With all the talk of the recent Tibetan Freedom Concert, I thought I'd post
this UPI release on the event. It focuses more on the reason for the
concert than the music. Though the music may be incredible and worthy of
your attention, this cause should not be forgotten. That such human rights
abuses are still happening in this day and age is the thing that disgusts
me most. This concert was a wonderful thing, and hopefully it brought much
needed extra attention to this atrocity.
PEACE always,
michael
Q-BURNS ABSTRACT MESSAGE
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UPI Arts & Entertainment -- Rock and Pop
United Press International
The biggest rock event of the year, a two-day concert June 15-16 at
the Polo Fields in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, brings together
some of the top names in music to focus awareness of China's human
rights abuses in Tibet.
The Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Yoko Ono, Smashing Pumpkins,
Fugees, A Tribe Called Quest, Bjork, John Lee Hooker, Skatalites, Hugh
Masakela, Rage Against the Machine, Foo Fighters, de La Soul, Biz
Markie, Beck, Pavement, Sonic Youth and Buddy Guy are among the acts
scheduled to play the festival.
The festival is also a rallying point for an international boycott of
Chinese goods for the month of June.
Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Milarepa Fund, a San
Francisco-based non-profit organization co-founded by the Beastie Boys
in 1994. Milarepa organized the concert along with Bill Graham Presents
in order to raise awareness of the political situation and human rights
abuses in Tibet and China by the Chinese government.
Since Tibet was invaded by China in 1950, over 1.2 million Tibetans
have been killed, 6,000 Buddist monastaries have been destroyed and
thousands of Tibetans have been imprisoned, according to Milarepa.
The dalai lama, Tibet's political and spiritual leader, fled to India
in 1959, where he resides with the rest of the Tibetan government-in-
exile and more than 100,000 refugees.
There currently are over 700 political prisoners in Tibet, including
a young Fulbright scholar, Ngawang Chophel. The 6-year-old panchen lama
(the second most important religious figure in Tibet) disappeared last
year and is presumed dead or imprisoned by Chinese authorities.
Human rights abuses also are rampant in China itself. The U.S. State
Department's 1995 report on human rights practices, citing Chinese
prison officials, said there are about 200,000 people in ``reeducation
through labor facilities.'' Other estimates of such inmates, the report
said, ``are considerably higher.''
Nevertheless, President Clinton recently endorsed a renewal of
China's most-favored-nation trade status. A majority in both houses of
Congress can override approval. Encouraging Congress to do just that is
one of the goals of the Tibetan Freedom Concert.
Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys became aware of the Tibetans' plight
in 1992 during a trip to Nepal.
``We bumped into this group of 60 refugees making their way out of
Tibet,'' he said. ``We were right in the middle of the Himalayas and we
saw them coming over the mountains. There were little kids and old
people, teenagers, on their way to Dharamsala, home of the dalai lama.''
The Beastie Boys went on to sample chants of Tibetan monks on ``Ill
Communication,'' and set aside some of the royalties as a means to make
an ongoing contribution to the cause.
Yauch reasoned that the concert will draw needed attention to Tibet's
non-violent struggle against China.
``The reason that it's not being publicized at all is partly because
American corporations have a chance to make a fortune and are moving
their businesses in there,'' Yauch said. ``All these corporations have
put together a lobbying group called the U.S.-China Business Council,
which are like 200 corporations like AT&T, Coca-Cola -- the list goes on
and on...working together to put pressure on our Congress and our
government to not tie the human rights issues with business issues.''
Yauch hopes that the concert will mobilize music fans to boycott
Chinese-made goods.
``The main point of the concert really is to not just educate people
about what's happening in Tibet, but to also let people feel more aware
of how much we affect what goes on in the rest of the world,'' Yauch
concluded. ``When you go into (a store) and buy a pair of pants, you
don't really think about the fact that you might be putting on a pair of
pants that some 7-year-old kid just made in a forced-labor camp.''