Never Giving Up/Having Fun

Our local group recently participated in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Amnesty International USA. This is a big pow wow of human rights activists from around the country. There is training, inspiration, and decision making that goes on for three days. The meeting moves to a different region every year, so it won’t be back in New England for five years.
During this year’s AGM we hosted a “Get on the Bus” (www.gotb.org) party. In honor of one of our actions that will happen at this year’s Get on the Bus, we invited some Tibetan performers.

Tibetan Performers at "Get on the Bus" party

The performers played music from various regions of Tibet and also sang and danced.
Then they invited the audience to get up and learn a Tibetan dance if they wanted to. There was none of the usual looking around and hesitancy, instead three quarters of the audience immediately got up and joined in.

There was then a lively and very fun dance session, with a couple of Group 133 dancer/activists leading the charge. I later found out that some Irish dancing and Tibetan dancing are similar and that is why they picked it up so fast.

AI Activists Learn Tibetan Dance Steps

The AI Tibetan Dance Party

I had a couple of thoughts after this session. Human Rights will prevail because we have more fun than the forces of evil. Human Rights will prevail because just like these Tibetan cultural representatives, we are all never going to give up.

Tibet 50 Years Later: Presentation and Discussion about Human Rights in Tibet on the Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising

Please join us this week for the March meeting of Amnesty International Local Group 133, featuring a screening of the 2008 Tibetan documentary, Leaving Fear Behind.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

7 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Amnesty International Northeast Regional Office

58 Day Street, Suite 409 

Somerville, MA 02144 (Two blocks away from the Davis Square stop on the Red Line)

As part of our March meeting, Group 133 Co-Coordinator Rick Roth will help us understand the current state of human rights in Tibet. We will watch Leaving Fear Behind, the documentary at the center of Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen’s arrest. Wangchen has been held by Chinese authorities since last March. His case will be highlighted at Group 133’s upcoming Get on the Bus for Human Rights event (www.gotb.org), where we will call on China to unconditionally release Dhondup Wangchen. (For more information about the film, please go to www.leavingfearbehind.com.)

The first half-hour of the meeting will be dedicated to letter writing on urgent human rights issues.

We hope to see you there!