Good Morning Lowcountry

Tibet

Recent College of Charleston graduate James Preston, 22, of Roanoke, Va., called GMLc to tell us about Charleston Students for a Free Tibet, the group he revived and presided over last year.

The C of C chapter of the national and international advocacy group has about 100 members, he said. The group is still young, he said, and still in the awareness-raising stage through showing films about Tibet. The chapter hasn't done any serious fundraising or protest activities yet, he said.

But other chapters have.

Last week, eight activists with Students for a Free Tibet from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom were arrested, detained and then deported after six of them rappelled down part of the Great Wall and unfurled a large banner that read "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008" in English and Chinese.

The organization timed the protest to coincide with Aug. 8, the date that marked the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"They were also trying to speak to the Olympic committee and to get the Olympics stopped," Preston said. "They see the Olympics in China as a big glossing over of a nation that's committing crimes."

"This is the first time China has invited the world," said Preston, whose interest in Tibet was sparked when he began studying Buddhism at the Charleston Tibetan Society. "China supports the genocide in Darfur. Their weapons are being found in the hands of our enemies in Iraq.

"The Tibet thing started 50 years ago. Tibetans can't even worship the Dalai Lama; they can't even have a picture of him ... China will refuse to allow any more incarnate lamas to appear without their official permission, and the next Dalai Lama will be chosen by the Chinese government."

The national and international activists booted out of China have no regrets.

"I know we did this and got off pretty easy," Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said on her blog. "And while I appreciate that some people think I did something brave, I'm not sure I did. Bravery is standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square. Bravery is getting on a stage in Tibet and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama. Bravery is going to Beijing to petition to get compensation for your confiscated farmland to the very same government that probably took it in the first place. All this, with no protection. No foreign passport, government, or official body that will defend you ...

"For Tibetans, Uighurs, Southern Mongolians, Taiwanese, Falun Gong, Christians, Catholics, farmers, factory workers, lawyers, doctors, journalists and every other person who lives under fear of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party and their goons, I say, we will never give up."

For more information, see www.freetibet.org and www.studentsforafreetibet.org.

GMLc

Write gmlc@postandcourier.com. Call 937-5564. Find the blog at www.gmlc.typepad.com.