Tibet - support the Dalai Lama

Take just 10 seconds to sign an online petition calling on the Chinese government to respect human rights in Tibet and dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Go here:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/98.php/?cl_tf_sign=1

After nearly 50 years of Chinese rule, the Tibetans are sending out a global cry for change. Violence is spreading across Tibet and neighbouring regions, and the Chinese regime is right now making a crucial choice between tougher crackdown or dialogue.

President Hu Jintao needs to hear that "Made in China" exports and the upcoming Olympics in Beijing will have the support of the world's people only if he chooses dialogue. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get his attention.

Do your part by signing the petition!

Barack Obama’s Speech on Race

March 18, 2008

The following are my favorite excerpts from Senator Barack Obama's speech on race in Philadelphia:

I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity.

[....]

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. 

We can do that.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

The situation hasn¹t been this grave since 1959

The situation in Tibet is growing ever worse.  Continued updates are being
posted at www.savetibet.org.  The reports we are getting from reliable
sources tell of continuing mass arrests, (600 on Friday, 300 on Saturday)
house to house searches, beatings, and to quote a well-informed source in
China who says:

³arrested Tibetans were paraded through the streets in military vehicles.
There were two vehicles driving through the streets and in the two vehicles
were 40 young Tibetan men and women with their hands tied behind their backs
and their heads forcibly bowed down, and each person was held from behind by
a soldier carry a rifle.²

Horrific photos of those killed at Kirti Monastery in Amdo can be found at
www.tchrd.org <http://www.tchrd.org> .  These photos are extremely
disturbing so please if you do look be prepared.

What can you do??

The two main actions are:
1. Urge President Bush to speak out publicly and ask China to show
restraint, as well as address the fundamental causes that have led to events
of the past week.  Please call the President at 202-456-1111 or contact him
by email at comments@whitehouse.gov.

2. It is urgent that reporters be allowed into Tibet to independently verify
what has happened. If you live in the U.S., please contact your member of
Congress and ask them to demand that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao honor his
promise to open Tibet to journalists.

We are also encouraging Members of Congress to make statements on the
situation in Tibet. All three presidential candidates have now made
statements.

********************************************************
International Campaign for Tibet
1825 Jefferson Place, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
www.savetibet.org 

Due process and transparency

- ICT urges the Chinese government to allow access to all Tibetan areas for
international observers and independent journalists;
- ICT urges the Chinese government to release all prisoners who have
protested peacefully and to grant due process to all others who have been
taken into custody; especially offer access to independent counsel and to
relatives;
- ICT urges the Chinese government to refrain from using violence at
peaceful protests of Tibetans;
- ICT urges the Chinese government to fair and open trials for those who
have been arrested;
- ICT urges the Chinese government to refrain from using torture or other
degrading treatment;

International community
- ICT urges the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise
Arbour, to travel to Tibet;
- ICT urges the international community to strongly appeal to the Chinese
government to refrain from using force and to refrain from using torture or
other maltreatment;
- ICT urges the Chinese government to enter into a substantive and
meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama and his envoys, in order to bring
about lasting change and peace in Tibet.               

Its a sin to pollute.....

Vatican Lists "New Sins," Including Pollution
    By Philip Pullella
    Reuters

    Monday 10 March 2008

    Vatican City - Thou shall not pollute the Earth. Thou shall beware genetic manipulation. Modern times bring with them modern sins. So the Vatican has told the faithful that they should be aware of "new" sins such as causing environmental blight.

    The guidance came at the weekend when Archbishop Gianfranco Girotti, the Vatican's number two man in the sometimes murky area of sins and penance, spoke of modern evils.

    Asked what he believed were today's "new sins," he told the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano that the greatest danger zone for the modern soul was the largely uncharted world of bioethics.

    "(Within bioethics) there are areas where we absolutely must denounce some violations of the fundamental rights of human nature through experiments and genetic manipulation whose outcome is difficult to predict and control," he said.

    The Vatican opposes stem cell research that involves destruction of embryos and has warned against the prospect of human cloning.

    Girotti, in an interview headlined "New Forms of Social Sin," also listed "ecological" offences as modern evils.

    In recent months, Pope Benedict has made several strong appeals for the protection of the environment, saying issues such as climate change had become gravely important for the entire human race.

    Under Benedict and his predecessor John Paul, the Vatican has become progressively "green."

    It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference to discuss the ramifications of global warming and climate change, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.

    Girotti, who is number two in the Vatican "Apostolic Penitentiary," which deals with matter of conscience, also listed drug trafficking and social and economic injustices as modern sins.

    But Girotti also bemoaned that fewer and fewer Catholics go to confession at all.

    He pointed to a study by Milan's Catholic University that showed that up to 60 percent of Catholic faithful in Italy stopped going to confession.

    In the sacrament of Penance, Catholics confess their sins to a priest who absolves them in God's name.

    But the same study by the Catholic University showed that 30 percent of Italian Catholics believed that there was no need for a priest to be God's intermediary and 20 percent felt uncomfortable talking about their sins to another person.

The Deadly Cost of Inaction

The Deadly Cost of Inaction

Mar 5th 2008
From Economist.com

CONCERN over man's harmful effect on the environment has gone from being the preserve of sandal-wearing beardies to the top of the political agenda. As countries squabble about how best to tackle pollution of various sorts, a new OECD report suggests that delaying concerted action would be costly. If current policies prevail, by 2030 ozone pollution alone is likely to cause four times more premature deaths, per head of population, than it did in 2000 (when there were 42,000 such deaths around the world). Asia and North America would be likely to see the biggest rises. Deaths from particulate-matter pollution would double.

AP

Best Spiritual Movies of 2008: "What Would Jesus Buy?"

What Would Jesus Buy?

The white suit, bottle blonde hair, and booming voice echo the worst of televangelist excess. Reverend Billy has a cadence we've come to expect. His congregation sways and moves with his every word. But instead of passing the plate, Reverend Billy implores his followers to "Stop Shopping Now." He wants to cast out the demon of rampant consumerism.

"What Would Jesus Buy?" is a smart and savage satire. It keeps viewers off balance. Are we watching performance art that mocks religion? Or are we following the struggles of a nascent church? The answer is, "Yes." "What Would Jesus Buy?" challenges, disturbs, and energizes. It gets into our wallets and our heads.

Director Rob Alkemade uses his camera as a social scalpel, taking on our most sacred holiday traditions. Where would America be without day-after-Thanksgiving sales? How would our economy survive without our annual Christmas splurge? And most of all, who pays for our excess? "What Would Jesus Buy?" longs for an economic system that is fair, equitable and local.

Cries to turn back the clock may seem Pollyanna given the complexities of globalization. Not every garment is borne out of sweatshop labor. American companies can bring much-needed jobs to emerging countries. Yet, "What Would Jesus Buy?" does a great job of questioning our assumptions. How has a religious occasion morphed into a rush for Playstations and Wiis?

"What Would Jesus Buy?" offers audiences a rare opportunity to join the Stop Shopping choir, to sing a song of warning. The Shopacalyse is coming. Reverend Billy wants to break the chains that bind us to Starbucks. He wants to free us from 18 percent interest. We can only celebrate Christmas by Stop Shopping long enough to remember the original gift. Jesus' crib didn't come from Babies 'R Us. His swaddling clothes carried no label. And he turned out just fine.

Rev. Billy takes his message into the marketplace, getting arrested for disturbing the peace in malls and coffee shops across America. In a world of look-alike stores with identical inventories, "What Would Jesus Buy?" is an American original.