The Pulse of Peace

Yesterday I went to shoot the student organized rally for Pro China/ Anti BBC in Westminister. Both Berlin and Washington DC also held rallys on the same day. There was about 400 people, most of whom seem to be students, a majority of them wearing masks of silence bearing BBC on them. A line formed the front of the protests that faced the traffic and the Houses of Parliment. A mix of banners and placards were held in silence. Placards with anti BBC slogans; supporting the Beijing Olympics; Welcoming people to China; pictures of the riots in Tibet; fabricated news from various western media. Miss Qin, an economics student from Cambridge University gave a speech that included reciting the names of the Han Chinese and Tibetans who were killed in the riots on March 14th. The students came together from all over the country and their message was not just to protest the established BBC media, but to ask the public to find out the truth about the recent events in Tibet and to seek more understanding about China.

I managed to speak to a few students and media supporters and was present from the beginning to the end. Apart from the singing of a few Chinese songs, the protest was peaceful and friendly. I was very proud of the students for organizing the event and staging it so quietly. It is almost ironic that one of the first ones they organize is to defend their country where being up in arms about media distortion is not a done thing. It was a day to feel so very proud of being Chinese.

I have looked up both the BBC's website which it was only mentioned at the end of this article, almost a footnote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7357258.stm

The TV report is on YouTube but I did not hear of it after that. One would think that a protest that has a global following and is occurring in 3 countries simultaneously would be news worthy. It may go to show that the issues that many Chinese have grievences about have very solid ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyh6cPCxLzs

I was also dismayed to see that none of the online papers including The Guardian had not written one single article about the protests.

Here's a llink to a video of the Olympic supporters on the 6th April in Downing Street during the Torch Relay, that also wasn't in the natonal news:

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2008/04/06/china-chinese-protest-in-london-you-never-see-on-bbc/

Also on the same day, including today, was the continuing arguement of coycotting Carrefour, the French Supermarket in China:

http://zonaeuropa.com/200804b.brief.htm#028

Some images from video shot: (a video of this event will be online very soon)































- J