» Two separate incidents in Tibet on Monday: The self-immolation incidents quickly raised tensions near the Buddhist temple in Lhasa, leading many to believe that the tide is turning against Chinese rule in the region. ”For the Chinese authorities, it has very serious implications and suggests that the movement is spreading among Tibetans,” said Robbie Barnett, an expert on Tibet at Columbia University. ”It could lead to an increased severity of restrictions and controls.” One note: Most of the self-immolation incidents listed above didn’t take place in Tibet, but in Tibetan-populated areas in southwestern China.
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Long flights, those I really feared, but now I’m used to them. The fear now is that I never learnt to swim so if the plane crashes on water, I would immediately go deep under the sea and be enjoyed by a shark. That I really fear.Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama • Expressing his fear of sharks in a recent interview.
If only it were that easy. Bravo to The Onion for helping us laugh through our pain.
Wait, is Chicago some kind of holy city and nobody bothered to tell us?: On April 26, the Dalai Lama is planning a second trip to Chicago in a year, because let’s face it, the Windy City is a happening place for spiritual leaders. source
Nepal. November 1. More than 100 Tibetan exiles were detained Tuesday as they gathered to pray for nine young Tibetans who set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule. Five of the nine Tibetans died from their injuries. Nepalese police clashed with demonstrators after authorities entered the prayer meeting and removed a banner of the Dalai Lama.
Read more at the Associated Press. [Photos: Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images; Niranjan Shrestha/AP; Narendra Shrestha/EPA]
Keep these photos circulating. People need to see this.
He’s out as a political leader. As a spiritual leader, he stays put. The Dalai Lama, one of the most iconic leaders in the world, has announced that he’ll be retiring from his work at the political head of the Tibetan exiles. “My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility. It is to benefit Tibetans in the long run,” he said in a statement. He’s pushing for a democratic vote for the next leader. May the transition be as smooth as this one. source
We admit it: The first thing GaoPeng’s existence makes us think of is the commercial they made about Tibet. Literally, the very freaking first. It puts that whole commercial campaign in sharp relief. Are we alone in thinking about this? source
Yesterday, Jigme K. Norbu, the nephew of the Dalai Lama, started a 300-mile walk across Florida (with a large group of other people, by the way) to help raise awareness for the Tibetan Independence Movement. He didn’t get very far. Norbu was hit by a car less than 50 miles from his starting point, near the end of the first leg of the journey, off the coastal State Road A1A. A terrible, meaningless accident. source
Five days have passed since the Super Bowl, and one thing is clear – our ads offended a lot of people. Tuesday I posted an explanation, but as many of you have pointed out, if an ad requires an explanation, that means it didn’t work.Groupon CEO Andrew Mason • Being forced to back down on those cause-mocking Super Bowl ads which seem to have pissed off just about everybody. Within the next day or so, they’re going off the air, kids. ” We thought we were poking fun at ourselves,” he continued. but clearly the execution was off and the joke didn’t come through.” Mason says he personally takes blame for approving the ads. (thanks abcworldnews) source (via • follow)
Not a single person watched our ad and concluded that it’s cool to kill whales. In fact – and this is part of the reason we ran them – they have the opposite effect.Groupon CEO Andrew Mason • Attempting to explain that his company’s controversial Super Bowl ads were in fact – IN FACT – meant to be respectful to other cultures and environmental causes. “The last thing we wanted was to offend our customers – it’s bad business and it’s not where our hearts are,” Mason concluded. Too bad nobody took the ads that way. Commenters on the blog post are savaging him and the company for trying to be a little too clever with its commercial approach without explaining its reasoning. They could’ve saved themselves a lot of trouble had they actually put a domain name on the ad somewhere. source (via • follow)
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
In case you haven’t seen this hot mess, here you go. Groupon just exploited the Tibetian people to sell its wares, an advertising strategy not seen since, well, ever. While Groupon does have a point, you have to get all the way to this site to find it. The odds that people will reach this site and see the joke: Zilch. Way to go, Groupon. source
OK, an update on this whole Groupon mess. Apparently they are apparently a company that supports environmental and cultural causes, according to this message we just got:
untitledbyanonymous asked: Though initially I couldn’t agree more about the sentiments expressed regarding Groupon’s exploit of the plight of Tibeten people, apparently they aren’t all evil.
» We say: What a stupid advertising strategy. Nobody’s going to go that far to figure that out. Everyone instead is going to think that Groupon employs a bunch of jerks and not get to that Web site. Sorry, it’s not defensible.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. They spent how much on that ad, and nobody bothered to tell them that it was in absolutely unspeakably bad taste? We hope they choke on their great deals.
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