permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

I hope Google gets this out far and wide.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

American film crew kept from China protests
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/17/tibet.american/index.html
(CNN) -- Chinese authorities sequestered an American film crew in their hotel rooms so they would not see 
anti-government protests outside a Buddhist temple last week, a member of the crew said.
Monks leave a ceremony at the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, China, on Friday.
Spence Palermo, an American working on a freelance documentary about how China is changing, said his crew was prevented 
from returning to the centuries-old Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, China, after spending several days filming inside the 
complex. Newsweek magazine reported Monday that as many as 4,000 monks and laypersons clashed with police near the 
monastery Friday and Saturday. The report said they marched to Xiahe "where they pelted government offices and police 
vehicles with rocks and debris." The Xiahe protests were part of a wave of anti-Chinese protests centered in nearby 
Tibet, an autonomous province of China taken over by the Communist government in Beijing almost 60 years ago.
According to the U.S. State Department, Beijing's "repressive social and political controls continued to limit the 
fundamental freedoms of Tibetans and risked undermining Tibet's unique cultural, religious, and linguistic heritage."


March 17, 2008
Boycotting the Olympics because of China’s crackdown on Tibet?
http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2008/03/17/boycotting-the-olympics-because-of-china%e2%80%99s-crackdown-on-tibet/
FROM CNN’s Jack Cafferty:

China has been hoping to boost its image in the eyes of the world as it gets ready to host the Summer Olympics in 
Beijing, but the Chinese government’s crackdown on protesters in Tibet is not helping.

What began a week ago as mostly peaceful protests by monks has spiraled into violent clashes, with Tibetans attacking 
the Chinese and burning their businesses. The Chinese government is now vowing to protect its territory and issued a 
midnight deadline that’s now passed for protesters to either surrender or face harsh consequences.

There are reports of Chinese authorities parading handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in the capital of Lhasa. Chinese police 
are going house-to-house checking id cards and residence permits. The Chinese government puts the death toll at 16, with 
dozens injured. But the Dalai Lama’s exiled government says 80 people have been killed.

Meanwhile, the protests that started in Tibet have spilled into three neighboring provinces and even to Beijing. And 
sympathy protests are also going on around the world.

China insists the violence won’t harm the upcoming Olympic games. The U.S. 
has called on China to show restraint.

However, it’s getting support from who else but Russia – another beacon of human rights. The Russian government says it 
hopes China will take “all necessary measures to stop illegal actions.” It adds that any efforts to boycott the Olympics 
are “unacceptable.”

Olympic officials also say they are opposed to a boycott because of the 
violence in Tibet.