2009 July 10 « Rev. Danny Fisher

Tibet News (7.10.09)

Here are some of the latest headlines that have to do with Tibet:

Both the Kashag and the Tibetan Parliament issue official statements on the occasion of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s 74th birthday.

Both the Associated Press and the Agence France-Presse report on the Chinese government’s new way of handling the foreign media.

Reuters reports on Tibet and “the politics of lithium reserves.”

"If the Buddha Used Twitter…"

Over at The Huffington Post, Soren Gordhamer offers a Buddhist guide for navigating the wild world of Twitter. Take a look.

In addition, you can follow Soren on Twitter here. You can also follow my “tweets” here! And while you’re at it, why not follow both the University of the West and the institution’s Buddhist Chaplaincy Program (which I work for) as well? Twitter is a pretty great way to keep an eye on what a lot of individuals and groups in the Buddhist world are doing.

July 10, 2009

Tell Iranian Leaders to Allow Freedom of Expression and Association for those Protesting the Results of the Elections

This from Amnesty International:

After President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner in the June 12 elections in Iran, there were widespread protests against the contested election results. The Iranian authorities responded with violence and repression.

The Iranian authorities have arrested hundreds of journalists, students, opposition politicians and human rights activists. Prominent detained “reformist” politicians include Mohammad Ali Abtahi, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Mohsen Aminzadeh and Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, who served under former President Mohammad Khatami and who supported candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi in the June 12 presidential election.

Amnesty International is very concerned that these “reformist” political figures who are being held in incommunicado detention are at serious risk of being torture, especially in order to force them to make televised “confessions.” These confessions could then be used against them in trials for the crime of “moharabeh” or Enmity with God, which could result in death sentences.

To send letters to Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei and Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi asking them to allow freedom of expression and association for those protesting the results of the elections in Iran, follow this link.

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July 10, 2009

Burma News (7.10.09)

“A man holds a photograph and a candle during a gathering held to call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi at the Speaker’s Corner in Singapore May 31, 2009.” Photo by Vivek Prakash for Reuters.
Here’s the latest news about Burma:

The Associated Press, Reuters, National Public Radio, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times all report on the resuming military trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Prime Minister-elect and Nobel Peace laureate who currently faces trumped-up charges of violating the terms of her house arrest.

The AP also reports on the “gloom” in the country among onlookers as the trial resumes.

The Agence France-Presse reports on Shepard Fairey’s new poster in support of Suu Kyi.

The AFP also offers a video report on the orphans fleeing Burma for “uncertain refuge” in Thailand.

Aung Zaw, founder and editor of the Burmese exile magazine The Irrawaddy, offers an editorial in the Wall Street Journal about the alliance between the North Korean government and Burma’s ruling military junta, which he says “threatens the Asia-Pacific region and farther-flung shores.”

Nicholas Farrelly, a Southeast Asia specialist in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University and the co-founder of the great New Mandala, writes for Inside Story about Burma’s generals, their objectives, and how they have managed to stay in power for so long.

The editors of the Boston Globe also offer an editorial on Burma today in the wake of U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon’s visit to the country. They write:

If Ban really wants to help the people of Burma, he should side with the 55 members of the US Congress who recently signed a letter to President Obama urging him “to take the lead in establishing a United Nations Security Council Commission of Inquiry into the Burmese military regime’s crimes against humanity and war crimes against its civilian population.’’ Such commissions were instituted for Rwanda and Darfur. Nothing less is needed if the UN, that would-be parliament of nations, is to fulfill its commitment to protect the peoples of the world from criminal rulers.

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