NEWSLETTER February 2004
FEBRUARY 2004, CHAIRMAN'S NOTE
Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all had a nice holiday during the festive season. During our stay in Ohope, Gwen and I entered a beach sculpture competition at Opotiki. After 45 minutes of gathering all sorts of driftwood etc. (the rules were we only allowed to take a shovel only, and everything for the sculpture must be from the beach), I managed to create a Tibetan Yak. This must be the first yak to ever sit on a beach! The competition was tough. At the end my Yak won the 3rd prize and to top it all, I also won a prize for the people's choice. The visitors to the beach had a chance to vote which sculpture they like the best. We all had a number beside our sculpture. So the day was great for us and the local paper had an article where Friends of Tibet (NZ) was also mentioned. All in all we came home with good lot of prizes but also sunburned body.
Shaping the future of Tibet-a Conference on "Self Determination and Individual Activism: This was held in Switzerland from 23rd-25th January 2004. I was invited to attend this conference and with some financial help from some members of Friends of Tibet (NZ) and the conference organisers, I attended the conference. There were 55 Tibetans from 17 countries who attended this conference. This is the first time we Tibetans have gathered together to talk about the issue of Tibet and how best we can help to resolve the impasse with the Chinese government. The whole conference was conducted in Tibetan. We spent a half day fine-tuning the resolution which was adopted and making sure everyone was happy with exact meaning in the Tibetan language. The organisers will translate the resolution in English later on. My personal view, is this conference was great that we Tibetans met for the first time to discuss the issue amongst ourselves.
10th December, 2003, Human Rights Day: Thank you to those who observed Human Rights Day activities throughout the country. This day was not only celebrating the anniversary of the awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1989 for his tireless efforts to find a solution for Tibet with China peacefully, but also for human rights throughout the world. Wellington branch had a novel way of observing this with their "Thumbs Up for Tibet" theme. See photos inside.
10th March, Tibet Uprising Day: Please attend and support activities in your
locality to remember the 1.2 million Tibetans who have died as a direct result
of China's occupation of Tibet. Auckland will have its usual commemoration at
the Cenotaph at 6.30 pm. Your personal attendance at these events is important.
Thuten Kesang
National Chairman