Tuesday, 18th of March: chinaview.cn, China's official news agency Xinhua's web emanation in English, had one only news item on its frontpage: "Oldest Tibetan celebrates 117th birthday".

That's all there was, whilst the frontpages of the whole world's media shout depressing news about ruthless Chinese repression of the protests in Tibet, a deafening silence is the reply. And when Beijing does answer, it goes along the lines of "It is ironic, and even ridiculous, to raise the issue of "human rights" (as written by chinadaily.com).

Even more depressing is the debate over a possible boycott of the Olympics going on in the western countries: it's purely a way for frontpage thirsty politicians to grab the headlines, no one is really ready to sacrifice trade agreements for the benefit of Tibet - or anyone else for that matter.
At the same time as the protests in Lhasa began on 10 March - the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule - other demonstrations in favour of Tibet took place elsewhere around the world. But no country wishes to embarass China. India does not wish to, and in fact the Indian police halted a Tibetan march. Nepalese police arrested 54 people Tuesday during demonstrations by Tibetan exiles upset about the treatment of anti-Chinese protesters in Tibet.

The Chinese Olympics will most probably go ahead as scheduled, an immense show meant to glorify China and let the world believe that things have changed. And the world will smile, congratulate China, believe none of it, and go ahead with business as usual.

I just hope to be contradicted by reality.

Links and references:
Oldest Tibetan celebrates 117th birthday
No return to old Tibet
Indian police halt Tibetan march
Dalai Lama 'to resign' if violence worsens
Dalai Lama urges end to violence

by Roberto

In 2006 we started to get in touch with Concordia YSV-Ltd, which is a registered UK charity that provides seasonal farm work for foreign college/university students. These students can come to work up to 6 months here on local farms in the UK. We thought this would be an excellent idea for an extraordinary opportunity to students of the Kollegal/Dhondenling settlement. We were in discussion with Concordia for several times and agreed that 5 Tibetan exile students would be eligible to apply for this scheme in 2007.

In early 2007 we worked all the details out and sent material and application forms to Kollegal. When I arrived in Kollegal in March 2007 (for 9 days), nobody could print out the pdf files we sent. But thanks to the great help of our board member Joy in Kolkata these files were faxed down. Also 2 students could only be selected, as only these had already applied for passports in February 2006. And in March 2007 these passports were still not ready yet, so I ended up writing several letters to the Tibetan passport office, and also our volunteer Namdol in Kollegal got in touch with several people to speed up the process. Apart from that we found another volunteer Karma from B-village who helped a lot for the application process. With the great help and patience from Concordia, all materials were finally gathered by April 2007, and the 2 students Payang and Jorden could send their visa application to the UK consulate in Chennai in May.
In June 2007 we received notice that Payang’s visa was approved, while Jorden was rejected.
Concordia had found a place for Payang on a broccoli farm in Coupar in Fife, Scotland to work for 5 months and we arranged for a ticket for her, at the same time we prepared for an appeal to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) to get the rejected visa for Jorden reversed, a process which would take 6 months.

Payang came on June 13 to my house and we brought her to the farm on June 16th. She had quite some difficulties to settle with the 15 other East European students there, but enjoyed the farm work. Her work was furthermore highly appreciated by the farm. And through my frequent visits to the farm and a BBQ get-together, Payang eventually eased socially in the new surrounding. Although there were still complaints that she did not wash her clothes and few other issues.
She also visited few times at my house and I tried to get her heavily involved in our big cycling fundraiser in September, but only managed to get the farmer’s wife engaged. And Payang’s idea seemed to have changed. She appeared to have tried to get her work visa extended through help from the farmers. When it became clear that her work visa was strictly only a 6 months stay, and also Shenphen was not willing to help her stay longer (after all we hoped for her return so she could help the farming community in Kollegal), Payang’s behaviour became more and more difficult, where she ignored e-mails and was systematically evading to work with Shenphen at all anymore.
She paid Shenphen the £ 800 back she owed to us to come here (at least she offset her financial debts) , but did not see any of us since September anymore, neither did she stay in contact by e-mail. By November 11 the farm contacted us that Payang has resigned from her work there and had left without a trace. To us this became very quickly clear that she was trying to illegally remain in the country after the visa expired by December 12. We sent several e-mail appeals to her to leave in time and take her return ticket to India. She made over £ 2,500 as her farm salary to take with her, this was a huge sum of money which would have helped her family, her own college education for 2 more years and also the education of 8 of her siblings to a great extent. However she had plans of her own. And from all our calls to her family, it appeared she did this all on her own. Obviously all our (Roberto’s, Joy and mine) e-mail appeals did not help. She lied as well she could and sent us e-mails that she returned to India in time. Also her family indicated that she called them ‘from Delhi’. However, the airline with which we originally booked the ticket with was so kind to reveal to us that her ticket has not been used or re-booked, so all the evidence we had was that she had not returned to India.
Concordia filed a report with the Home Office, and all Shenphen members and supporters were severely shocked about this outcome of such a beneficial program. Concordia made clear that for anybody else from this background it would be much more difficult to apply for any such programs and neither Concordia nor Shenphen would be very supportive on this. Payang completely misused the opportunity to make ruthless, selfish gains.


It highlighted to Shenphen what limits our work with the Kollegal settlement has, or with the Tibetan exile community. No matter how hard we work with them and how much we help to relieve the poverty there, it’s not really all about money. The community there has too often difficulties to understand that these benefits come not as gifts, but they are expected to give something in return. These are deals where everybody agrees to and further executes the terms. In this case it meant to return to India and finish the college education. And also how much they agreed to all these terms before, it was easily overstepped and overtaken by selfish greed and exploitation. It was certainly a good lesson for us, but hopefully a better lesson to the settlement.
It had so much potential, but was terribly misused by the beneficiary. By December 29 we found out that we won the appeal for Jorden. But now neither Concordia, nor Shenphen, nor the Home Office would help to get Jorden here.

Developmental Aid is great, but while doing it, one certainly learns its limitations. For us we are much keener to support local projects, like the tree campaign. At least coconut trees aren’t likely to immigrate to the UK!

by Diana

German Chancellor Angela Merkel met H.H. the Dalai Lama last month, and President Bush did so last week, as he was awarded the congressional medal from the US congress. This is a very big milestone for Tibetans, as not so many foreign leaders have been willing to do so, and such events have been heavily criticized by the Chinese government. And last week exile Tibetans celebrated this recognition especially in India, as some of our beneficiaries told us. But it was also reported by the BBC that Tibetan monks in Tibet tried to celebrated the occasion, which obviously lead to serious clashes with the authorities and imprisonment for some lamas. It is very important for all of us to stay informed about such developments and support pressure groups wherever possible to expose such clashes and their disappointing crack down. It is certainly a tremendous improvement that now foreign leaders from G8 countries are willing to meet H.H. the Dalai Lama. Few years back on one of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Scotland then Prime Minister Tony Blair declined to do so and only the acting Scottish First Minister met H.H.

So the world has changed a bit, and recent events in Burma have shown some of that. In comparison to the 1988 uprising, the world has regularly been updated with news and it depends on all citizens abroad of staying informed how long Burma will stay in the headlines. The community of South East Asian countries (ASEAN) strongly condemned the severe suppression of the uprising by the military junta. China has been fairly reluctant to do much, and so far India seems to be rather quiet. But politically these are highly important events. If Burma was to become a country more open to the world and more democratic, it could have quite strong implications for the region. It would further isolate other difficult governments there such as Laos. A more heavily democratisized backyard for China may give an upswing to minority people in China such as Tibetans. So even if Burma seems further away from all we care about, recent events are highly relevant to the world and to all those who are connected as neighbours and their friends.

by Diana

The Olympics in China next year will be a big event, and are putting the Beijing government under the spotlight – though not always for the reasons they would prefer. An article on Time from August 8, 2007 (exactly one year ahead of the Olympics) highlights how dissidents within China say they welcome the attention the Games will bring. The record of the Chinese government on human rights is frankly appalling, and no effort is being spared to keep political activists from spoiling its Olympic party whilst trying to maintain a “clean face” on front of the world’s public opinion. The same issue of Time stated that “Amnesty International issued a statement this week about human rights in the country, warning that the detention of dissidents, harassment of lawyers and restrictions on domestic media could tarnish the legacy of the Beijing Games.”

Tibetans were never allowed to demonstrate for their homeland in China, but wherever they are exiled they never stop to make their voice heard. In New Delhi, India, fourteen Tibetan exiles protested against the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and demanded an end to China's rule over Tibet by undertaking a hunger strike which lasted 33 days ending on th 8th of August 2007. In a letter to the protesters, the Dalai Lama, Tibetan spiritual leader, praised their courage and determination but asked them to end the hunger strike. On the 7th of August, thousands of Tibetan exiles marched in the Indian capital, wearing headbands and T-shirts with the slogan "Free Tibet”.

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Today, 23rd of June 2007, our Convenor Roberto finally marries his true love Carla: it's the first wedding of a member of Shenphen, a big event: the cerimony takes place in Italy, but the magic of photo-editing can make it happen in India among all of the Shenphen children!

by Joy