Miscellaneous

Chinese Activist Sheng Xue Dedicates Poem In Honor Of Tibetans Who Self-Immolated

Sheng Xue, Prominent Activist For A Free ChinaImage: SFT Canada/Edited @tibettruth

Sheng Xue a respected and renowned activist for human rights and freedom presented recently a poem she composed titled ‘Light Me Up’ dedicated to those brave Tibetans who sacrifice their lives to demand national freedom for Tibet.

I opened my eyes in the morning
The room is dark.
I opened the window to welcome the gentle wind
The sky is dark.
I opened the door to greet the wild wood
The mountain is dark.
My heart opens to embrace freedom,
in a world dark and hard.

I didn’t want much,
to hope the yak in the mountains can freely run.
That the eagle can crown the turqoise sky,
to hear the monks chanting in the temple.
I just want to see His Holiness at least once in my life time.
I keep them as dreams in my heart, I don’t dare to ask.

But there is no light,
the darkness expands.
Filling all the space
and tearing at the sun’s rays.
Suffocating each and every breath,
it builds up and strives to quell my hopeful heart.

I want to run, run, and run.
but the temple demolished, broken, shattered.
The debris like the bodies of history piled upon a bloody hill
Each step along the road to Lhasa under the shadow of the gun,
streets full of tanks and check-points.

Where can I hide
What should I try
Who will listen to my cry
And how can I die

I can no longer remember,
what does light look like?
I can no longer remember,
the healing touch of sunshine.
I can no longer remember
the feeling of a sweet night,
nor recall the five noble colors of prayer flags.
I saw a dim light in a death cup
I should light myself up

Light me up
Light me up
Light me up

I’d rather die for my ideals
If I cannot live with my beliefs
light it up with a style,
light it up for a life more real.

The light grows more intense,
blinding brightness the flames
reach to the sky.
The Himalaya became a prayer
and forever I left the fear.
Light me up,
the sounds of flames singing with the wind.
Light me up,
the excited fire dancing like the sea’s wave.

The burning ocean consumes,
kiss me, touch me.
Hold me like a baby
once, once and once again.
I must return
I have to come back with the light
Light for freedom, religion, dignity, culture, language and human rights.

Light me up
Light the mountain up
Light the river up
Light the sky up
Let the flame burned up the darkness

Light the sun up
Let it shine
Let it blaze for all lives
Let it’s luminous rays dispel the shadows in Tibet
Shining Tibet shining bright!

Scotland’s Political Establishment Protecting Chinese Official Linked To Atrocities

Recently over in Scotland the political establishment ran elections, like politicians elsewhere, Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) were in full ‘vote for me’ mode. Yet the endorsement of a candidate surely requires a demonstration of integrity and commitment to ethical values. Right? Yet voters in Scotland  are being exposed to the unsettling  truth that their representative, though presenting themselves as dedicated to values of justice, freedom and equality, are consciously choosing to ignore a major human rights issue which is casting a shadow over an institution in the very heart of the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.

The Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh (RCSE) is a prestigious medical organization and a highly respected member of Scotland’s national establishment, it is also a body that honors Professor Huang Jiefu, an individual with close links to harrowing medical atrocities in China; the forced extraction of organs from prisoners of conscience, political prisoners and others.

This issue has been presented via our activism to each and every Scottish MSP, we have also contacted the office of Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish National Party, Scottish Labor and Liberal Democrats (Scotland) and the Church of Scotland. They have been asked to make clear their position and asked to support the growing calls to RCSE that it withdraw it’s fellowship to Huang Jiangfu.

Here’s the thing, not one MSP has responded to our communications, while a spokesperson for the First Minister offered only an evasive reply, the Church has chosen to remain silent. Scotland’s Labor and Liberal Democrat parties have also ignored appeals sent to them regarding this issue.

What do we draw from this reaction? Well it appears that the Scottish political and religious establishment is more concerned with protecting the reputation and status of Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh than standing against China’s human rights atrocities. Ethics are being relegated and callously ignored and Huang Jiefu, around whom so many disturbing questions swarm continues to receive the uncritical support of the RCSE.

No matter the solidarity of silence from Scotland’s politicians and its church every effort will be made to continue exposing  and challenging Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh on this matter, Meanwhile for any Scottish readers if your prospective Parliamentary candidate comes knocking urge them to actively support those who are justly want Huang Jiefu’s association with the RCSE ended.

 

 

 

 

Is Scotland’s Government More Pussy Than Lion On China’s Medical Atrocities?

Image:archivenet

We have just received a communication from an official within the Scottish Government in response to our concerns regarding Edinburgh College Of Surgeon’s honoring of Professor Huang Jiefu. An individual closely linked with medical atrocities in China, the forced extraction of human organs from executed political prisoners and others.

The contents were evasive and displayed a worrying credulity towards Chinese reports that such abuses were to be stopped from January 2015, an assertion issued by the very same Professor Huang! No such moderation has taken place, a fact investigated and reported upon by the New York Times. The newspaper noted that under the new regime of supposedly not using organs from executed political or criminal prisoners, China’s organ supply showed no decrease!

..”organs from prisoners, including those on death row, can still be used for transplants in China, with the full backing of policy makers, according to Chinese news reports, as well as doctors and medical researchers in China and abroad. “They just reclassified prisoners as citizens,” said Huige Li, a Chinese-born doctor at the University of Mainz in Germany. Source: NYT November 16, 2015

Not surprisingly we shall be dispatching a further correspondence to the office of Scotland’s First Minister, we shall keep our subscribers and visitors posted on developments.

Who’s Funding The Parliamentary Gravy Train to Dharamsala?

A couple of years back we wrote a post questioning if the exiled Tibetan Administration was funding trips of overseas Parliamentarians to its Dharamsala base in India. In particular we highlighted the case of English MP Mr Norman Baker, around whom at that time there was some controversy regarding expenses.  He had visited India in October 2007 and September 2008, on trips reportedly sponsored by the Tibetan Administration (and the Tibet Society of UK, of which he was then President). The Parliamentarian found himself in hot water for alleged breaches of Parliamentary protocols that govern expenses and overseas trips. According to the British Parliamentary rules, any MP who undertakes an overseas trip, sponsored by a foreign government (Editor’s Note does this mean that this Parliament considers the exiled Tibetan Government as a legitimate and operating political administration?) is required to register it within four weeks. In addition they must declare a financial interest if it “might reasonably be thought by others to influence the speech, representation or communication in question”.

It would appear he weathered that particular storm, so much so that  over the past few days Mr Baker has again been in Dharamsala, acting we understand in the capacity of observer overseeing voting for the head of the Tibetan Administration.

Mr Norman Baker, English MP (far right) in Dharamasala, India

Mr Norman Baker, English MP (far right) in Dharamasala, India

Image:voiceoftibet

It’s not clear if he funded his trip or if his expenses were covered by the Tibetan Administration, International Network of Parliamentarians, or the International Campaign For Tibet. Our previous post on this issue raised concerns at the idea of the Administration bankrolling politicians trips to India. Not only would that be a profligate use of funds, with a questionable return in terms of political advancement for the Tibetan cause, but an extravagance subsidized directly or indirectly by Tibetans. Who face all manner of economic and social deficiencies.

Image:farm2

There were many troubling questions. How many politicians have had their flights and accommodation subsidized? What amounts of money has been spent on such trips?  Were details placed before the exiled Tibetan Assembly? Tibetans scratching a precarious living across India have every right to know if their exiled Administration is wasting precious resources on funding affluent Parliamentarians. When there is so much need within the exiled Tibetan community. Others may well be wondering if foreign politicians, who express support for Tibet, have not reached into their own cash-lined pockets to fund trips to Dharamsala?

Prominent Advocate For Freedom Targeted By Chinese Regime’s Trolls

 

Human Rights Advocate Ms Xue Sheng Targeted With Lies And Baseless Allegations From China's Regime.

Human Rights Advocate Ms Xue Sheng Targeted With Lies And Baseless Allegations From China’s Regime.

Image: facebook account of ms xue sheng

It’s in Victor Hugo’s ‘Villemain’ that the following observation was made:

‘You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.’

That of course was written in a world sans the internet and social media, now such a call to integrity, endurance and resolve can be more sorely tested, for lurking in those caves are trolls, social misfits, individuals with an axe to grind. What a resource this technology is, it enables calumny, smears and character assassination to reach a global audience, almost instantly. Under such circumstances it takes a determined and courageous individual to tolerate personalized attacks on the internet, especially with the equipoise and grace suggested by Victor Hugo.

Allow us to introduce once such person, who despite being subjected to vicious and relentless insults and fabrications online has not been deflected from her work in challenging and exposing the atrocities, injustice and crimes of the Chinese regime.  Ms.Sheng Xue has been justly described as ‘one of Canada’s leading democratic-rights advocates’, she has dedicated herself to standing against the grim excesses of the Chinese authorities. With a remarkable selflessness she has waged a campaign demanding democracy and freedom within China and has been a tireless champion for human rights and political prisoners.

Such dissent and truth comes with a price, especially when opposing a totalitarian regime like China’s, where propaganda, deception and disinformation infest and censor virtually every aspect of published and broadcast media in that suppressed land. As it cannot call upon foreign Editors or publications to channel its toxic distortions the only medium it can turn to is the internet, on which it directs an army of poorly paid unthinking drones whose task is to generate confusion, spread lies and peddle the official line of the Chinese regime. Ms Sheng has, like others who dare to criticize China’s government, been targeted by such political trolls and exposed to a barrage of abusive falsehoods and crude smear campaigns. Clearly her campaigning and critique have struck an acutely sensitive nerve, and unable to counter the facts or prevent her dissenting voice China’s psychotic leadership has ordered its attack-dogs to bark loudly and aggressively in the hope that the noise will silence Ms. Sheng.

Clearly Beijing’s bullies grossly underestimate the commitment of those dedicated towards the realization of a free and democratic China, whatever twisted allegations and lurid deceit it spreads will not halt the telling of truth nor, despite the emotional strains such nasty fallacy exerts, shall truly remarkable individuals cease from exposing China’s corrupt and violent driven authorities.

For more details about recent online and other public attacks against against Ms Xue Sheng see the following:

https://www.cpj.org/blog/2016/03/chinas-overseas-critics-under-pressure-from-smear-.php

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/expat-sheng-xue-reaches-out-about-chinese-governments-intimidation/article29040694/