Our Own Quiet Human-Rights Protest.

Big Sis and I have been talking about the Save Tibet campaign lately. Everyone who owns either a TV, internet-enabled computer or radio would surely have heard about all the protests being carried out around the world concerning the Olympic Torch. The torch relay has successfully been hampered in many places by the protest of some very concerned people of the world, the most notable being the London and Paris protests. China has slammed these protests as being 'vile', even though they have been peaceful protests. Rather hypocritical of that particular government I say, considering the vile acts perpetrated upon their own citizens as well as the citizens of other countries like Tibet.

The protests have included one in which 37 people were arrested in London, and in Paris 5 were arrested including a local politician (kudos to him) and the torch was extinguished. The US protests were much smaller, but the most notable was the arrest of three protestors after scaling the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Anyway, as old hippies both, Big Sis and I have been discussing these protests with great fervour. Our hearts go out to the peoples of Tibet, as well as the many Chinese citizens who have had to live with human rights crimes themselves. We are both appalled at the injustices that these peoples have had to endure from the Chinese government over the years, and are in support of the protests that are going on. These protests have been handled in the most noble of manners, as any protest should. The people involved have brought world-wide attention to the cause, and in the true spirit of peaceful protests, there have been no documented injuries.

Now, Australia is about to have our turn to host the Olympic torch. On the 24th of April, the Olympic Torch relay will be conducted in Canberra. Free Tibet activists tout the protests as "fantastic" and say they are "delighted with the protests dogging the Olympic torch". They are promising a strong but non-violent protest in Australia".

So Big Sis and I were discussing how we would both like to run off to Canberra to add our voices to those who will be protesting here. However, sometimes what we want is not always practical. I simply can't afford either the time (I have a job to do here) nor the money to travel to the protest. Big Sis is quite ill and as she is often in a great deal of pain, such a trip just would not be sensible for her to take. As such we have decided to make a small and quiet protest of our own.

We took the clippers to our own heads, then after donning our orange colours we made the greatest sacrifice of all. We stood in front of a camera!!!

Does my head look big in this?

Two beautiful blooms.

This was not a great sacrifice for either of us, though. At least we live in a country where we're allowed freedom of speech without the fear of being either arrested or shot in the streets. At least we're not being forced to live in squallor, suffering from famine and disease, and being denied the right to the most basic of aid. Nor have we been encouraged to give up our babies to die naked and alone in hospital, simply because they are unlucky enough to be born with a disability. Nor have we been injected with a saline solution that will slowly and painfully eat away at our babies because we have fallen pregnant more than once. Nor do our children have to live without a legal identity, and thus the access to the most basic of educations. Nor do we have to watch our elderly neighbours slowly starve to death because their one son has died and they have no financial support in their old age. I could go on, but I won't. I will however, provide you with some links so that you can read about these and many more human rights violations in China.

Please show your disgust at actions such as these. Visit the International Campaign for Tibet website and do some reading. Then follow some of these links and voice your own protest. You can sign the petition asking President George Bush not to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Or you can sign the petition urging China to improve its human rights practices and demanding integrity from the IOC and China.

Free Tibet.

One World, One Dream