Online Petition To Mayor Of San Francisco

We now have an online petition addressed to Mayor Newsom of San Francisco, courtesy of PetitionOnline. Please take a moment to view and sign the petition.

Tell Mayor Newsom what you think about San Francisco hosting this torch, that is now tainted with oppression and cultural genocide, and stands in complete opposition to the true spirit of the people of San Francisco and of the Olympic Games.

Cover Letter To Petition To Mayor Of San Francisco - November 2007

November 26, 2007

The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Mayor of San Francisco

Dear Mayor:

This letter is in follow up to our August 8 letter hand delivered to your office regarding a meeting request to discuss the upcoming Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay, expected in San Francisco next April, 2008. San Francisco Team Tibet members still look forward to discussing the withdrawal of your welcome of the torch and solicit your support of human rights in China and Tibet.

Enclosed, please find a November 11, 2007 petition signed by numerous individuals requesting you to oppose the Beijing 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and withdraw any official welcome of it in San Francisco. We expect hundreds, if not thousands of more concerned San Francisco and Bay Area residents to sign similar petitions to you within the coming months.

We look forward to your response.

With respect and sincerely,



Giovanni Vassallo
for the SF Team Tibet Steering Committee
sfteamtibet.org
President, Committee of 100 for Tibet
c100tibet.org

LA Daily News Questions The Torch Welcome By San Francisco

In San Francisco shouldn't welcome tainted Olympic torch, Bridget Johnson asks the question

So why in the world would a progressive city like San Francisco welcome the torch of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics?

and continues, quoting Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.

The torch should not be permitted to be used as a propaganda vehicle for the communist dictatorship in China ... After the monks have been mowed down and slaughtered in the streets of Rangoon, (Myanmar), it has to be more difficult for people to accept that we have the Olympics in Beijing.

and quotes Shannon Service

The mayor doesn't seem to quite get that when the torch passes through our fair city it will not be hailed as a symbol of international unity and sports.

Laurel Sutherlin

We cannot allow the Chinese government to exploit the reputation of our city to advance their nefarious policies on the global stage.

and Giovanni Vassalo, who waits for an answer to his letter to Mayor Newsom

Your welcoming of the Olympic torch would suggest ... that you are ready to turn your back on a unique opportunity to promote legitimate international concerns and... take a stand for justice in Tibet and China.

Tibet Day 2007

Saturday, Dec 15, 2007, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
St. Anne Events Center (Moriarty Hall)
850 Judah at Funston, San Francisco

• Music, Dance, Food (Steaming momos and other Tibetan delicacies)
• Tibetan & Himalayan Art & Crafts vendors
• Films & documentaries
• Photo Exhibition of recent Tibet
• Costumes show of different regions of Tibet
• Live Thanka Painting
• Free Tibetan medical consultation
• Carnival Games
• Panel Discussion on Beijing 2008 Olympics Campaign
• And more (Something for Everyone) Check it out!
• And still more in the evening!

Entrance is on Funston, between Judah & Irving
Free Parking / Easy Transit (Muni N-Judah)
Admission: Adults: $5, children under 10: free

Bay Area Tibetans Celebrate Tibet Day

Bay Area Tibetans and supporters will intensify their San Francisco leg of Tibetan campaign, against Beijing 2008 Olympics, at the 22nd Annual Tibet Day celebration in the city on December 15, 2007.

San Francisco is the only U.S. city through which will pass on April 9, 2008, the Beijing Olympics Torch, a symbol for international harmony and hope, which Tibetans and supporters say is misplaced because China continues to be the draconian architect of Tibet’s tragedy today as an occupied and bleeding nation.

San Francisco is also a host to a vibrant exile Tibetan community, whose members and supporters have for the last two decades celebrated Tibet Day to showcase the rich and ancient arts and crafts from Tibet and its neighboring Himalayan regions.

We are proud to call this beautiful city our home away from our occupied home.

said Ngodup Tsering, President of the Tibetan Association of Northern California (TANC).

But it also pains us deeply that our elected authorities and officials agreed to let Beijing carry its Olympics torch through the city without asking them some tough questions about the human rights abuses and cultural genocide that China continues to orchestrate inside Tibet.

China invaded Tibet in 1949, soon after Communists came to power the same year and installed Mao Zedong as the helmsman. By 1959, it had laid a complete siege over the defenseless country, forcing the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, to escape to India, followed by tens of thousands of Tibetans in an exodus which continues to this day. Some 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a direct result of Chinese occupation. Tibetans say the controversial Beijing-Lhasa Railroad, which opened last June and is poised to bring in around 6000 Chinese every year, will only accelerate marginalization of Tibetan identity.

For the past 30 years, Beijing has responded to the Dalai Lama’s overtures for a peaceful resolution of the Tibet issue with intransigence, refusing to even accept that there is a problem in the Himalayan country. While the Tibetan leader has acceded to China’s lordship over Tibet in return for substantial autonomy and freedom, Chinese authorities accuse him of “trying to split the motherland.”

Just last month, in recognition of his advocacy for peace and compassion, the Tibetan leader was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor in the country. At the ceremony on Capitol Hill, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, called on China to open talks with the Tibetan Nobel Laureate, adding

They will find this good man to be a man of peace and reconciliation.

China responded by accusing the U.S. of meddling with China’s internal affairs and termed the award ceremony “a violation of international norms.” Inside Tibet, China ordered a new wave of arrests when Tibetans spilled out into the streets and monastery courtyards to celebrate the U.S. honor for their exiled leader.

Our political campaign against Beijing 2008 Olympics is part of a global effort to expose China’s attempt to deceive the world community into believing that it upholds the universal ideals of peace and justice, when China’s military regime inside Tibet continues to stifle all voices for political rights and religious freedoms with harrowing brutality.

said Dawa Dorjee, President of San Francisco Regional Tibetan Youth Congress (RTYC).

Even in the run-up to the Olympics, Chinese soldiers continue to shoot down Tibetans like dogs.

said Yangchen Chazotsang of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT). She was referring to an incident two years ago at a Mount Everest pass, Nang Pa La, when Westerner climbers played shocked witnesses to Chinese soldiers shooting at Tibetans trying to escape into Nepal.

This Tibet Day, Internationally-acclaimed Tibetan artists and local participants will regale audiences with folk songs and dances harking back to Tibet’s past as a peaceful Buddhist country. Glittering works of arts and craftsmanship will be available for purchase or simply admiration. Visitors will get to see master painters at work on wondrous Thangka paintings, and there will be food stalls where to splurge on delicious Tibetan momos and other delicacies. Other attractions include films and documentaries on Tibet and a panel discussion on Tibet and China Olympics.

Tibetans have so much to offer to the world. Their belief in peace and compassion bear its stamp on not just their way of living, but their arts and craft, and at this war-torn time, Tibet Day is a great way of celebrating our innermost and profoundest aspirations.

said Giovanni Vassallo, President of Bay Area Friends of Tibet (BAFoT), the group behind the annual event.

While we appreciate what Tibet has given us, it is time we also gave hope to the Tibetan people.

Dinner & Program: Torch Of Truth

November 11, 2007, 6:00 pm - 4:00 am
Temple Nightclub,
540 Howard St,
San Francisco
$15 before 11:11pm / $20 after

The event will start at 6pm, with light dinner w Techung La, followed by speakers and video and photo installations from exiled lives in Dharamsala.

Artist lineup:

Wisdom w/ DJ Cocheze & Seasunz (Temple of Hip Hop)
Kraddy (The Glitch Mob)
Anasia (3WS)
Lafa Taylor (Eugene/Tokyo)
Techung (World Renound Tibetan Singer)
Goddess Alchemy Project
Shimshai (World, Reggae, and Sacred Music)
Isis & Luz de la Musa (11:11 Ritual Prayerformance)
MJ Greenmountain (Hamsa Lila/Mojoi)
PoM (Dirt Rhythms/Rootabreaka)
Malarkey (the Juke Joint)
Delphi (Goddess Alchemy)
Taylor Maiden Space (Goddess Alchemy)
KnowOne (Cyphertown)
Sleepyhead (Cyphertown)
DJ Divinity (Deep Vinyl Records)
Goodfelllow (Cyphertown)
Sudeesh (Cyphertown)
Wasfia Nazreen (Dhasa Visions)

Matier & Ross Reports On Mayor Newsom's Planned Trip To China

From SFGate . Com, Matier & Ross, November 5, 2007, in Feds go after wildly successful medical pot sellers:

Mayor Gavin Newsom is planning to jet off to China next month as part of a San Francisco Chinese Chamber of Commerce-sponsored trip being put together by political powerhouse Rose Pak.

It's quite an itinerary.

The trip's post-Thanksgiving itinerary includes stops in Beijing (site of the 2008 Summer Olympics), five cities in Guangdong province, Hong Kong, plus the gambling mecca of Macao - where Pak and former Mayor Brown helped Vegas tycoon and Brown friend Steve Wynn win a casino license.

Quite a trip, all expenses paid.