘sensitive time.’”
  • The Boston Globe writes about Dr. Michael Grodin of the Boston University School of Public Health, who has for fifteen years been treating Tibetan exiles for post-traumatic stress by blending western and Tibetan medicines.
  • The Associated Press reports that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao “offered an unqualified defense Friday of his government’s policies in Tibet, ignoring questions about a massive security buildup in the Himalayan region.”

    • March 13, 2009

    Burma News (3.13.09)

    Here are the Burma-related headlines for today:

  • The Associated Press reports that the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Refugees will “increase its focus on areas of [Burma] from which Muslim migrants have recently fled.”
  • Voice of America tells us that Reporters Without Borders has named Burma among its list of “Enemies of the Internet”–twelve nations that have “systematically restricted their populations from accessing online news and information deemed ‘undesirable.’” These include China, North Korea, Vietnam, Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Cuba and Tunisia.
  • Time Magazine reports on the jatropha crop in Burma. The plant “produces a green nut that is pressed and processed into a biofuel catching on in entrepreneurial green pockets of the world from Florida to Brazil to India, which has already earmarked 100 million acres for the plant and expects the oil to account for one-fifth its diesel consumption by 2011.”

    • March 13, 2009

    Words from His Holiness the Karmapa

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