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by Kristina Martinez
Burlingame High School, San Francisco
Welcome to the Tibetan Freedom concert. In addition to featuring many of today's popular musical artists, including The Fugees, Smashing Pumpkins and Beastie Boys, this two-day festival was also an effort to publicize the situation in Tibet.
The concert was sponsored by the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization co-founded by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys and activist Erin Potts. The organization raises money from record royalties, benefit concerts and ticket surcharges and distributes the money to other organizations such as Students for a Free Tibet. The event was held to support the Tibetans in their struggle against Chinese takeover of their country.
"They (Milarepa) are very motivated people, not concerned about putting money in their pockets," said Durje Lama, owner of The Tibet Shop in San Francisco.
There are many organizations like the San Francisco-based Milarepa Fund which are devoted to Tibet's cause: Students for a Free Tibet in New York, is an organization comprised of student groups all over Northern America. Currently there are 80 college chapters and several high school chapters.
"There's a lot of student participation in terms of educational awareness and writing campaigns," said Diana Takata, national director of Students for a Free Tibet.
The Bay Area Friends of Tibet, a Berkeley-based organization provides information as well.
In 1950 Communist China invaded Tibet, taking away the people's rights to freedom of speech, religion and press. Since then more than 1.2 million (20% of the Tibetan population) have been murdered, 6,000 monasteries devastated and thousands of people have been imprisoned.
Huge signs with the words "Made in China" inside a red circle with a slash through it greeted concert goers as they entered the field.
"The number one important thing that people can do is boycott all Chinese goods, and that's anything that says 'Made in China' on it. Many of these things are made in forced labor camps," said Marie Favorini, director of Bay Area Friends of Tibet.
Some people feel however, that a boycott of products made in China makes all Chinese citizens look bad, even though the country is very complex.
"A lot of these products cross borders," said Edward Liu, host of Commercial Radio, a Cantonese radio talk show. "Many different countries invest in China. When you have a product that says 'Made in China' it does not mean that the product is all Chinese. It is very international. Does this include American designers who have their products made in China? Who gets hurt in the process? Economic boycott is not as simple as it appears to be." The boycott will last indefinitely until the government makes some changes. Organizers would like China to improve its human rights records. Regardless of what happens in the future, some people feel that there is a need for Americans to have a more realistic understanding of Tibet.
"A lot of Americans look at Tibet as more of an exotic place, more like a Shangri-La," Liu said. "Their overall knowledge of Tibet and Tibetan culture is very like a passion for the pastoral that America no longer has. There is kind of a blind worship of Tibet."