mr-damon/activism

"The EARTHSHIP summit creates an enromous Global Village, by bringing together an alliance of 300 million schools, NGOs, businesses, governments, leaders, artists & individuals from around the world (young and old) to share ideas, form alliances and take action on saving planet earth & humanity."

just after midnight Thursday morning, four protesters raised their fists and shouted slogans while waving a Tibetan flag near National Stadium. As with the other protests, the participants were quickly bundled away by plainclothes officers.

Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, said that German and British consular officials had told the families of the German and British detainees that they, too, would probably receive 10-day sentences.

Two photographers at the scene for The Associated Press were also roughed up and taken into custody, according to news agency reports and press freedom advocates. After the photographers were questioned separately for 30 to 40 minutes, the police confiscated the memory cards from their cameras.

In the past month, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China has received dozens of complaints from overseas journalists who were detained, trailed or had equipment damaged by the police.

"When it comes to media freedom during the Olympics, China is not even on the awards podium," said Jonathan Watts, the club's president.

On Friday, Students for a Free Tibet declared that its Olympics campaign had succeeded and that it was winding down. In characteristically stealthy fashion, the announcement was made by two members who summoned reporters to a street corner with 20 minutes' notice.

The members, Alice Speller and Ginger Cassady, said that even though the protests had been fleeting and witnessed by only a few Chinese, they had helped highlight the issue in the foreign media.

"China is trying to show the world this face, that they are a modern, progressive country, but that really isn't the truth," said Speller, a law student from Britain. "The real face is one that denies freedom of expression, and that denies it brutally and violently when it can."

This eye-opening documentary was produced for French television by Marie-Monique Robin. It hasn't been shown to the American public yet (will it ever?) - which is too bad, because this documentary will blow your mind. Try to watch it as soon as possible (now is a good time!), as no one knows how long the video will be online before it's pulled again. The Hemowai Bros. are fighting corporate America and risking lawsuit in order to try to get everyone this information.

If you drag your feet and the video (below) is no longer available, please consider ordering the DVD from the filmmaker and hold screenings for your friends. Spread the word - M0ns@nt0 must be stopped, and can be stopped, but it will take the efforts of lots of ordinary citizens to do it. The future of the planet is in your hands!

"Clarke took to stopping at floors where there were breaks in the bars, and looking inside, where small crowds stared back.

"He mouthed to me, 'What floor am I on?' " said Andrew Bratt, an associate at Covington & Burling. "I hand-signaled that he was on 41. He nodded and looked down and moved on. He was smiling.""

Tens of thousands of South Koreans rallied Saturday night against a government decision to import U.S. beef in the largest demonstration in a month of almost daily protests.

A crowd estimated by police at 38,000 people filled a plaza in front of city hall. Protesters lit candles, waved placards and chanted slogans criticizing President Lee Myung-bak.

[There was a march in Gimhae tonight, also; a couple hunderd people chanting and holding the same red signs.]

South Korea agreed in April to reopen what was formerly the third-largest overseas market for U.S. beef. It had been shut for most of the past 4 1/2 years following the first U.S. case of mad cow disease in a Canadian-born cow in Washington state in 2003.



South Korean protesters wearing masks of U.S. President George W. Bush, left, and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak occupy a McDonald's sign board during a rally against U.S. beef imports in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 29, 2008. South Korea's government prepared Thursday to announce the final administrative step needed to resume U.S. beef imports, a move that could intensify continuing street protests against the government over fears of mad cow disease. McDonald's Korea says it uses Australian beef.

"Police detained more than 600 female Tibetan protesters, including many Buddhist nuns, on Sunday after breaking up several demonstrations in Nepal's capital against China's recent crackdown in Tibet.

"The protesters held three separate rallies in Katmandu but were quickly stopped by police."

"Detained protesters are generally freed by police later in the day.

"Nepal's police have broken up almost all anti-China protests by Tibetan exiles during the past several weeks and detained participants. Officials say they will not allow protests that could harm Nepal's friendly relations with neighboring China.

"The Tibetan exiles have mainly been protesting in front of the United Nations offices and the Chinese Embassy in Katmandu.

"Security has been stepped up around the embassy since the protests began, with hundreds of police posted on the streets leading to the building.

"The United Nations and international rights groups have criticized Nepal for using what they say is excessive force to stop the protests. Police have beaten people with batons and dragged them through the streets while detaining them."

"That is the primary lesson of Katrina: In a flood, there is no room for an ideology that says, "Let your neighbor sink or swim." We need a philosophy that says, "We are all in this together." We are now entering an age of disasters, an age of storms, an age of perils. Rugged individualism isn't going to cut it. Certainly we need individuals to be responsible and to contribute, but none of us can expect to be immune to the consequences of a few centuries' worth of industrial pollution. As those bills start to come due, we are going to need each other. If we don't retool our politics and our economy to reflect that, then I think we will continue to embarrass ourselves on the world stage with our response to crises."

-- Van Jones in the March issue of The Sun

Nepalese police detained more than 500 Tibetan exiles decrying a crackdown in their homeland in a protest near the Chinese Embassy on Thursday, police said.

Police officers in blue camouflage uniforms chased down red-robed Buddhist monks and nuns and other Tibetans, struggling with the protesters and dragging them along the ground as they resisted. They were tossed into vans and open trucks and driven to detention centers.

Police official Sarbendra Khanal said that 505 Tibetans were detained, including several women and monks, from at least three separate protests near the embassy in an upscale neighborhood.

It was so far the largest number of Tibetans detained in Nepal's capital, Katmandu, since the exiles began almost daily protests last month against a Chinese crackdown in Tibet.