Fareed Zakaria interviews the Dalia Lama This Sunday

[Thom]

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/fareed.zakaria.gps
Newsweek Communications Office at 212-445-5831
 [email protected] & Send your questions and comments to "Fareed Zakaria GPS."
  Cable CNN/Sunday Morning on Fareed Zakaria GPS_ Fareed will interview the Dalai Lama.

[a friend]

Friends,

Thom is giving us here a tremendous opportunity.

We should implement right away his great idea of discussing FIRST in the Forum what we are going to write to the gentleman interviewing the Dalai Lama next Sunday.

So I start with this small suggestion:

No matter the message that we send, how about signing, below our names or pseudonyms, the name of this Forum, to give a sense of community and also to drive the attention of the journalist to this website?

For example, I should sign something like this:

bla bla bla ...
A Friend
Senior Member of the Forum
at Dorjeshugden.com

Please, let me know if this is idea has any meaning, and let's give ourselves some hours to ponder what to write.

Best to all,
a Friend

[emptymountains]

Oh, darn, I already sent mine. But I did reference this website.

[Alexis]

For credibility it's much better writing with your full name and address. The journalist needs to check his sources and is bound by a professional code not to disclose them.

However, it's better to send your polite and well-argued message under a pseudonym than not writing at all by fear of your identity being disclosed.

Also, we should refer Mr Zakaria to the Al-Jazira et swiss TV reports for credibility. Journalists like to quote other journalists.

Good initiative Thom 

[Dharmapal]

I had already sent mine too, but I thought about it carefully, wrote in a neutral tone, and referred to news sources.

May I suggest you all don't wait too long before sending your letter. It is already Thursday and at some point they stop looking at suggestions in order to give the journalist enough time to do research.

May sanity prevail and religious freedom be restored.

[a friend]

I went to the CNN website and it appears that the interview is already done, they even give a brief account of it:

Fareed sits down with the Dalai Lama. His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso speaks out about his struggle with China for the freedom of the Tibetan people. He talks to Fareed about oppression in the region. What he says is that brutality is not engrained in humanity and even Osama bin Laden was not born with a desire for a violent world. Finally, the Dalai Lama talks with Fareed about his own succession and whether or not this spiritual institution will continue after his death.


So I don't know who is going to get our messages, unless there is a blog or something afterwards ...
Can somebody clarify?

[a friend]

I decided to send a message, even if the interview is already done.
I did send it, requesting the journalist to talk about our subject even after the interview is aired, in case it had been done already.

I only said to him that the Dalai Lama was a case similar to the case of Rousseau, the French philosopher, fond of great ideals but failing as a human being, since he abandoned his own children in an orphanage. The Dalai Lama, like the French philosopher, while preaching the highest ideals humankind has conceived -the Mahayana doctrine of Lord Buddha- failed the test of reality as a political leader, staging a successful persecution of a religious group among his own people.

Let's hope this simple angle will catch his eye!

[Alexis]

Bull's eye!

Excellent practical-metaphorical example!

If not this time, we'll be heard next time.

The news will slowly spread.

[Ra]

Not that it really matters, but e-sangha recently started a thread about this very issue. They removered the link to this website and claim that the media has no interest in our cause.
E-sangha is notorious for being anti-Gelug in general and anti-DS in particular. They will allow fellow posters to bash our lineage, but then refuse any thoughtful discussion on the matter.

[emptymountains]

Thom, please update your link above:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Dalai-Lama-A-Good-Sho-by-Grant-Lawrence-090502-719.html

[emptymountains]

What about "sit down, talk, and listen" to the grievances of Dorje Shugden practitioners? Dialogue with Bin Laden and China, but not with your own people?

Is not the Dorje Shguden practice part of Tibet's cultural heritage, which must be preserved?

Was there not a peaceful, harmonious Tibetan society before the Dalai Lama's ban on the practice?